Views from the Fair Alistair Look-Off

From the junction with the side trail to its end is barely a minute’s walk. It leaves you in an open meadow at the very edge of a steep cliff on the south, with grand views of the Cape Mabou Highlands to the south and east and of the shore to Cape George, at least on a clear day. Even if you just turn around and go back as you came, this short hike is well worth the effort. The photos on this page were taken from the look-off.

Photo #1 is as wide angled a view as my camera can manage taken from the edge of the meadow and looking just a bit west of south. Finlay Point is at the far right and MacDonalds Glen is behind it and reaching north towards Fair Alistair. The Cape Mabou Highlands, with MacDonalds Glen Road and Brook on the near side of the nearest highland, stretch out to the south and east to the Mabou River, hidden here from view. Coal Mine Point, the point beyond Finlay Point, is roughly half way to the mouth of the Mabou River. The Colindale Shore is in the far distance on the south side of the river. And even further beyond, is the Nova Scotia mainland and Cape George, at least on a clear day.

Photo #2 looks to the southeast at the series of ridges running between Northeast Mabou and the Gulf shore. Haze, alas, makes this view less than crisp on this day, but it has diminished somewhat since I started up the mountain. The bright sun hides somewhat the reds of the wild rose bushes and their berries, which are scattered around the edges of the meadow. The views in photos #1 and #2 are among my very favourite in Cape Breton.

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Photo #3 shows the nearest Highland rising above MacDonalds Glen Road and MacDonalds Glen Brook, which parallels it on the first half of its course. Along this hillside, obscured by the haze in the air, one can make out colours which are not green; this inland valley has plenty of deciduous trees and some of them had begun to change; how many and of what colours is very difficult to make out in this view, where the camera was more interested in the nearer evergreens than in the far hills.

Photo #4 looks to the west of photo #3 at the Highland above MacDonalds Glen Road, the continuation of that seen in photo #3. As well, Coal Mine Point can be seen at the far right and one is now high enough that Beaton Point on Mabou Harbour Mountain can be seen as a distinct entity beyond Coal Mine Point. Green Point, at the mouth of the Mabou River, however, is still hidden by the bulk of Mabou Harbour Mountain. The Colindale Shore remains very indistinct through the haze.

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Photo #5 looks further west at Finlay Point (notice the truck that was there earlier is now gone). The unnamed point in the foreground, normally in full light on a summer day, is still in the shadows on this fall day. I can highly recommend the walk along the beach between these two points, which is easily accessed from Finlay Point Harbour. The rock formations are very interesting as are the cliffs and adjacent terrain.

Photo #6 is a close-up of the unnamed point, a popular spot for eagles; it is very common to see them flying over the Gulf near this point, fishing for a meal, and quite common to see them perched on one or more of the exposed rocks along or at the top of the precipitous cliffs—I have photos from other hikes showing them perched at various spots on these cliffs. Under magnification, I can see what looks very like an eagles nest on the rock where a white spot can be seen picking up the sun right of centre about two-thirds up from the bottom of the photo, though the detail isn’t good enough I can be certain. In any case, it’s an ideal place for an eagle to nest, isolated as it is from any access other than by air.

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A couple of minutes before I left, the distant haze lifted a bit across St Georges Bay, though not further inland, exposing Cape George. Photo #7 shows the very indistinct shape of the Nova Scotia mainland across the bay and Cape George about two-thirds of the way in from the left edge of the photo. On a clear day, this view is sharp as a tack and the mainland can be seen extending all the way to the left of this view. On a very clear day, one can turn 90° to the west and also see the Prince Edward Island coast at and north of Souris; it lies somewhat further away than Cape George, so it is never as clear and crisp as Cape George so often is.