Taken 2005 October 14 from Mountain Road near the summit of Mabou Harbour Mountain
GPS 46°06.48?'N 61°28.04?'W
Not every day is so beautiful as the one in the previous photo, but the views are still tremendous even on an overcast fall day such as this one. In this photo (taken from near the meadow one sees at the right atop the forested mountain lying above Beaton Point in the previous photo), the view is to the southwest, with Green Point lying directly below. The mouth of the Mabou River, which lies beyond it, is not visible here, but you can see a buoy in the water above the point that marks the channel leading to the river’s entrance. The Colindale shore on the other side is visible with the MacPhee farm’s stand-out red barn, a landmark for both the hiker and the boatman, towards the left of the photo. Sutherlands Cove lies beyond and then Black Point (not visible here), marking the boundary between the Gulf proper and St Georges Bay. The buildings at Marble Hill (northwest of Port Hood) lie along the crest behind Sutherlands Cove; you may have to squint a bit to see them, but they are there if you look closely. The hills on the other side of St Georges Bay are on the Nova Scotia mainland, with Cape George off to the right (outside this photo’s scope).
Mountain Road can be reached from the Mabou Harbour Road. Turn off the Cèilidh Trail (Route 19) in Mabou village and onto Mabou Harbour Road and drive 6.5 km (4 mi), past St Mary’s Church and on out along the Mabou River to and past Mabou Harbour Mouth (where the lighthouse is); you will see Mountain Road on your right shortly before Mabou Harbour Road becomes a gravel road that dead ends at Green Point. You can easily drive to the summit of Mountain Road, though on this day I walked up it, enjoying the views of the Mabou River behind me on the way. Beyond the summit, the road deteriorates badly and becomes quite poor for a car. I did it once three years ago and was scared to death that I was going to scrape the bottom off my car on the way down, but I did make it out OK with no apparent damage, managing somehow to straddle most of the ruts; I’d advise against doing it in anything other than a high-slung jeep, truck, or ATV, though it’s great for hiking. There are very fine views of the coast from the summit and all the way down, after which Mountain Road turns away from the coast and ends at Mabou Coal Mines Road (becoming much friendlier to cars towards its junction), allowing one to make the circuit back to the starting point (roughly 9-10 km (5.5-6 mi)). If you do hike up from Mabou Harbour Road, you are likely to encounter two very curious large barking dogs not very far up the hill, but they were content to just bark and follow me on the road a bit when it was clear I wasn’t invading their territory.