Taken 2005 August 2 from the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105) north of Baddeck
GPS 46°07.2??'N 60°43.56?'W
In this view, Baddeck Bay lies below the trees at the left of this photo and is mostly hidden from view; only its mouth is visible. Beinn Bhreagh is the mountain which slopes gradually down to the Great Bras d’Or Lake, which is visible beyond it; it is also the name and site of Alexander Graham Bell’s famous summer home in the Baddeck area. The island right of centre is Kidston Island, whose lighthouse is probably the most frequently photographed landmark in the Baddeck area. You can barely make out a few sailboats anchored in Baddeck Harbour to the right of the lighthouse. The land in the haze on the other side of Kidston Island is the Washabuck Peninsula.
The weather on the Bras d’Or Lakes, as elsewhere on Cape Breton, can change rather suddenly from clear blue skies to storm and squall and then back to clear blue skies. On this particular day, however, it was overcast and rainy from the start, so I spent much of the day at the Parks Canada Alexander Graham Bell museum in Baddeck, which I had not previously visited (see this web site for a full description). Even though I had been a Bell Labs employee, I was still somewhat surprised to learn of the many and varied interests that this recollection of Bell’s life presents marvellously well. The kid-friendly museum is full of artifacts finely displayed and thoroughly described; I highly recommend it as an excellent way of taking advantage of the rainy weather that can interrupt a Cape Breton visit. The museum’s site in Baddeck overlooks the water and is a pretty spot in its own right, enhanced by gardens on the grounds. After the museum visit, I drove over to Beinn Bhreagh to note spots for future photo taking (there are very few as the road lies behind the private camps which line the shore and access to Bell’s Beinn Bhreagh estate is given only to Bell descendents) and, while returning, this sudden (unsuccessful) attempt of the sun to burst through the cloud cover made me stop and try to capture the scene. In spite of its fuzziness, it’s a photo that still speaks to me of the great beauty of this area, especially as I remember it from other, more sparkling, days on which I foolishly did not stop to take a photo.