Traveling the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Linked to mainland Nova Scotia by the Canso Causeway, Cape Breton Island is feels like a step away. Molly the Motor Home climbed valiantly up the steep hills to our target campground in Baddeck, a small town on the Bras d'or Lake. The hills surrounding us were rugged and covered in pine trees, very unlike the rolling farmland covering the hills of Prince Edward Island. The weather was overcast and very winding so Tom had to fight the wind as well as the constant twists and turns in the road. We hoped for better weather the next day for our cruise on the Cabot Trail.

The morning dawned sunny and bright just what we hopped. The Cabot Trail was calling us. Begun in the 1920s the trail was a complete circle route by the early 1930s. The Canadian government recognizing the need to preserve the land created Cape Breton Highland National Park in the 1937. It was not until the early 1960s that the trail was completely paved. Today it is one of the the beautiful drives in the world. We took a day, about 8 hours, to travel in the counter clock-wise direction. (Clock-wise is considered less dramatic) At every turn there is a new outlook, towering hills, tight switch-backs, oceans capes, rugged cliffs.