If I could do one thing differently about our Nova Scotia trip, I’d stay overnight (or over two nights!) on the Cabot Trail. And I knew before the trip that we should. We considered it, but we had two dogs with us, so we’d either have had to board them or find dog friendly accommodations (because I definitely wasn’t taking our 34 foot toy hauler on the Cabot Trail), and…it just started to sound expensive and overwhelming.
And so we found ourselves driving part away around the peninsula one afternoon/evening (as far as the Skyline Trail) and then coming back another day with the dogs to drive all the long way around. I can tell you that driving the Cabot Trail in one day is very doable (it’s 185 miles), and that if the alternative is skipping it, you should absolutely go for it. But it’s certainly not ideal, and I wish we’d had more time to slow down and take everything in.
But! We did get to see a lot, albeit at a more frantic pace than we’d have liked, during our day and a third or so on the Cabot Trail. Here are some highlights:
1. Hike the Skyline Trail
One thing we’ve learned in our travels is that sometimes (a lot of times) you should believe the hype. If you’ve read any kind of lists of must-sees in Nova Scotia, you’ve already seen pictures like the one I posted above: wooden steps leading down to an incredible overlook with ocean on one side and a roadway clinging to the sides of green hills on the other. You get to this overlook via a 4 mile (out and back) trail, accessed from a parking lot maybe a third of the way around the Cabot Trail, if you’re going clockwise and starting in Baddeck, inside Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
Dogs are not allowed on the Skyline Trail (unlike most of the trails in the National Park), so we decided to come here one afternoon/evening while the dogs were back at the campground and return another day with the dogs to do the entire drive and hit some of the dog friendly trails.
We came dangerously close to not doing the hike at all, because it was raining when we got to the parking lot. But we decided that a little rain wouldn’t hurt us and that we didn’t want to miss our only chance to do this hike. Wise decision! The rain stopped before long and probably just meant less traffic on the trail than there would have been otherwise.
The trail is fairly easy and level, and most of the payoff is at the end, although there are some interesting things along the way. You have go through this gate where they’re trying to keep moose out to help with reforestation:
Storms threatening:
So most of the hike is just a pleasant walk, but there’s the occasional break in the trees to give you some views:
And then you get the big payoff!
This is the only part of the hike that’s challenging or terrifying at all. There are a lot of steps! There are steep drop offs, so hold on to your kids, but as long as they stay on the path they’ll be fine.
Then you hang out for a few minutes, take one million pictures, and head back!
The way back is more tiring, particularly if you are five:
2. Margaree Fish Hatchery
We stopped here–at Nova Scotia’s oldest fish hatchery (!)–mostly because we saw a sign for it and it sounded intriguing….and it turned out to be a fun little detour. Quite a ways off the main road, but a pleasant drive. And when you get there, some dogs might come out to greet you (they were actually a little scary at first and kind of charged at us, but they turned out to be very friendly. And they can carry buckets!):
The listing online says there’s an interpretive centre here. We did not see an interpretive centre. But there WAS a nice man who came out to show us around and let us feed some fish:
3. Do Ten Hikes!
Cape Breton Highlands National Park has a “10 Trails in One Day challenge”, wherein you hike 10 short trails, document each one with a photo, and then show up at a visitor center and get a prize (which I understand to be a magnet. We collect magnets!) This sounded fabulous to us, so we dutifully attempted to complete the challenge, and….failed. It wasn’t our stamina that gave out so much as our hours of daylight (especially since we needed to finish before the visitor’s center closed). If we’d started earlier, or if we didn’t have the dogs with us…oh well! Our attempt meant that we did get to sample a big variety of trails, though, the best few of which I’m about to talk about.
4. See a Bog
There are a ton of great hikes for kids in the National Park, and this is one of them. It’s just a half kilometer loop on a boardwalk, but it takes you through one of the many different kinds of environments you’ll find in the park:
5. Hike to Benjie’s Lake
Another easy hike with a nice payoff. 3 km out and back.
At last some evidence that the dogs were actually with us! We did leave them in the car for some of the very short hikes (it was a cool day; note the kids’ jackets), but they did most of them with us.
6. MacIntosh Brook Hike
This was one of my favorites….only 1.7 km, but a lovely walk in the woods, along a creek, with a waterfall at the end. One of the more crowded ones we did.
7. See Sugar Maples and Scottish Heritage on the Lone Shieling Loop
I liked this one a lot, too! Just .6 km, but lots of variety. You walk through a forest of 350 year old sugar maple trees and see a recreation of a Scottish crofter’s hut (what’s a crofter, you ask? Why it’s “a person who farms a croft,” the dictionary helpfully explains! Yeah, so….a farmer)
8. Climb on Some Rocks
Calling Green Cove a “hike” is rather generous–it’s all of .2 km round trip–but it still counts if you’re trying to get your 10 hikes in one day in. This place is memorable not just for the gorgeous scenery and terrifying drop offs, but because it’s where some guy saw us working on Abe’s Xplorers book and shook his head and said, “not everything has to be a lesson, Mom” and I had to suppress an urge to strangle him. Not everyone wants to hear your sage parenting advice either, dude. Ahem. Anyway–behold! It’s pretty!
My poor child who is never allowed to have fun:
9. Go to the Beach
There are several beaches in the national park; we made a quick stop at Ingonish Beach:
10. Listen to Some Music
There are a good many different options for hearing Celtic music on Cape Breton–in pubs and restaurants, at festivals and concerts, or at events run by the national park. We opted for a visit to the Gaelic College, fairly close to our campground, on our first night in the area. We thought we were going to the regular Wednesday night Céilidh–a weekly event featuring instructors and staff from the college–but it turned out there was a special concert going on that night and that it was a good bit more expensive than we were expecting (the regular events are $10 for adults and free for kids 12 and under). We were also late, as it had started half an hour earlier than the regular Wednesday performances. But they gave us a discount when they noticed our disappointment, so we stayed.
And….well, the music was great, but we had been hoping for something a bit more casual (and a bit shorter…we didn’t make it to the end). Also, Abe was apparently exhausted on this particular night, had a big tantrum, and had to be taken out pretty early on. So! See some live music? Yes. Maybe not a special event concert at the Gaelic College, though.
11. Do an Xplorers Book
We did these all over Atlantic Canada and were always impressed with the quality of the books and range of activities. This one had stamps you could collect all over the park, which was fun for Abe. Do the workbook and then turn it in at a visitors center to get a dog tag as a prize.
12. Get some Lunch
The options are limited, but there are a few little villages around the trail with restaurants. We ate at and enjoyed The Rusty Anchor, which also offers a gift shop and nice ocean views:
13. Attend a Program in the National Park
We didn’t get to do this because we were so short on time, but we did a lot of programs in other Canadian National Parks and found most all of them to be terrific. Cape Breton Highlands offers a ton of programs, including guided hikes, lobster boils, campfire programs, music, night sky programs, and more.
That’s it for my list, although I’m sure I could add a couple dozen more things (and I hope to do that someday!)
Here are a few more general tips and thoughts about the Cabot Trail and Cape Breton Highlands National Park:
*Admission is $15.70CDN for a family/group, $7.80 for adults, or free with your Parks Canada pass
*I was very interested in finding the less terrifying way to make the drive. People generally say that clockwise is better for avoiding panic, because it keeps the drop offs into the ocean a lane away from you most of the time, so we did that.
*There are campgrounds inside the park, and I would love to stay at one…but there was no way we were going to drive our giant trailer around the Cabot Trail. There are a lot of sharp curves and steep grades. That said, in retrospect, we likely would have been fine staying at Cheticamp, just inside the park, and not bringing the trailer any farther than that. There are also glamping tent type things called oTENTiks available in several of the campgrounds. We seriously considered staying in one of these, but they don’t allow dogs. A small RV would likely be fine on the Trail (and plenty of them drive it every day). We stayed at a campground in Baddeck; more on that later.
*As I’ve mentioned with other Canadian National Parks, you won’t find big fancy visitors centers here. They’re mostly places to get information and pick up a souvenir or two, with some very low key exhibits to look at:
*Even if you never stopped to do any hikes or other activities, just driving the trail is an amazing and lovely experience.
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