Cape Breton Island

Aucoin Bakery

Waking up rested from the past day of travel, we set out early to make the most of our day in Cape Breton Island. Our first stop is Aucoin Bakery. It’s five minutes from Cheticamp and another five to the entrance to Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Aucoin Bakery pops up quite a few times during my research and we make it a point to stop here for some breakfast before our adventure today. We pick up some cinnamon buns and coffee. We also grab some donuts for the rest of our trip. I can safely echo what other’s have said about this place: Well worth the visit.

Cape Breton Highland National Park

Our next stop is Cape Breton Highland National Park. It’s a five to ten minute drive to the visitor centre where we get our park day pass. Our intention is to drive along the famous Cabot Trail. The trail itself loops around the whole island. And we hope to drive the northern portion of it which is mostly in the National Park. We enter the park and are immediately taken aback by how picturesque it all is! With coastlines that go forever, the fall colours and the cloudy blue skies, it’s all absolutely beautiful! We didn’t even drive ten minutes before our first stop at the side of the road to take pictures. We end up doing this several times because everywhere we look, the natural beauty is amazing!

Skyline Trail

Eventually we arrive at our first “planned” stop of the day, the Skyline Trail. This is a 7km loop trail that takes you out to the water along a cliff. It’s not a very difficult hike, so anyone can do it! We park our car and get on our way. The first (and last if you’re doing the loop) part of the hike takes you through headlands towards the Coast. It is rich with lots of forest (in fall colours of course) and wildlife. While we mainly saw small animals, we did see “fresh” evidence of moose! It’s a bit cool in the morning, but after getting a few steps in, we warm up and the walk is very pleasant.

Eventually you get to the “main event” of the trail which is the headland cliff right on the water. They’ve done a great job setting up a series of viewing platforms and stairs for people to safely walk along the cliff and take in the sights. The views along the stairs and from the platforms are super pretty so we spent a good amount of time taking it in.

In addition, if you look “backwards”, you also get this great view of the Cabot trail and how it “cuts” along the cliffside. The sun also peeks through the clouds and with the green and orange of fall makes for some very scenic views. It’s a really beautiful area and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s easy to get to, not a huge time commitment and very rewarding!

More Cabot Trail

We eventually decide to leave, and get back on the road. Along the way we make additional stops to take more photos of this beautiful island! I really do believe we lucked out with the time of the year we did this. But at the same time I would love to see what it looks like covered in snow, or with bright blue skies. All in all its such a beautiful place to be!

Rusty Anchor

After more exploring, we decide to stop for lunch. There’s a portion of the trail where you exit the national park in the north. It’s here that we decide to stop at one of the first restaurants we see, The Rusty Anchor. We get seated and proceed to have a late lunch. If I remember correctly, I order the seafood chowder and fish and chips, while papa minion gets a burger and mama minion has a seafood wrap.

Fall Colours

With our bellies full, we continue our drive along the Cabot trail. We drive through a few small towns before reentering the park. After a few turns, the hills open up a little and we are treated to this amazing display of fall colours. We can’t help but stop along the side of the road and take more photos. You’d think that by now, we would be a bit tired of this, but we’re not. We just can’t get over how vibrant all the colours are and we all feel very blessed at the timing of this trip and being able to see all of this!

Middle Head

We have one more planned stop along the route and it’s getting late in the day. There is one other hike on the east coast of Cape Breton Island called Middle Head.  It’s a hike that takes you along a peninsula cliff, so that by the end you are surrounded by water on three sides. It looks like a very cool hike, but sadly by the time we get to the trailhead it’s quite late. We are losing sunlight and the parents and I make the painful choice to forgo it. However we still take a few photos, and it still remains a tease of what we probably could have seen. Next time!

With the sun setting, we make Middle head our turnaround point and drive back to our AirBnB. Along the way we still find reasons to stop and take photos. I think when I originally planned this trip, I figure we could do Cape Breton Island in a day. I’ve learned today that this just isn’t the case and it’s well worth a multi day visit should I visit again. There’s simply too much to see spread across a large area to do in one day.

The original plan upon returning to Cheticamp is to find a local restaurant and have dinner. However, fatigue was setting in and the thought of relaxing back at our AirBnB appealed to us. With groceries from the day before we decide to make a simple meal at our place and call it a night.

Tomorrow, we sadly will be leaving Cape Breton Island. We have a multi hour drive and a ferry ride as make our way to Prince Edward Island.