Fall Colors in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada

The CANADIAN Trip September 30-October 10, 2017
I found I had a 10 day opening between vacation rental guests, during the Fall colors, so, OFF I GO!!!! ....taking Route One headed NorthEast towards the BOLD COAST of Maine scenic route, heading towards Lubec, the easternmost town in the US.
Here's the map of the first half of the adventure journey.




After staying the night in Lubec, my next step was to drive over the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge (1962) to Campobello Island...FDR's 'cottage' estate.


It reminded me a bit of Sturbridge Village...historical rooms and equipment.




And the gardens were small, but magnificent, especially for the end of September.




I had time for one hike and chose Friar's Head...where I saw the first hints of what the tides were in this area....the wet seaweed was 4 feet tall...and the tides were just past high...had only begun to go out.


Back to the mainland, driving up Route One and back roads, taking in all the unique towns and natural beauty, I came upon another hike with this lighthouse view.


While many tourists stay at this magnificent Algonquin hotel in St. Andrews...

...I chose a much happier location at the beach....my favorite cottage...and its lovely sunset.


Next day, off to Kingsbrae Gardens, in St. Andrews. A small, but very creative garden.








And then on towards Alma, where the Fundy tides REALLY rise and fall.



Alma tides rise as much as 35-40 feet, marked by seaweed. These caves are underwater when the tide is in.



The boats sit on milk crates until the tide comes in to float them again.


The beach at Cape Enrage is covered with the most beautiful, ocean-smoothed stones I've ever seen.




The wild tides scour the earth, eating away at the edges of the land.

On my fourth night of the adventure, I was in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, ready to take a hard left and head north towards Cape Breton Island.



















The Inverness Golf Course....open to Mother Nature's wild winds...and right next to the pounding ocean. Awesome.



After finding a place to stay in Cheticamps, I had just enough time to drive up to the Skyline Trail, in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, to hike 4+ windy miles for a memorable sunset...and moonrise. The full moon was so bright, I didn't need my headlamp for the return trip!








All the hikers I passed had just seen a female moose. I searched for her everywhere, even on side paths, but found only this fresh evidence of her proximity.

Here's the only wildlife I found on this path.

Next morning, I headed east through the Cape Breton Highlands Park. I had seen a bull moose on a secondary road in New Brunswick, but was so surprised, that by the time I had braked and turned around, he had loped off into the dark forest. BUT, this auspicious morning, as I headed east through the park, I had a one-on-one connection with the MOST gorgeous bull moose of my life. And he walked toward me and stayed a while, before heading off into the forest. No one else was on the road. It took my breath away.



Look at this rack!



A truly memorable connection with Nature!

I had heard of a Buddhist Abbey in northern Cape Breton Highlands, so went north to Meat Cove, only to find that it was on the west side of the headland...hours back. Alas. Still, the views were spectacular, despite the gray morning.

Looks like they are always reinforcing the land against the wind and tides.





And the sun lit the sand spits to gold.

Then, unfortunately, when I went to take a ridge hike at Cape Smokey, I had a bad fall on some pointy rocks...avoiding coyotes...and thought I'd shattered my elbow. I talked with the emergency people and decided to drive myself an hour to the nearest hospital in Baddeck...and they weren't equipped for fractures, so told me to return the next morning if I was worse...or spend $1000 getting admitted for an xray!! (Since then, I've heard of medical trip insurance for other countries, and will do that next time for sure!)

The next day dawned sunny and clear, and after cleaning and soaking and bandaging the cuts again, I felt a little better and too stubborn to give up my trip. I bought a sling and an ice pack for the left elbow and hit the road. It was a challenge to drive with one arm, but certainly doable.
And here's the map of the beginning of the second half of the adventure journey, starting at Baddeck.

I had fallen on my camera, so drove first to North Sydney to see about technological aids, and had little luck, so changed lenses and drove on to see the famous Bras d'Or Lake...gorgeous!



And then I saw my other favorite natural phenomenon...a bald eagle! I sat and ate lunch with him until he flew away.

After taking a ferry across part of the Bras d'Or Lake, the ferry master suggested I seek out a place called Liscombe Lodge for the night.

The next morning, I set out on a hike they recommended, but found that part of it was under mud and part of it was under the river...I had to bushwhack up a cliff and through the trees to reach dry ground....not worthy of repetition.

Liscomb to Halifax was lovely....

And the Halifax Gardens were colorful, celebrating Canada's 150th anniversary.

Peggy's Cove was next on my list, but luckily, I saw a few cars by the roadside and pulled over to discover Polly's Cove, as magnificent in its 'lunar-looking' stone formations as Peggy's Cove....and much less over-run with people.

Lunenburg was next... a colorful hill town, a miniature San Francisco...

An even more colorful experience was Mahone Bay, decorated for Halloween...and this long walk was the start of a day of driving all the way to Digby, across the peninsula, where the fog was gathering.

From Mahone I headed west to spend a few hours tracking down and photographing a friend's lovely 120 acre property in the Port L'Hebert area, untouched for over 20 years.

By the time I reached Digby, the fog had thickened to pea soup, so I didn't see the working waterfront, but did have a magnificent dinner of Digby scallops.

The next morning was still foggy, so my second to last day was spent enjoying the lovely harvest and farm vistas of the Annapolis Valley, and driving to Truro to have an excellent "Thanksgiving" turkey dinner.

This Annapolis valley is across the Bay of Fundy from the New Brunswick pictures, and experiences the 35-40 foot tides, as well.

As the tides scour the earth from the coasts, it also digs out the salt and these snow-looking piles are actually salt foam on the river. These were evident on both sides of Nova Scotia...fascinating.

People have been living in this verdant valley for a long, long time.

A long, long time.

The rivers are mud brown, from all the tidal silt...and it must be wonderful for the crops!

Then, when it was still raining heavily in Truro the next morning, I decided to make tracks for sunshine...and home.

And found that Fall had touched Boothbay and mid-coast Maine as well...and it was also pretty as a picture. Or come and journey with me to the Deep South.