Cape Breton Highlands National Park is a Canadian national park on northern Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.[2] The park was the first national park in the Atlantic provinces of Canada[3] and covers an area of 948 square kilometres (366 sq mi).[4] It is one of 42 in Canada's system of national parks.
It consists of mountains, valleys, waterfalls, rocky coastlines and the Cape Breton Highlands, a tundra-esque plateau. Forest types include Acadian and Boreal. The park includes the highest point in Nova Scotia, White Hill, at 533.5 m (1,750 ft) above sea level.
One-third of the Cabot Trail passing through the park features ocean and mountain views. The park is known for its "steep cliffs and deep river canyons that carve into a forested plateau bordering the Atlantic Ocean".[5]
The park contains 26 marked hiking trails,[6] including the Skyline Trail.
At the western entrance of the park is the Acadian village of Chéticamp[7] on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and a park information centre. On the eastern side of the park are campsites as well as beaches at Ingonish on the Atlantic Ocean. Also on the east side of the park located in Ingonish at the Keltic Lodge resort is Highlands Links, an 18-hole golf course designed by Stanley Thompson. Golf Magazine ranked it as one of the top 100 courses in the world and the best public course in Canada. George Knudson suggested leaving clubs behind and just walking the course. The course has been certified by the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, a program aimed at conserving wildlife habitat in spaces used for other purposes.
There are five main salt water ocean beaches in the park and two freshwater lakes. The ocean beaches include Ingonish Beach, North Bay Beach, Broad Cove Beach, Black Brook Beach and La Bloc Beach. The two freshwater beaches include Freshwater Lake and Warren Lake. Freshwater Lake and Ingonish Beach are both supervised with a lifeguard during the summer months. There are very strong currents at Black Brook and Ingonish Beach which must be considered when bringing small children to these two beaches.[5]
In late October 2009, country folk singer Taylor Mitchell died as a result of her injuries and blood loss due to coyotes attacking her while she was hiking by herself on the Skyline Trail. This incident became the only recorded fatal coyote assault on an adult as well as a Canadian.[14][15]
Geology
Barrier beach in front of Freshwater Lake showing well rounded boulders. Note the height above sea level.Glacial debris on the north side of Freshwater Lake.
Most of the park resides within what is called the GanderiaTerrane, sometimes referred to as the Bras d'Or or Aspy Terrane. This was originally part of Gondwana, referred to as peri-Gondwanan Terrane, and through seafloor spreading, separated from Gondwana and collided with Laurentia during the Salinic Orogeny. The evidence of this collision, the closing of the Iapetus Ocean and the formation of the Iapetus Suture, is seen in the northwest part of the park where the Ganderia Terrane is connected with the Blair River Inlier, itself a remnant of the Laurentia continental margin, referred to as peri-Laurentian Terrane. Other terrane collisions followed, including the Avalonia Terrane during the Acadian orogeny, and the Meguma Terrane during the Neoacadian Orogeny. Then, between 340 and 300 Ma, Gondwana collided with Laurentia, forming Pangea. Rifting started about 200 Ma eventually forming the Atlantic Ocean.[16][17]
The Cabot Trail then doglegs to the north, crossing the Wilkie Brook Fault Zone, and entering the southernmost extent of the Blair River Inlier. The inlier is bounded by the Wilkie Brook Fault Zone on the east and the Red River Fault Zone on the southwest near Lone Shieling. The fault zones are marked by a zone of sheared rocks characterized by mylonite. Between these zones are outcrops of Silurian Fox Back Ridge diorite and granodiorite, as well as the Red River Anorthosite Suite of Middle Proterozoic age.[18][21]
The Cabot Trail then follows the Grande Anse River westwards, with exposed Horton Group until it reaches the coast at Pleasant Bay. This is the location of the 364 Ma Late Devonian granite of the Pleasant Bay Pluton. Moving south along the trail, the 433 Ma Ordovician-Silurian Belle Cote Road orthogneiss is encountered, followed by another granite (Proterozoic-Devonian in age).[18]
As the trail loops west to follow the coastline, rocks of the 439 Ma Ordovician-Silurian Jumping Brook Metamorphic Suite are exposed. This suite consists of metamorphosedsiltstone, wacke, conglomerate, arkose, and minor rhyolite. In the midst of this suite may be found the 379 Ma Devonian granite of the Gillanders Mountain Pluton. The trail encounters a 439 Ma Cambrian granite before it exists the park at La Rigoueche.[18]
Gallery
The Cabot Trail viewed from the Skyline Hiking Trail
^Finkelstein, Maxwell W. (9 February 2010). "Cape Breton Highlands National Park". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Archived from the original on 11 January 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
^ abHild, Martha; Barr, Sandra (2015). Geology of Nova Scotia. Portugal Cove: Boulder Publications. pp. 18–21. ISBN9781927099438.
^Williams, Harold (1995). Geology of the Appalachian-Caledonian Orogen in Canada and Greenland, Geology of Canada, no. 6. Canada: Geological Survey of Canada. pp. 51, 59. ISBN0-660-13134-X.
^ abcdeKeppie, J.D. (compiler) (2000). Geological Map of the Province of Nova Scotia, Map ME 2000-1, scale 1:500 000. Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, Minerals and Energy Branch.
^Baird, David (1971). Cape Breton Highlands National Park, where the mountains meet the sea, Misc. Report 5. Ottawa: The Geological Survey of Canada, Dept. of Mines and Technical Surveys. pp. 28–32.
^Dawson, William (1891). The Geology of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, or Acadian Geology. London: MacMillan and Co. pp. 71, 83.
^Miller, Brent (1997). Geology, Geochronology, and Tectonic Significance of the Blair River Inlier, Northern Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Halifax: Dalhousie University.