Cape d’Or Lighthouse hike

Points of Interest, Cape Chignecto, Nova Scotia

part 3

I pull into the Cape Chignecto Provincial Park. The entrance gate is pulled shut so I can’t drive in, but I see a car parked in the lot and park beside it. My hope is the car belongs to someone working in the office. As I get closer I don’t have to check the door – I see the  Closed sign hanging from a hook. I walk to the end of the porch and have a look out to the shore and I hear a muffled voice carry on the breeze.

Around the back of the building is a picnic table and a lady is seated eating a sandwich and a man is standing facing the shore holding a can of beer.  I approach with a smile.

“Hello, beautiful day.”

“Yes, it is, the wind is cool but the sun is so nice,” she says.

“I apologize for interrupting your lunch. I am looking for the Cape d’Or lighthouse.  I though it was in Advocate Harbour but I must have drove right past it. Do you know where it is?”

“Oh yes, go back past Advocate Harbour and keep going through East Advocate. On your right-hand side you will come to a dirt road, I think it is called Back Road, look for the lighthouse sign. Follow it to Cape d’Or Road and take it all the way to the end, about five kilometers.  Park at the gift shop and hike down to the lighthouse.”

“Thank you so much, enjoy your day!”

I would love to hike around in this park but I have limited time and I want to see the famous lighthouse.

I make a quick stop at the beach and take a few photos. The wind is howling, chopping up the waves.

I pass a sign for Advocate Harbour boat tours This is something I have on my bucket list: I want to take a boat ride out to Isle Haute, to the see the wildlife. Unfortunately, it will have to wait for another day.

I find the Back Road and follow the sign to the lighthouse. The road is filled with potholes and trenches from erosion. I come to one cottage in disrepair that has a fantastic view and I stop for a photograph.

The road narrows and continues to be rough. A four-wheeler approaches with two people seated in it, they wave as they drive by.  Just as I hope the road doesn’t get much worse, it turns into a parking lot.  I see a lighthouse that doesn’t look anything like what I had imprinted in my mind from photos, but I take a picture and walk up to it.  This lighthouse is a gift shop and tourist information spot.

I follow the trail around the back out to a look off, but the trees have grown so high I can’t see anything past them. I take another trail and it ends at a bluff with a look-out to the bay. It is beautiful (my feature image) but it is not the lighthouse. I walk back and find a lower wooden platform. “There it is!” I say out loud. Just below on the point is the lighthouse.

The Cape d’Or lighthouse is also a guest house and restaurant.  It was probably the owners that I met on the road in the four-wheeler. I walk bent-kneed down the steep gravel path.  When I make it to the bottom I am drawn directly to the rocky point.  The waves are colliding against the rocks, splashing high in the air.  A bank of towering cliffs form the end of the land at the headwaters of the Fundy Bay.

I hop from rock to rock out as far as I dare, and get a selfie perched on the edge.  A beautiful spot, I could have stayed for hours watching the sea pummel the shore.

I leave the rocks and peek in the windows of the restaurant and guest house, then follow a short trail to a fire pit with a view to a sea cave being hollowed out by the constant ripping of the sea.

It is time to leave. I hike the hill back up to the top and my friends from the picnic park are just getting out of the vehicle at the top.

“You found the place,” she says to me.

“I did, your instructions were excellent.” I hand her my card and tell her I write a travel blog and ask for her name.

“Corinna,”  she says, then turns and joins her companion for a walk to the look-off. I start my truck and pull out of the parking lot. Pictures never show the true beauty of a place but I used this picture in my Saturday’s Shot post

 

Please join me on my next adventure around Cape Chignecto, Nova Scotia. Happy Travels from Maritime Mac.

If you missed any of my trip here are the links.

Joggins fossil cliffs- UNESCO WHS

Partridge Island: Rock-hounding, hiking