Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Part 5: Jigging Cove, Black Brook Cove, Green Cove, and Lakies Head

Re-entering Cape Breton National Park I began a series of stops at look offs and coves. My second stop at Black Brook Cove provided me an opportunity for some walking so I decided to postpone my hike until the next day and take my time exploring each of the coves. I was particularly fond of the headlands here, the dense green pine trees encircled by the gray and pink gneiss and granite.

As I walked along the beach at Black Brook a view of an inlet was revealed in the headland, one that looked to have a waterfall. So I retraced my steps and headed to where the sand terminated in the jumble of massively-sized dead trees strewn over the granite and gneiss. After climbing over the driftwood I had an even better view of the waterfall and so decided to keep climbing over the rock, eventually ending up right below it. To my right I noticed an access point on the opposite bank that would allow me to get to the top of the waterfall so I crossed the brook and made the short ascent to the top – where I found myself on a trail. Lesson of this story is that there are easier ways of seeing this waterfall – such as taking a trail – that don’t involve climbing over trees and rock, though I maintain that my view from the bottom was far superior that what you could see from the top. Since the water flow wasn’t very high I made my way to a spot of dry rock near the center of the top of the waterfall and was treated with a view of the cove from above.

After leaving Black Brook Cove I continued south along the Cabot Trail, soaking up the views from the viewpoints. Green Cove was particularly nice, featuring pink and white granite stripes within the gray gneiss. A less dramatic version was also seen from Lakies Head, my last stop before heading inland for a hike.