Canada & Beyond - Day 7 - Part 3

Driving along the Cabot trail was an incredible experience, but I am so very glad that we didn't just have to leave it at that. Because thankfully we arrived at the Skyline Trail in time! It was one of my favorite places I've ever hiked before... 

We got all geared up and got on the trail as swiftly as we could, didn't want to waste any daylight!

I was hoping this sign meant that we would see a moose or two along the way, but *spoiler alert* no such luck :p 

We walked down a short section of the trail and came to a wide opening with some information and maps, where we could decide which way to go first.

We made our decisions and took off down the trail!

The first section of the hike was walking through thick woods, I loved the way the ferns covered the whole forest floor, it was beautiful.

We had completed the first portion of the walk, and began the loop down to the water.

The landscaped changed into wide open prairie, with wildflowers and little trees popping up here and there.

Far off in the distance you could see a glimpse of the ocean, even though it was cloudy and seemed a bit foggy, you could see it! ;)

There are multiple spots like this around the National Park, where they have fenced in portions of the area, to protect some of the landscape and also allow hikers to see what it would look like if the wildlife (mostly moose and deer) were not able to access it.

As you can see a lot of the trees outside of the fence are rubbed bare.

There was a platform you could climb up to get a better view of the surrounding area, it was super windy up there, but still totally worth it!

See how the trees in the fence are all thick and green at the bottoms, unlike the trees outside of the fence.

I loved this tall grass that was growing around the base of the view tower.

 

After exiting the fenced in area, we headed back in to the woods.

Check out this cute Spruce Grouse, hiding in a tree.

Within a few minutes we walked out of the trees and were instantly hit with a gorgeous view over looking the massive landscape surrounding the Cabot Trail drive.

Had to take a few pictures before moving on ;)

Here's a panorama from my phone.

There was another portion of inland hiking before reaching the ocean view once again.

I thought this boardwalk plat form was interesting! 

Finally! This was what we had been waiting for!

It was insanely windy, but we were not about to let that hold us back from seeing somewhere we had so anxiously been awaiting!

  

We all had so much fun exploring the many angles of the area, and taking it all in!

It was all just so much beauty, I couldn't believe we were here, in the flesh! On this hillside, on the ocean... in Nova Scotia. It was pretty amazing ;)

We kept on trekking down towards the furthest point of the trail. There were several times we felt like we were about to get blown off into the great abyss, but thankfully that didn't happen ;p haha

Took a little pit stop at this large platform, it was hard work walking up and down the steps, in such strong winds!

It just kept going and going!

We finally reached the end of the plat form trail, if we wanted to go any further we were going to have to off road it a bit ;)

Which of course we did ;) We had gone too far to stop now!

There was a spot with super thick trees, just barely trimmed so a person could squeeze through, it was fun shimmying through the tight spots! It reminded us of those creepy woods in movies. 

It was even windier out here in the wide open, they were saying it was gusting around 45mph, it might have been even higher out on the water!

There were several little paths out to the edges of the last hill, we of course had to go explore them all.

Behold, where land and water meet.

Selfies on the edge ;)

Nathan

Julia

Tia

Faith

Guess I didn't get a picture of Hayley! Let's be honest though, as usual, you were probably off doing something daring and none of us knew were you were at the moment ;p haha!

Nathan, being the daredevil he is ;p He talked me into going down there too, I think one of the girls got a picture of us out there together. haha

World Explorers! ;)

It's okay, she was pretending ;p

It was starting to sprinkle a bit, the wind was picking up, and it was starting to get dark. Sooo sadly we had to begin heading back up the trail.

We decided to brave the night and finish out the loop, instead of going back the way we came.

   

It was a little bit of a longer trek than we had thought it would be.. haha. It was totally pitch dark and raining lightly for most of the walk back. But we made it back alive and in one piece! Though we were all pretty tired and hungry ;p

We had a ways to drive still along the Cabot Trail before reaching where we were camping that night. I don't remember what time it was, but we made it and set up camp quickly and went right to sleep. It was a windy night, and rained some, but hey, bed is bed! 

It was such an amazing day... And we had another one to look forward to tomorrow!