July 2 – Gypsum Mine Trail

Another night and another sunset.

Again it was a scorching hot sunny day.

We had done all of the National Park things on my list so I found a mention of this trail on the campground website. It is a just a bit inland from Cheticamp, so very close by.

There was a gypsum mine / quarry and the pit has filled in with water that has a nice blue green colour. It is a favourite swimming place for locals.

The trail in is just over a kilometer and is really a wide ATV track and ATV’s are allowed to use it.

Part way in there is a alcove that seems to have been mined.

 

Even the photosphere doesn’t do it justice.

Blocking the ATV’s from the lake there was a row of large rocks, one of which sparkled as through it was made of shattered glass.

It looked much better in person and in the sunshine.

To the lake.

There were a few small ledges like the one in the picture above but mostly it look like a straight drop-off, who knows how far down. I think it would have been a bit scary to swim in, just thinking about how far down it could be. 

The photosphere.

There were people swimming. I felt the water. It was cool but on a day like today it would have felt great.

As always, if there is a way to get higher I will take it. I noticed this spire above us.

And a steep trail.

I had to pull myself up with this rope.

The photosphere from here.

And then a bit higher up. Someone was swimming across.

And the photosphere.

The guy who swam across climbed up a cliff with a rope, that was there for that purpose and jumped. I just got a still capture from a video so it is a pretty lousy shot.

Back down with Jennie, we continue around the lake into a small valley.

I had taken some of the high up pictures from near that spire, just right of center in the picture above.

Here is the view down from there.

And yet another photosphere.

Then a very large family showed up and we exited stage left.

We decided to have one last seafood meal.at The Seafood Stop restaurant. Jennie had crab legs and I had a fish sandwich that had an enormous grilled piece of fish. Both very good.

The funny thing was that while most places have a kid’s menu section, this one had a senior’s menu section.

There was a campground out on a point that I had thought about going to, so I wanted to have a look. Instead we passed this beautiful beach and had to stop.

It has actual sand and the sand goes out a long way into the water and stays very shallow. Perfect for wading. So after al this time we finally got in the water on the afternoon of our last day. Since it was so shallow the water was very warm.

Lots of small sand bars.

We walked for about a kilometer before heading back to the car and home.

And so ends this trip. Much shorter than our normal adventures but really great. Hopefully we can still find more places to go that aren’t crazy or on fire.