A Blue and Green Jewel: Cape Breton Island

Aug. 15, 2010— -- On the northeast corner of Nova Scotia Canada, lies a green and blue jewel of an island called Cape Breton Island.

The nearly 4,000-square-mile island is famous for its vast, rolling green highlands that are reminiscent of Scotland's geography, an area where many of Cape Breton's original settlers came from.

There even is some geological evidence pointing to parts of the island actually having once been connected to Scotland and Norway. But now, millions of years of continental drift have this island hugging a corner of Maritime Canada.

"Its very very lush here, very green, very vegetated," says Angelo Spinazzola, owner of North River Kayak tours. "It's all trees, mountain, rock, and lots of granite rock and the ocean smashing up against the rock just exploding up there. It can be ferocious at times, being out there on the water."

Besides the stunning landscape, it is Cape Breton's language, culture and music that really make this island unique. It's one of the only places in North America where Gaelic is still widely spoken, by many of the elderly Cape Bretoners who are descendants of the Highland Scots.

"I think one of the things that is so magical about Cape Breton island is the diversity of cultures," says Lyn Elliott, a public outreach officer with the Cape Breton Islands National Park of Canada.

"We have the Mi'kmaq -- the aboriginal people who have been here for thousands of years, then there is also these pockets of French Acadians, and then there is the Gaelic community," she says. "So even though you are on this one island as you weave in and out of the mountains you get to experience this diversity of cultures that is found no where else on earth."

Cape Breton Island is known for one of the most picturesque drives in North America, the Cabot Trail. The trail is a 185-mile loop around the northern tip of the island; it weaves in and out of the highlands and past tiny fishing villages tucked into the craggy rocky corners of the shoreline. There are dramatic cliffs that drop into the ocean and soft rolling hills that reveal hidden beaches and secret oceanfront campgrounds.