highlands

Length: 18 km
Duration: 5-7h
Difficulty: 5
Cell Phone Service: No

Bio

The trail starts by climbing a steep hill which joins an old settlement road made/used by Scottish settlers in the mid-1800s. Many of their old stone foundations are still intact in various locations along the hike. The settlement road goes through a series of mixed hardwood and softwood forest winding along the mountains. Eventually, the woods along the trail thins out and you hit the old MacLean farm. At the fork in the trail veer to the right and head towards "the benches" and onward to Old Forest. Once you make it through the Old Forest the hike becomes increasingly more difficult as you wind your way through more mountains, scale riverside cliffs, nervously cross old hand-made bridges and cross over the east branch of the river twice. As you near the end of the trail the landmass opens up there are the falls.

The largest waterfalls in the Maritimes, the mighty 32 meter North River Falls is a truly breathtaking sight. The mist from their watery wrath will be cooling your face as you recover from the initial sighting and make your make way closer to the base. In June through mid-July, a large number of Canadian Tiger Swallowtail butterflies migrate and take limited residence here and along the river. Time it with the leaves changing the fall for an extra mind-numbing experience.

Possible wildlife: rare American martin, moose, foxes, owls, hawks, pheasants, deer, and coyotes. There is also a high population of black bears, lynx, and bobcats in the mountains.