🇨🇦Roads in Canada
3 roads found in Canada, North America
Cabot Trail
🇨🇦 Canada
The Cabot Trail is a 298-kilometer loop road in Nova Scotia, Canada, circling the northern tip of Cape Breton Island through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Named after the explorer John Cabot, who is believed to have landed on the island in 1497, the trail passes through some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in eastern North America. The road climbs from sea level to over 450 meters, traversing a landscape of lush boreal forests, dramatic coastal cliffs, and pastoral Acadian and Scottish highland communities. The most dramatic sections of the trail run through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, where the road hugs the cliff edge high above the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. French Mountain and MacKenzie Mountain offer the steepest grades and most sweeping views, with switchbacks climbing to plateaus that offer panoramic vistas of the ocean and the forested highlands. Moose are commonly spotted along the road, particularly at dawn and dusk, and whale watching from the cliffs is excellent from June through September. The trail passes through a patchwork of cultural communities, including Acadian French-speaking villages on the western coast, Scottish Gaelic heritage towns like Englishtown and Baddeck, and Mi'kmaq First Nations communities. Each area offers distinct cuisine, music, and traditions. The fall foliage season, typically mid-October, is considered the finest in eastern Canada, with the highlands blazing in reds, oranges, and golds. The trail is open year-round, though some services close in winter, and the road can be challenging during Nova Scotia's frequent storms.
Icefields Parkway
🇨🇦 Canada
The Icefields Parkway (Highway 93 North) is a 232-kilometer scenic highway running through the heart of the Canadian Rockies between Lake Louise and Jasper, Alberta. Widely regarded as one of the most spectacular mountain drives on the planet, the road parallels the Continental Divide and passes alongside ancient glaciers, turquoise lakes, thundering waterfalls, and towering limestone peaks. The centerpiece of the drive is the Columbia Icefield, the largest ice field in the Rocky Mountains, covering 325 square kilometers. Visitors can walk to the toe of the Athabasca Glacier or take an Ice Explorer bus onto the ice itself. Other highlights include Peyto Lake with its wolf-shaped outline, Mistaya Canyon's carved limestone gorge, and the Weeping Wall where countless waterfalls cascade down a cliff face. Wildlife encounters with bears, elk, mountain goats, and wolves are frequent along this corridor.
Sea-to-Sky Highway
🇨🇦 Canada
The Sea-to-Sky Highway (Highway 99) stretches 130 kilometers from Vancouver to Whistler along British Columbia's stunning Howe Sound coastline. The route earned its evocative name from the dramatic elevation change as it climbs from sea level along the fjord to the ski resort town of Whistler at 670 meters. Massively upgraded for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the highway transformed from a notoriously dangerous two-lane road into a modern scenic freeway. The drive begins with the dramatic crossing of Howe Sound, North America's southernmost fjord, where mountains plunge directly into the Pacific. Highlights include Shannon Falls (British Columbia's third-highest waterfall at 335 meters), the Sea-to-Sky Gondola with panoramic views of the sound, and the charming heritage town of Squamish, which has become a world-class rock climbing and mountain biking destination. The road continues climbing through old-growth forests before arriving in the resort village of Whistler.