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Map of Cape Breton Highlands National Park and its lakes

Cape Breton Highlands National Park

46.73° N, 60.6311° W

Park boundary and water from open government data.

Download the map (SVG)

Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia. 46.73° N, 60.6311° W

National park, 948 km². Scale bar on the map.

borealbound.ca/parks/ns/cape-breton-highlands-national-park/, compiled October 9, 2026

  • Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database, Environment and Climate Change Canada. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
  • HydroLAKES v1.0, Messager et al. 2016 / WWF HydroSHEDS. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
  • Canadian Geographical Names Database, Natural Resources Canada. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
  • Census boundaries and population, 2021, Statistics Canada. Adapted from Statistics Canada. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada.
  • Parks Canada accommodation, Parks Canada Agency. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
  • City page weather forecasts and alerts, Environment and Climate Change Canada. Contains data from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC Data Servers End-use Licence).
  • Photographs, Wikimedia Commons contributors. Each photo carries its own licence (CC0, public domain, CC BY or CC BY-SA), credited where shown.

Cape Breton Highlands National Park is a 948 km² national park beside Pleasant Bay, in Nova Scotia. It was established in 1936.

30 named lakes lie in or along the park; the largest is Chéticamp Flowage (5.59 km²).

Area
948 km²
Established
1936
Named lakes
30

Conditions today

10.5 °C

Wind WSW 27 km/h, gusts 40

Observed at North Mountain (Cape Breton), as of 3:00 a.m. ADT

Tonight: Cloudy. Showers beginning this evening and ending before morning. Wind south 30 km/h gusting to 50 becoming southwest 20 gusting to 40 late this evening. Low 10.

Weather: North Mountain (Cape Breton) (local forecast), as of 3:02 a.m. ADT

Sun and moon

Civil dawn
6:41 a.m.
Sunrise
7:12 a.m.
Sunset
6:26 p.m.
Civil dusk
6:56 p.m.
Moonrise
5:59 a.m.
Moonset
5:44 p.m.
Moon
Waning crescent, 1% lit

In the park

The 12 largest of 30 named lakes, ranked by area.

FeatureArea
1Chéticamp Flowage5.59 km²
2Burtons Pond2.97 km²
3Warren Lake0.82 km²
4Baldwin Lake0.46 km²
5Freshwater Lake0.43 km²
6Lake of Islands0.37 km²
7Roper Lake0.3 km²
8White Hill Lake0.28 km²
9Two Island Lake0.27 km²
10Gwinn Lake0.24 km²
11Glasgow Lakes0.23 km²
12John Dee Lake0.23 km²

Waterfalls

Beaches

Rivers

Official names from the Canadian Geographical Names Database; each name opens its location on OpenStreetMap.

Things to do

Camping

  • Backcountry camping

Official record

Designation
National park
IUCN category
II, National parkInternational IUCN class, not a legal designation
Managed by
Parks Canada Agency

Photos

Cabot Trail winding through Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia
Photo: Elviroyage, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Cape Breton Highlands beached dead whale
Photo: James R. W. Stewart, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Cape Breton Highlands National Park (198412868)
Photo: Martin Cathrae from Charlottetown, PE, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Names

  • Parc national du Canada des hautes-terres-du-Cap-BretonFrench form