"Why do you want to go there?" The ranger asks.
"It looks like a bigger town, where we might find a place to stay tonight," I reply.
She glances at my map and with a shake of her head, says, "No, you don't want to go there."
Gary and I are at the Visitor Centre of the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.
We'd whiled away the afternoon here, learning about the Coal Age. Lush forests covered Joggins 300 million years ago and over time, the swamp forests deposited massive quantities of organic matter that eventually became coal.
The fossils contained in the exposed layers of the more than 30-metre high cliff faces fronting the Bay are the world's most complete record of life from that time.
It was here that Sir William Dawson discovered a fossil of the first true reptile, Hylonomus lyelli, the tiny ancestor of all dinosaurs that would rule the Earth 100 million years later and unique to Joggins.
At the base of the grey and rusty brown cliffs, we searched for fossils and even found a few. Dallying longer was tempting but we need to find a place for the night.
Hence the conversation over our map with the ranger.
She exclaims, "You want to go to Cap d'Or! You'll feel like you're at the edge of the world. It's an old light keeper's cottage."
Her enthusiasm is infectious and before we know it, we have a reservation, directions and about 45 minutes of driving ahead of us.
On the narrow, gravel road leading to the Cap, we hope a moose will not saunter out of the darkening woods.
We finally come to a small parking lot. The steep, boulder strewn dirt road winding down the cliff side looks too forbidding for our rental, so we start walking.
Rounding a corner, we are relieved to see the red roof and white siding of the light station basking in the last of the day's sunshine.
Cap D'Or or Cape of Gold was named by French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1607. The golden glimmers he noticed in the basalt cliffs turned out to be from copper instead of gold but the name stayed.
We enter the Lightkeeper's Kitchen and inn keeper, Darcy has been expecting us and gets dinner started. Meanwhile, Darcy's mom shows us our room, driving us up the hill to get our night things.
The dining room glows golden with the setting sunlight pouring in all the windows.
Before indulging in dessert, Darcy sends us outside to indulge in a Cap D'or ritual, watching the sunset. Not a speck of civilization is in view from the chair on a windy perch in a cliff side hollow. The air is crisp and clean, with just a tang of salt.
Looking one way, the cliffs rise vertically in a grey mass right from the beach and are topped with a ruffled green crown of trees. Looking the other, the light station looks small against the wide waters of the Bay of Fundy. The isolation is delicious.
The first navigational aid here was a steam fog whistle, established in 1874.
The present lighthouse, with its fog signal and light tower, was built in 1965. This is the only lighthouse in Nova Scotia to offer overnight accommodation.
The Light Keeper's cottage is creaking rather atmospherically with the wind. We meet a German family in the common room. Over cups of tea, we hear about their days spent happily hiking nearby trails.
Before bed, we step outside to see the night sky. The light beacon slices through the darkness with a steady rhythm. The ranger was right; we do feel like we are at the edge of the world.
More information at jogginsfossilcliffs. net and www.capedor.ca/index.html.
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