Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site

While exploring Kejimkujik, you are responsible for your own safety. Be sure to properly prepare and plan for your trip, taking the necessary precautions to protect yourself from inclement weather and potential natural hazards.

Trip planning

• Follow public health authorities’ guidance for your area, including travel advisories.
• Plan ahead, prepare, and adjust your plans.
• Respect closures and restrictions.
• Avoid popular destinations and high use places and times.
• This is a great time to explore natural and cultural treasures close to home.

Outdoor etiquette

• Practice physical distancing and hygiene rules during the COVID-19 pandemic while visiting Parks Canada places.
• Be respectful of others. Keep prescribed distance while lining up and respect the facility’s maximum use capacity.
• Bring hygiene supplies, water, provisions and equipment as some facilities may be closed.
• Carry disinfectant, wipes, and toilet paper.
• Cover picnic tables.
• Avoid touching hard surfaces.

Hiking and biking etiquette

• Be kind and considerate of others.
• Respect closures and restrictions.
• Pack in and pack out. Keep our places clean, pick up your litter and dispose of it by using appropriate garbage containers or take your waste home.
• Yield to oncoming users where space is narrow.
• Let others move out of bridges, platforms, and other narrow spaces before entering.
• Step off trails to let others pass where possible. But please try to avoid stepping on vegetation and stay on trails unless letting others pass.
• Slow down on trails. Speed increases user conflicts and risks of injuries.
• Adjust your distance from others based on their speed to maintain physical distancing.
• Let others know of your intention to pass. Signal others using your voice or a bell.
• Please be cautious and avoid risky activities.

• Stroll to a viewing platform for a stunning view of a Mersey River Stillwater.
• A raised platform provides two viewing scopes to look for beavers and ducks.

• Drumlins are steep on one side and gently sloping on the other.
  
• The top of this drumlin is clothed in beeches, bright green and full of warblers in the spring, soft brown and loaded with beechnuts in the fall.

Summer: 

• Access Beech Grove by the Beech Grove floating bridge, or via the Ukme’k Trail (#15). 

Winter and spring: 

• The Beech Grove Trail floating bridge has been removed until spring. The Beech Grove Trail is only accessible via Ukme’k (#15) at this time. 
  
• Lake and river ice is not monitored. Consider it hazardous at all times.
  
   

Summer: 

• Listen to the Mersey River gurgling and splashing as you wander through a wetland and along a riverbank. Gateway to Ukme’k (#15).

Winter and spring: 

• The Big Dam Road gate is locked until spring. Please park at the J-Line (at the beginning of the Big Dam Road), being careful not to block the gate. Hike 800 m along Ukme’k to reach the Flowing Waters trail.

• The 300-year old hemlocks along this trail are among Nova Scotia’s oldest trees.
  
• As you move into the stand of tall, stately conifers, notice how different it feels under the thick-leafed canopy: cool and dark and moist.
• A hemlock boardwalk will take you over the very sensitive roots of these giants.

Winter and spring: 

• The Big Dam Road gate is locked until spring. Please park at the beginning of the Big Dam Road (on the “J-line” road), being careful not to block the gate. Hike 2.5 km on the Big Dam Road Road until you reach the parking lot. Following the signs, hike up the trail until you reach the Hemlocks and Hardwoods trailhead). 

• Travel back into Keji's past with a walk to an old drumlin farm.
• Drumlins, eliptical hills, were formed many thousands of years ago during glacial periods.
• In the 19th century they attracted settlers who built their farms on the top.
• Walk through the forest in the trail of ancient glaciers and search for evidence of the old farm.

Winter and spring: 

• When there is snow, the Main Parkway is only plowed to the turnoff to the campground. Please choose another option when road conditions do not allow you to access this trail.  

• The trail may be short, but there’s so much to see as you explore the Rogers Brook trail.
• You will cross Rogers Brook and follow the Mersey River along a red maple floodplain.
• Vibrant in autumn, the floodplain is teeming with life all year.
• Watch for turtles and amphibians and nesting waterfowl.

Winter and spring: 

• When there is snow, the Main Parkway is only plowed to the turnoff to the campground. Please choose another option when road conditions do not allow you to access this trail. 
  
• Note that high water can result in flooding along this trail in fall, winter, and spring. Please travel with care.

• Amble among towering pines and gnarled beech trees on this two-loop trail.

Winter and spring: 

• When there is snow, the Main Parkway is only plowed to the turnoff to the campground. Please choose another option when road conditions do not allow you to access this trail. 

• Discoveries await you: birds, lakes, bogs, diverse forests and marshes.

Winter and spring: 

• When there is snow, the Main Parkway is only plowed to the turnoff to the campground. Please choose another option when road conditions do not allow you to access this trail.
  
• The Eel Weir gate is locked until spring. When road conditions allow, park your vehicle in the Grafton Woods parking lot and hike 3 km to the Peter Point/Snake Lake trailhead. 

• The signs and exhibits on this trail tell the story of gold mining in this area.
• Relics demonstrate where and how the gold was mined, and local miners’ stories bring it all to life.
• The promise of gold is in the air!

• This is a multi-use trail so watch for bikers.
• Birds love this area for its variety of habitats: red and sugar maple and hemlock.
• People love this area for its secluded sandy point.

Winter and spring: 

• When there is snow, the Main Parkway is only plowed to the turnoff to the campground. Please choose another option when road conditions do not allow you to access this trail.
  
• The Eel Weir gate is locked until spring. When road conditions allow, park your vehicle in the Grafton Woods parking lot and hike 3 km to the Peter Point/Snake Lake trailhead.

• This is a shared-use trail so please watch for bikers.
• Follow the river’s edge to see the Mersey in all its different moods.

Summer: 

• From the trail’s parking and picnic area, head along the river, up into the darker woods, and back to quiet, still Mersey pools.
• Listen to the swish of the lush grasses as you pass through.

Winter and spring: 

• When there is snow, part of the Mersey River Trail parking lot will normally be plowed.
  
• The Jake’s Landing floating bridge has been removed until spring.
  
• Due to the bridge removal and ongoing Slapfoot closure, it is not possible to connect to either the Merrymakedge or Slapfoot trails from the Mersey River Trail at this time.

• This is a busy shared-use trail so please watch for bikers.
• You can start from Meadow Beach, various points in Jeremys Bay campground, or Jim Charles Point.
• Join the Mersey trail or the trail to Merrymakedge.
• The views of the lakeshore change with the season and the weather.
• Every turn brings something new.

Winter and spring: 

• The Slapfoot trail remains closed due to Jeremy’s Bay campground construction. 

• This is a shared-use trail so please watch for bikers.
• The trail begins at the far end of the Jake's Landing parking lot, and climbs steeply through scattered granite boulders.
• This is a good place to watch for Pileated Woodpeckers.
• Enveloped in trees, you will pass by the viewing tower exhibit and continue to Merrymakedge playground.
• From here the trail follows the lakeshore, flat and easy, to the canteen and the beach at Merrymakedge.

Winter and spring: 

• When there is snow, the Main Parkway will only be plowed to the turnoff to the campground. Please choose another option when road conditions do not allow you to access this trail. 

• Our newest trail will have you twisting and turning with the Mersey River as you weave your way through Kejimkujik’s landscape by foot or by bike.
• Take it easy or challenge yourself with the optional technical features perfect for mountain bikers.

Summer:

• Access the Ukme’k Trail from multiple trailheads including:
  • the Mill Falls Trail (#2) parking lot
  • the Flowing Waters Trail (#4) parking lot
    
  • the Mersey River Trail (#12) parking lot
• Experience the trail in pieces or do the whole trail from end to end. If you’re looking to explore more, continue on the Mersey River Trail all the way to Jake's Landing and Merrymakedge!

Winter and spring:

• The Beech Grove floating bridge has been removed until spring so there is no access to Ukme’k from the Mill Falls parking lot at this time. 
  
• Access Ukme’k from either the Mersey River Trail (#12) parking lot (snow conditions permitting) or the beginning of the Big Dam Road (the “J-Line” parking area). Please do not park in front of the Big Dam Road gate.
  
• The Big Dam Road gate is locked until spring, so it is not possible to access Ukme’k from the Flowing Waters parking lot at this time.

• Start off from the original site of a Mi'kmaw fishing weir for your adventure on this backcountry road. The route crosses ancient portage routes and promises big challenges, big hardwoods, and big returns.

• This trail passes through dense coastal forest, beside bogs rich with orchids, over coastal barrens, and then to the sandy beach and rocky islands at Harbour Rocks.
• Along the trail, a viewing platform provides a spectacular view of St. Catherine's River Beach.
• In the thick growth of shrubs at the trail’s edge you may see birds such as the Common Yellow-throat, Savannah Sparrow, and Palm Warbler feeding on insects or berries.
• At the shore, a viewing scope provides a close-up look at offshore seals and seabirds like the Northern Gannet and the Common Eider.
• This route then follows the headlands and small sheltered coves to St. Catherine's River Beach.
• Park staff protect the Piping Plover by closing the beach to public access during the nesting season.

• This trail branches from the Harbour Rocks Trail, and crosses an extensive bog to a viewing platform overlooking Boyds Cove.
• The trail skirts clumps of coastal forest, which provide shelter for White-tailed Deer and forest birds, and then follows the coast to Port Joli Head.
• Here is the full force of the ocean. Crashing surf announces the energy of the waves, the wind whips salty spray into the air, cobbles clatter as the waves recede, cries of gulls and eiders drift ashore, and the smell of seaweed is heavy in the air.
• Large boulders left behind by the glaciers sit perched on the rocky headlands, now encrusted with orange coastal lichens.
• When you explore these headlands be careful to keep your distance from the water’s edge, since rogue waves can wash across them.
• From Port Joli Head, the trail loops along the shoreline to Harbour Rocks.