Kejimkujik National Park

Listen first. Somewhere out on the lake, a loon calls. It is a long, rising cry that carries across the water and comes back from the far shore. Under your feet, the trail is soft with fallen needles and dark earth. The air smells of wet bark, moss, and the faint sweetness of the lake. This is Kejimkujik, in the forested interior of southwestern Nova Scotia. Here the land is low and full of water, and the silence holds a lot of small sounds.

Most visitors say the name as "Kedge," and locals use the short form too. The full name comes from the Mi'kmaw language. The Mi'kmaq are the Indigenous people of this part of Atlantic Canada. People offer different translations. One popular version is "swollen waters." Another, told with a smile, is "tired muscles," perhaps from paddling against the wind. Nobody can settle the question with certainty. Either meaning fits a place where water shapes almost everything you see.

Kejimkujik has an unusual double identity. It is a national park, protected for its forests, lakes, and wildlife. It is also a national historic site, recognised for its Mi'kmaw cultural landscape. Kejimkujik was the first place in Canada to carry both designations together. That pairing matters. It tells you this was never empty wilderness. For thousands of years, people lived here, travelled here, fished, hunted, and gathered. The forest you walk through today is also a homeland.

The lakes and rivers were highways. Mi'kmaw families travelled by birchbark canoe along connected waterways. These routes linked the Bay of Fundy side of the province with the Atlantic coast. Short overland carries, called portages, joined one lake to the next. Some of those same routes are still paddled today. When you push a canoe away from the shore here, you follow lines on the water that are far older than any map of Nova Scotia.

Here is something many visitors never see. Along certain lakeshores, the flat grey slate holds petroglyphs — images cut or scratched into the rock surface. They show people, animals, canoes, and ships with tall sails. Some show figures in European clothing, which records the meeting of two worlds. The slate is soft and fragile, so the sites are protected. You can only see them on a guided visit with park staff. If one runs during your stay, it is worth joining.

Now turn to the forest itself. Kejimkujik sits within the Acadian forest, a mix of northern conifers and broadleaf hardwoods. Red maple, birch, white pine, red spruce, and eastern hemlock grow side by side. In autumn, the maples turn red and orange, and the lakes reflect the colour back. In some stands, the hemlocks are very old — several centuries old. Walking beneath them feels different. The light drops, the air cools, and the ground opens up under a high, dark canopy.

Those old hemlocks now face a real threat. A small invasive insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid has arrived in Nova Scotia. It feeds on the trees and can kill them over years. Park teams are working to protect the oldest stands. So if you walk among the big hemlocks, you are seeing something that may not last unchanged. Look up at the branches. That quiet canopy is one of the park's most precious and fragile features.

The water here is dark, often the colour of strong tea. That is not pollution. The colour comes from tannins, natural compounds that wash out of the peat, leaves, and bogs. In the shallows, the water glows amber where the sun hits it. Boulders left behind by retreating glaciers sit scattered along the shores and in the lakes. Kejimkujik Lake is the largest body of water in the park, and the Mersey River runs through it.

This watery world shelters some rare animals. The most famous is Blanding's turtle, a gentle reptile with a bright yellow chin and throat. In Nova Scotia it survives in only a few small populations, and this area is central to them. These turtles can live for many decades. Volunteers and researchers watch nesting sites and protect the eggs. If you see a turtle on a road or trail, give it space. You may also hear frogs at dusk, and spot porcupines, deer, or a beaver's lodge.

When the sun goes down, the park offers a second landscape. Kejimkujik is a designated Dark Sky Preserve. That means artificial light is carefully limited to protect the night. On a clear evening, the Milky Way stretches across the sky above the lakes. Stars reflect in the still water, and the dark is deep enough to see your own breath under starlight. The Mi'kmaq have their own sky stories, and the park sometimes shares them during evening programmes.

One more surprise. The park has a separate piece on the Atlantic coast, called Kejimkujik Seaside. It lies some distance away from these inland woods, near the shore of Queens County. There, the landscape changes completely: white sand beaches, granite outcrops, coastal barrens, and grey seals resting on the rocks. The two parts feel like different worlds. If you have time on your trip, seeing both shows how much variety this corner of Nova Scotia holds.

The best way to know Kejimkujik is slowly. Short walking trails follow rivers and lead to small waterfalls and quiet coves. Longer backcountry routes reach campsites accessible only by paddle or on foot. A canoe or kayak puts you at eye level with the water lilies and the loons. Bring layers, because lake breezes can turn cool quickly. Bring insect protection too. Ticks and blackflies live here, and checking yourself after a walk is a simple habit worth keeping.

Before you move on, stand still for a moment. Notice the colour of the water near your feet, and the way the trees lean toward the light over the lake. Listen for the wind in the pines, or that loon again, far out on the open water. People have stood on shores like this one for thousands of years, watching the same weather roll in. As you walk back along the trail, take the quiet with you. It is the one thing here you are allowed to carry away.