A picnic in Kejimkujik. Photo courtesy Parks Canada

If the early bookings are any indication, it’s going to be a busy year at Kejimkujik.

Almost 10,000 campers raced to book their favourite spots at the National Park and Historic Site when the online reservation system opened on March 31, a nine percent increase over last year.

The feat is more remarkable considering Parks Canada rolled out a new online booking system this year, requiring all users to create new accounts.

Visitor Experience Manager at Kejimkujik National Park and Historic Site Sophie Borcoman says Keji is consistently one of the most popular parks in Canada.

“Kejimkujik, every year we have such a loyal fan base of 85 percent repeat visitation who come back year after year, multiple generations,” said Borcoman. “And we’ve for, between Jasper and Banff, as being the most popular site.”

The park, which straddles Queens and Annapolis Counties features a variety of sites for tents trailers and RVs, located near services and washrooms, or in the backcountry, far away from anyone.

In recent years, many roofed accommodations have been added including rustic cabins, oTENTiks and Oasis all within an easy walk of inclusive washrooms.

The washrooms were completely renovated just two years ago to provide a toilet and sink behind a private door in the washroom facilities and private individual showers, making them more inclusive and eliminating the need for traditional separate male and female facilities.

Borcoman says despite the large number of bookings there are still lots of sites available between the May long weekend and the end of October when the park closes.

In fact, the park is offering a new service that will make it easier to book last minute.

Every Tuesday, staff will post how many sites are available in the coming week on their Facebook page, listing unbooked sites as well as any last-minute cancellations.

Borcoman says staff at Kejimkujik are constantly looking for ways to highlight the attributes of the park and historic site and encourages people to visit their web page for dates and times of several special events taking place including an ultra-marathon and the dark-sky weekend.

Kejimkujik also hosts many interpretive programs honouring the Mi’kmaw, the First People of the area.

Visitors can take a guided petroglyph tour, visit a Mi’kmaw encampment or watch and talk to master-builder Todd Labrador as he builds birchbark canoes.

Kejimkujik will open for camping May 19.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Front country rustic cabin at Kejimkujik National Park. Photo Parks Canada

Campers looking forward to booking their summer excursions in Canada’s national parks will have to wait until spring to do so.

Parks Canada has announced campsite bookings, which normally open in January have been pushed back to April due to COVID-19.

Visitor Experience Manager at Kejimkujik National Park Sophie Borcoman says they want to give campers flexibility in their planning because of the uncertainty around what the pandemic precautions may look like next year.

“This year, across the country, we’re giving visitors the opportunity to make more informed decisions for their vacation plans for 2021 by not opening the reservation system until April,” said Borcoman.

The pandemic has been a bit a boon to Kejimkujik as people looked for ways to get out of the house.

“We had a lot of people coming out, especially from Halifax, who wanted to have an experience outdoors and be outside, and for many of them, it was the first time for them to experience Keji, this summer,” said Borcoman.

That experience looked different this year as Keji’s main camping area, Jeremy’s Bay, was closed for extensive renovations.

Washrooms, wastewater management and water treatment plants and the accompanying infrastructure that had been in place since the 1970s was torn down, dug up and replaced with modern facilities.

Borcoman says because most of the renos were being done outside, their contractors were able to work through the lockdowns and they’re on track to re-open the campground this spring.

New water treatment facility at Kejimkujik. Photo credit Parks Canada

The number of visitors to Keji was about a third of what the park would normally see in the summer season, but Borcoman is impressed that many people came out to enjoy the national park even without facilities.

“The fact that the front-country campground was closed, it didn’t seem to affect the backcountry at all,” said Borcoman. “So we had really good visitation in our backcountry this season. People had lots of space to do their own thing in a socially distanced way.”

Borcoman said the park will close for the winter but the gates will be open and people can still enjoy the trails for hiking, skiing and snowshoeing.

The reservation system will be open for summer bookings at 8:00am Friday, April 23.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson