Kejimkujik: Seaside Adjunct National Park

Kejimkujik Seaside Adjunct National Park has one of the most diverse landscapes I’ve ever seen on a 2-3 hour trail. You start out the trail loop in low brush with carnivorous plants mixed in among the bushes. Also among the bushes are “fiddleheads.” which are an edible native fern.

Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to try any, but I understand some local restaurants do serve them as apetizers. As you wind your way toward the sea, the brush turns into the low lying ground cover you see below.

Eventually, the ground cover gives way to huge piles of “river rocks” that had been turned over by the sea for years, and deposited in piles along the beach. It’s actually quite difficult to walk on these rocks, and every step you imagine your foot slipping and ankle turning over. Also, with every step you see little black spiders (or maybe crabs) scurry into the rocks out of view.

After walking along the beach for some time, you eventually come across one of the barrier lakes of trapped sea water, forming the marsh below. Bushes surround the water, and pine trees surround those.

Continuing threw the trees and brush, you eventually hit the sea again, but this coastline looks entirely different from the last. The water is interspersed turquoise and navy, and the beaches are a fine white sand. It looks like you could be in the Caribbean, but I assure you the water is not Caribbean in temperature!

As if the landscape isn’t interesting enough, seals are just offshore, lounging on the rocks. From shore, you can hearing them grunting and calling for each other. On land, they don’t move very gracefully, shimmying their way around.

But in the water, they dart around with precision. According to an information board, two types of seals are present in the park; harbor seals and gray seals. From memory, I believe the harbor seals are rarer, black, and a bit larger.

The gray seals are grey with black markings on their body and are more commonly seen. This seal below is a grey seal. Their faces really do look like dogs, but I understand that they can be quite mean. It was also interesting to hear some local politics about seals. Under environmental protection, seal hunting is a big no-no, and thus their numbers have increased. Apparently, so much so, that the seals have impacted fisherman by following their boats, and disrupting their fishing activities. We heard some local fisherman complaining that nothing will ever be done about the seals because they’re cute and have won the hearts of environmentalists.

I don’t know enough about the situation to have an opinion about the politics, but I do agree — they’re cute! We continued back along the trail loop, and found ourselves back among carnivorous plants and brush. I highly recommend this park.