September 18, 2015 ---- Kejimkujik National Park is one of the two national parks in Nova Scotia. It consists of two separate parks, the inland part and the seaside part. Nathan and I went to the inland part for half a day to bike around. It took over two hours to get there from Halifax, so we didn't have much time to do many things in the park. Camping, hiking, kayaking, biking and star-gazing are all activities you can do there. You can also join in a ranger tour to see the petroglyphs, which is only accessible by the tour.
Nathan and I stopped at the visitor center first thing once we got there. We signed up for the ranger tour, which started at Merrymakedge's parking lot#1. We still had two hours before the tour began, so we took our bicycles out and biked on the biking routes the park had to offer. First we biked to rout#14 toward Jake Landing and continued on route#12. Most parts of the biking trails were flat and shaded well under the trees, but the part from Merrymakedge's parking lot to Jake Landing was hilly and rocky and we had to walk our bikes up/down instead. We wanted to keep going on route#13, but we ran out of time, so we had to take a short cut back to Merrymakedge.
We got back just in time as the ranger tour began. First we learned about the Mi'kmaq, the Aboriginal people who lived in the Atlantic coast of Canada. Then the ranger took us to where the petroglyphs are located. We all had to take off our shoes because the friction from the shoes can destroy the petroglyphs on the rocks. It wasn't easy to see the scratches the Mi'kmaq made on the rocks, so the ranger wet the spot a bit till the images showed. I have to admit that I wasn't impressed because I have seen lots of petroglyphs in other national parks before. However, these petroglyphs are different by the method of drawing. No colors or paints, just scratches on the rocks.
After the tour it was already late in the afternoon, and we wanted to get back home for dinner, so we didn't do more biking or try kayaking. I felt regret that we got there so late and didn't have time to kayak in the lake. Maybe next time....
