The park began accepting reservations<\/a> on February 17 and 9,167 camp sites were booked almost immediately.<\/p>\nActing visitor experience manager Mark Schmidt says the number of reservations is down slightly from 2020 but that\u2019s to be expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re roughly 17 percent less than we were on our opening of reservations last year. Now the one thing I do have to point out though is, we opened our reservation system in February this year. Last year it was in April. It was closer to the opening of the park, there was still a lot of uncertainty about travel beyond the provincial borders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmidt expects the number of reservations will exceed last year by the time April rolls around.<\/p>\n
Kejimkujik closed part of its camping for the 2020 season to install new washrooms and underground infrastructure.<\/p>\n
It was the first major renovation in the park in 50 years.<\/p>\n
Schmidt says they\u2019ve been hearing rave reviews from people about those upgrades and the park continues to improve the visitor experience.<\/p>\n
The Ukme\u2019k trail, which means \u2018twisted\u2019 in Mi\u2019kmaq, is a 6.5 km trail connecting the visitor centre to the Mersey River trail that was updated in 2021 to not only improve the experience for hikers but expand its appeal to other users.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a multi-use experience in that it\u2019s something that\u2019s meant for all levels of users. But it also incorporates unique features specifically for mountain biking,\u201d said Schmidt. \u201cSo there\u2019s a handful of really cool optional features that will test the skills of mountain bikers that are out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmidt says he\u2019s most excited about the newly constructed Mills Falls Bridge which takes visitors from the Mill Falls day-use area across to the Ukme\u2019k trail.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first of its kind in Canada, in terms of the type of bridge that it is,\u201d said Schmidt. \u201cIt\u2019s actually placed in a way that you\u2019re on the lower part of the falls so you have this feeling, like when you\u2019re standing in the middle of the bridge, that you feel the power of the water underneath you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmidt says there are still many sites available, and others will open as people\u2019s plans change and they change their reservations.<\/p>\n
While summer is the peak time for visits to Keji, Schmidt says people shouldn\u2019t miss exploring the park during the shoulder seasons as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe park is amazing and different in all seasons,\u201d said Schmidt. \u201cSo, if you come in the summer you need to come back in the fall because it\u2019s such a different experience. I encourage everybody to get out and enjoy themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
E-mail:\u00a0edhalversonnews@gmail.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nTwitter: @edwardhalverson<\/strong><\/p>\nTo listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It appears staff at Kejimkujik National Park and Historic Site will be busy this year. The park began accepting reservations on February 17 and 9,167 camp sites were booked almost immediately. Acting visitor experience manager Mark Schmidt says the number of reservations is down slightly from 2020 but that\u2019s to be expected. \u201cWe\u2019re roughly 17…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":24627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,219],"tags":[13003,409,3747,13000,13001,13002],"radio":[9850],"origine":[274,279,278],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85132"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=85132"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=85132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}