Cape Chignecto Provincial Park

Did a 4 day, 3 night backpacking trip here, WOW! What an incredible place full of lush mossy forest, wonderful rocky beaches, and beautiful cliffy viewpoints. Highly recommend if you're into backpacking and in the area. The trails were tough, but very doable by my partner and I who are experienced backpackers. We camped in seal cove and refugee cove, which I can both highly recommend also. Great sunsets from seal cove and wonderful beach at refugee cove. If you're into walking, scenery, and quiet this is the place for you!

Such a gorgeous hike, though be warned there are some fun hills!

We knew Cape Chignecto was not a ‘walk in the park’. Being seniors with a dog, backwoods camping and trails rated ‘difficult’ are beyond us, but we drove over from our 5 islands pp to say we’d been there. To our delight, we walked on the main path to a beach, which was on our right. A beautiful beach where we could walk, paddle, and enjoy rock structures. A very helpful staff member in the visitor centre told us about the trails at Eatonville day use area, which was accessed from a different location. It took about 45 minutes to drive there over rough roads. We have a Ford 150 and are used to off roading to find great sights, so the track there was exciting and better than we are used to. I’m not sure if I’d want to drive a low to the ground front- wheel drive car, but the parking lot DID have a variety of vehicles when we arrived. The road was VERY well signed, considering how rough it was. At the trailhead, we had a choice between a short trail to the 3 sisters’ rock formation of a longer trail. It was very hot, and we had another destination planned for later, so we took the shorter walk. I’ve included the map and description of the 3 sisters trail. There were look outs with fantastic scenery. Very photogenic and historic. There were also considerately placed pit toilets that were very clean and well stocked. The trail was very well posted and groomed. It was such a pleasant surprise being able to really enjoy Cape Chignecto this much.

Excellent park, great staff & nice variety of trails.

This is a great hike! Outstanding amount of scenery for a trail of this length. The trail has a few distinct sections: KM 1 - 18 from red rocks to the end of the cape is a mix of pretty easy forest trail and a few (3 main ones) big climbs, roughly 150-200 m each climb. The climbs are not technically difficult, but pretty steep grade. Views are limited on this section compared to the next part, but refugee cove has a nice beach and is a good camp spot. If you start by going to refugee cove day 1, you will get two good climbs in; one at km 3, and one at Mill Brook. But it gets easier after the climb out of Mill Brook.. KM 18-33 - the best views are found here on the western coast of the trail. Impressive cliffs and tons of views. The trail here is a bit more technically difficult (roots/some water/a few steep areas) and doesn't have many "cruisy" sections. KM 33-36 - moderate terrain into eatonville KM 37 - 48 - the 11 km woods stretch says on the map it takes 6.5 hours... but it took about 2.5 hrs and had some easy stretches. Mostly forest, a nice creek at times. You can cut some off the trail by taking the beach from red rocks pretty well any time that isn't within an hour of high tide. Recommended. My total moving time per my GPS was 13 hrs, 40 min; this was at a consistent pace. It can definitely take much longer, or for some (like the runner I saw on the trail..) shorter. Not sure if I got lucky, but hardly any bugs in June was a nice surprise. I wore non-waterproof shoes and that was the right call for me. Some wet stuff but easy walk arounds so no soakers on this one! Really hard to get lost on this one. Possible I guess, but good signage and clear trail.

My friend and I hiked about 30km. I surprised myself as I am just getting into hiking more and more. Was it challenging? Yes, but not as bad as I was expecting. I loved that we were able to start at the beach, but we had to go through the woods when we were finishing as the tide was high. That put an extra 3km onto our hike. It was very well marked, and the path is not as "rooted" as what I thought it would be. We will be going back before the end of August. We just spent the day there, but you can camp and there is a cabin, I think about 10k into the hike.

Cape Chignecto is one of Nova scotia's best kept secrets. A wonderful backpacking trail that will challenge even the most seasoned hiker with steep elevation changes and at times challenging terrain. The campsites are overall very well maintained if a bit sparse. The full loop can be done by a fit aggressive hiker in 3 days and more comfortably in four depending on how long you hike for and how much time you like to spend in camp. Your hard effort will be rewarded with stunning ocean views, wonderful ecosystems, and two beautiful beaches at refugee and seal Cove. Please practice backpacking etiquette pack out all of your garbage and leave the trail in a better condition than you found it in order to protect this gem of an experience.

Great hike! The trail and campsites are well kept. It was muddy during our time, but there had been a few downpours. Would definitely recommend checking it out.