Cape Chignecto Coastal Loop
Route Outline
| Difficulty | Moderate |
|---|---|
| Synopsis |
The Cape Chignecto Coastal Loop is a 52km trail, located in the Nova Scotia provincial park of the same name. With multiple backcountry camping areas spread along the trail, most hikers complete this loop in 3 days and 2 nights. There is no set direction of travel for hiking the full loop. |
| Getting There |
From Halifax, it's a 3-hour drive to the Cape Chignecto Provincial Park Visitor Centre, which is where you need to check in with the staff before beginning your hike. |
| Facilities | Flush toilets at the Visitor Centre. 4 cabins/bunkhouses along the trail; 8 backcountry camping areas. Outhouses at each of the camping areas and cabins (note that toilet paper is NOT provided). There are no bear caches. All campsites have a freshwater creek nearby as a water source. |
| Fees / Reservations | Campsite reservations are required for all backcountry campsites along this trail, at a fee of $27 per night. Reservations can be made through NS Parks. |
September 28-30, 2024
Hikers: Katie & Ryan
Trip Report
We planned this hike a little last-minute, so campsite availability limited our options for number of days and loop direction (the loop can be hiked in either direction). We tackled the trail clockwise, over 3 days and 2 nights. We camped at Refugee Cove on night 1, and Seal Cove on night 2. This worked out nicely to give us our longest day of hiking with our lightest packs.
The day before we started our hike, it rained in the area... a lot. As we drove from Halifax to the trailhead, heavy showers rained down on us on and off.
For a free, downloadable PDF version of the topographical trail map, click here.
Day 1: Visitor Centre to Refugee Cove, 13km
Our friend dropped us off in the rain at the Visitor Centre at 11am, where we checked in with the staff and then got going. We lucked out with timing the tides and were able to walk along the beach section and bypass the first 1.5km or so through the forest. We also got lucky with the weather - after our first few steps on the beach, the sun came out!
We walked on the beach for about 1km before taking the stairs up to rejoin the main trail. The first ~7km of trail to Mill Brook can be described as frontcountry maintained, with handrails on all the bridges and boardwalks. After passing the Mill Brook campground, there are no more handrails for the remainder of the trail.
A lot of the day was fairly level, cruisy forest walking, with notable exceptions being the steady descent down to Mill Brook, and a handful of switchbacks to climb up on the other side. We passed a few viewpoints as we hiked along, which were all well-marked and trailed. Of course, we detoured to check out every one!
Around KM 9 is the second-highest point on the trail, at 244m. From that point, the trail descends steadily all the way to Refugee Cove. Just like descending into Mill Brook, it was a bit of a grind as the trail follows an ATV access road, meaning there are no switchbacks... just a long, steady, straight descent. We were glad to have our poles to give our knees a bit of assistance!
We arrived to Refugee Cove just before 4:00PM and scouted out a flat spot on the beach above the high tide line to pitch our tent. After getting camp set up, we walked in-land to the check out the forested campsites and we purified water from the creek. Then we spent some time exploring the interesting rock formations around the beach.
I got a great opportunity to test out the grip on my new Salewa Wildfire Approach Shoes - they are seriously super sticky!
A few other groups arrived, but they all camped in the forested campground area, leaving us with a private beach for the evening. We stayed up late watching the stars as the tide (quickly) came in. Cape Chignecto juts out into the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world - the tides can move at a rate of over 10 metres (30 ft) per minute!
Day 2: Refugee Cove to Seal Cove, roughly 18km
We woke in the morning to the sun bathing the high rocks around the cove in a beautiful golden glow...
We enjoyed a traditional backpacking breakfast of mediocre oatmeal, then we packed up and began the quick, steep climb up about 100m. The new vantage from the higher ground gave us great views right away, and there were a ton of viewpoints as we continued along.
After hiking around 4km, we arrived at the viewpoint trail that would take us to the very tip of the Cape. We dropped our packs by the sign and ventured down the overgrown trail.
After our small detour (totally worth it, by the way) we carried on along the main trail, ducking off every so often for all the viewpoints. We eventually decided to stop at one for lunch. Breaking from our usual canned tuna and flatbread, we'd packed flatbreads with peanut butter and banana chips for lunch this trip. Delicious!
After re-energizing, the trail had a new challenge for us: navigating through and around some swampy sections without getting wet feet. Thanks to strategically-placed logs and sticks, and with our poles to aid our balance, we were successful! There was also one short section of trail that had basically turned into a creek, but thankfully the water wasn't too deep and easy enough to avoid.
As we hiked atop the cliffs, we gazed at the glittering blue waters below through every break in the trees - of which there were many. We passed by 3 other campsites (Little Bald Rock, Big Bald Rock, and Keyhole Brook) and 2 cabins (Big Bald Rock and Carey Brook) before we had a short descent into Seal Cove, our camp spot for the night.
The beach at Seal Cove had a few driftwood log structures that had been built by previous campers, so we picked one that offered some shelter from the wind to set up our tent.
Three other groups of hikers joined us in camping on the beach this night, though everyone was respectfully spread out and mostly kept to themselves. After cooking up our dinner, we went to bed early... even before the sun went down! It was a long, but beautiful day.
Day 3: Seal Cove to Visitor Centre, roughly 21km
A dreamy pastel pink sky greated us in the morning as we made our oatmeal and packed up. We tried to get going a little quicker today because we'd pre-arranged a pick-up time with our friend at the Visitor Centre and didn't want to keep him waiting.
A quick climb out of the cove got us up on top of the cliffs again, where we continued to have great views of the Bay of Fundy. For the first couple of kilometers, we seemed to be playing a bit of a game of "tag" with another couple that were hiking at a slightly slower pace. We would hike past them, then detour to a viewpoint, during which time they would pass where we had stepped off the main trail, and so on. At one point, they asked us if we knew if we would get a view of the "Three Sisters" - a formation of three sea stacks just off the coast. We said we weren't sure, as I'd only seen information about seeing them from the Eatonville Day Use Area. Around KM 33, we were pleasantly surprised to get a stunning view of them!
From that point, the trail started to cut inland, leading us back into the forest. The soft trail meandered along, criss-crossing over multiple creeks as we went. Elevation-wise, there were a couple of fairly short climbs and descents, but none as tough as those descents along the ATV tracks on the first day. There were also a few more muddy sections to navigate along this section.
We eventually reached the final KM marker: 47. But we weren't done yet! Just shy of another kilometer further on, we completed the "loop" section of the trail and found ourselves back at KM 4. We continued along the forested trail for another kilometer before taking the same long steep staircase we took on Day 1, back down to the beach. We'd gotten lucky with the tides again, and were able to complete the trail the same way we'd started it: by walking the beach section.
It was a few minutes after 3:00PM by the time we got to the beach, and the sun had been shining down on us at full force for the past few hours. Unfortunately we had told our friend that we'd be done by then, and we still had a half hour of beach walking to do, so we didn't get a chance to take the salty dip that we wanted!
All in all, it was a great long weekend hike; it was super enjoyable to do a loop hike rather than an out-and-back, which seems to be most of the trails that we've done back home in BC. There's something special about walking past a view that you know you only get to see this once, and might not ever get a chance to come back to...