When visiting the West Advocate entrance to Cape Chignecto Provincial Park, you have a 3, 5 & 9k hiking loops for day use visitors.
We took advantage of the low tide in the Bay of Fundy to hike almost 1.5km along the beach which is not the red sand of Blomindon which we can see in the distance, but rather the hard rock. We can also see some coal rocks. Joggins, a UNESCO site just 30 min drive from here, was the site of coal mining.
We found the 65 step ladder going up, way up. This is where you’ll find dirty, tired backpackers coming out of the wilderness after 3 day hike. Once up the stairs, you can either return along the top of the cliffs along the red rocks trail, continue to Cape Chignecto or hit the McGahey Canyon trail. We opted for the canyon trail as it would be our 9k hike since it had a good flat section once we reached the top of the canyon.
Might you that you will either be going up or down. And the elevation while didn’t appear to be difficult, it was more steep than expected.
The hike up was through a nice mixed forest with certain sections within hard woods. This would be a great fall hike with the colors. The trail was well marked with blue blaze. You’ll notice a lot of side trails, mainly due to the history of the area where logging was performed.
We’ll eventually hit the trail to get to the Yarmouth camp site, which by the way is a steep climb up for a few kms. From here, we start to go downhill until we return to the beach.
