On our way from Québec to the eastern coast of New Brunswick, we stopped in Grand Falls for a zip-lining adventure. The following week in Kouchibouguac (one of Canada’s many beautiful National Parks) was definitely a highlight.
Below you’ll find plenty of ideas for your own trip, including:
If you prefer to listen, check out our podcast episode that covers this and more:
Things To Do
Like many National Parks, there were more trails and experiences than we could fit in a week, but here are some of the highlights:
Grand Falls (en route to Kouchibouguac)
Admittedly, Grand Falls felt slightly less impressive having just visited the towering Montmorency Falls in Québec City. However if you’re driving by, it’s definitely worth stopping to see. We had our first zip-lining experience here with Zip Zag and the kids loved soaring over the falls!
The Bog Trail
There are many fantastic, family-friendly hiking trails in Kouchibouguac. The Bog trail was especially fun. It has a viewing tower that overlooks the bog and a long boardwalk with interpretive panels that takes you into the centre of the bog.
Kelly’s Beach
Following the Kelly’s Beach Boardwalk (pictured at the top of this page) will take you across to the barrier island where Kelly’s Beach offers 25km of sandy coast to explore. We all enjoyed watching the variety of sea birds diving for food and spotting crab shells on the beach.
Red Chairs & Bike Trails
Parks Canada has placed over 200 red Adirondack chairs in peaceful and scenic locations throughout the National Parks. We had fun stumbling across them on many of our hikes! Kouchibouguac was another location where we had wished we’d brought our bikes as there were some incredible paved and unpaved biking trails.
Places To Eat
Kelly’s Beach Canteen
There is a canteen at Kelly’s Beach offering snacks and lunch from mid-June to early September. It wasn’t open when we were there in May, but we wished it had been because we would have definitely stopped in for an ice cream!
Where We Stayed
Kouchibouguac National Park
Surprisingly, with all our travel, this was our first Canadian National Park RV camping experience and it exceeded our expectations. We’re used to being limited to electrical only hook-up at our Ontario Provincial Parks, so the full hook-up sites available at the National Parks we visited felt downright luxurious! The trails and campgrounds at Kouchibouguac are well maintained and the staff are very friendly.
Camping St. Bastile (near Grand Falls)
We spent a night near Grand Falls at Camping St. Bastile. It was a hidden gem of a place, especially when they told us to follow the trail to find the farm animals (these may no longer be there as I believe they had plans to move them to a new location).
