Kejimkujik National Park

Kejimkujik National Park is part of the Canadian National Parks system, located in the province of Nova Scotia. The park consists of two separate properties: the main park is located in the upland interior of the Nova Scotia peninsula bordering Queens and Annapolis counties; and the smaller Kejimkujik Seaside unit, located on the Atlantic coast of Queens County. The park covers 404km2. The inland unit is designated a National Historic Site of Canada, making Kejimkujik unique in the park system as the only national park whose virtually entire area is a National Historic Site.Geology and SoilsThe bedrock of the park consists of Precambrian to Ordovician period quartzite and slate, plus Devonian period granite. All of these rocks, especially quartzite, have a high silica content and provide scanty amounts of nutrients to the soils that develop on them. The slate, however, is fine-grained and produces a loamy soil which yields its nutrients more quickly than the stony sandy loams and loamy sands found over the coarse-grained rocks. Most of the slaty loams occur around Kejimkujik Lake. Deep outwash sands and gravels form a band west of the lake. Elsewhere the soil landscape is dominated by the cobbly, often shallow granite or quartzite material. Podzols underlie most well-drained areas. Gleysols and peat bogs dominate where drainage is poor. The park receives acid rain, and its soils have few available acid-buffering minerals, so strong acidity is the rule for soils and waters—even large bodies of water such as Kejimkujik Lake.