Acacia Nature Trail
The Acacia Trail, Digby County
Next time you are in the Digby area and need a quick place to stretch your legs or to go for a picnic, check out the Acacia Trail.
The Acacia Trail starts alongside Pine Brook and continues to follow the brook upstream past fishing holes and a small waterfall.
The trail surface of this section is wide and flat for easy wheelchair access or strollers to the fishing platforms.
There are also rest area platforms with tables.
Once you get to the waterfall platform at the end, you can turn around and go back to the parking lot. This is the easiest and most direct route.
However, we went further up the waterfall to the wooden bridge at the top. We turned right and followed the road back around to where it joined up with the main trail. This section is not marked, so if you are confident and have a good sense of direction, it’s a different route to try. It is not stroller friendly.
Along the way is also a lovely devotion tree. Stop to admire it!
We recommend just doing the point-to-point trail to the waterfall and back.
This trail is 0.6km.
Acadia Valley Trail Extension
On the opposite side of the parking lots is a newly extended trail.
There was no information posted about the trail regarding the length, terrain, or whether it was a point-to-point or a loop.
Much to the children’s chagrin, we decided to check it out and go exploring.
The trail is more of a natural hiking trail then a walking path.
There are orange markers, signs and hunting tape along the trail so you cannot get lost.
After 2km (according to my FitBit) we still had not looped back, and there was no sign of the trail looping around, so we decided to head back.
Later research showed me that it is a 4km hike along the brook with plans to have it connect.
We did not make it far enough to find out if it did connect. We just turned around and went back.
We do not recommend doing this new section of the trail until more information is available and posted at the trail head.
Update from Digby Area Tourism: The extension trail loops back to the new bridge over Aunt Sarah’s Brook connecting it with the original trail. It’s about 6 km total and passes through some old growth hardwood areas. There are trail markers guiding the way. Trail head signs with more info are planned.
Directions
Take Exit 26 from Highway 101 (the Digby exit) and follow the signs for Acaciaville to the left.
There are blue hiking signs for the Acacia Valley Trail.
Follow them for about 6km down the road. Continue through until you see Mill Road on the left.
There is also a sign for the Acadia Valley Trail on the side of the road.
Follow this dirt road to the provided parking area at the bottom of the hill. The trail starts here beside the brook.
Just red your article “discovering your Acadian roots..June8 edition ValleyRegister and just wanted to add to it. Way back in the 70’s when I was part of the Apple Blossom Festival the French shore sent Evangeline &Gabriel as their reps. They were high school students..and I thought what a wonderful concept..not only having both male and female reps but the age group it targets is so much more accessible to young people. Having Princesses take a week off to represent their communities is expensive and therefore not open to all..something for everyone who wants the festival to prosper needs to address. Just my 2 cents worth!
This is a great idea, Susan, as I just was reading an article about bringing in males and females as ambassadors. Maybe this is the solution!
DaH that was “read” not red!