My three boys have just driven away to go camping in Keji. I couldn’t go due to work commitments.
Kejimkujik National Park is where I grew up camping with my family and where The Husband and I developed our backcountry skills. We fell in love with long hikes and heavy packs and took on much bigger challenges.
Me descending Gros Morne Mountain in Newfoundland.
This is how we camped before children.
Ferry Gulch Campsite, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland.
Can you spot our orange tent and green tarp?
CJ’s first camping trip was eight years ago. It was Keji and he was 5 months old.
Napping like a burrito in the tent.
Our required gear could no longer fit in our packs. We became car campers and made the most of luxuries like picnic tables and washrooms.
Morning diaper change
It was still pretty easy since I was his portable food supply.
I love this picture!
We introduced him to our favourite places…
First dip in Kejimkujik Lake
…and we’ve continued the tradition with his younger brother.
ET napping in the tent.
We tried to recreate my favourite picture when ET was a squirmy 2-year-0ld.
He wouldn’t fit in the carrier!
Our hikes are no longer up mountains but they’re just as beautiful.
Along the bank of the Mersey River, Keji.
And we still love to take a dip in Kejimkujik lake.
The boys in 2010.
There are so many wonderful places to camp in Nova Scotia, but something about Keji keeps pulling us back.
Are you a camper? If so, where is your favourite place?
Escaping Elegance 
Your Newfoundland hiking pictures look amazing! If you were still into roughing it like that on weekends but in Nova Scotia, where would you go? (Yes, I’m shamelessly looking for backcountry camping suggestions)
I’d recommend Cape Chignecto for sure. Beautiful and challenging. Thanks for the nice comment!
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Beautiful, thank you for stopping by my blog.
No… thank you!
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Every summer, my family goes camping. I used to go but can’t anymore due to back problem. This triggers a post. This is just way too much fun.
I hear you! Now that I’m of an increased age, sleeping on the ground is so tough on my brittle bones…
OK, so you’re the kind of person I really strive to be and I fear that I’ll never become. When I look at these photos I’m in awe of nature and of your 5-month-old camping with you, when it comes to practice I am too blinded by worry. Kudos to you, this is awesome!
Excellent… *rubs hands together and laughs maniacally*… I’ve fooled them all!
Actually, I’m not really any kind of big nature freak. And now that I’ve gotten older, sleeping on the ground is a pain in all sorts of places! It can be very hard work (and most of it is not enjoyable) but there is something magnificent about being away from all artificial light and staring up at the night sky, something amazing about not seeing anyone else for days.
I think because we did so much hard-core backwoods camping, the car camping with the kids seems easy. In the back-country, all your food is freeze-dried and powdered and it needs to be reconstituted with water that you have to find and filter. Now we have a cooler with beer!
I used to say I was born in the wrong era. I claimed I wanted to live off the land. Well kind of, I think I just watched too much, Little House on the Prairie and had this flawed idea of that life, a TV show. I’ve had so many large kidney stones that ended up obstructing a ureter, I surely wouldn’t have lived a long life. Then again it may be today’s diet that caused them. I can only imagine living at that time with ALS. Nobody really knew what it was. It was called Creeping Paralysis Disease. As for camping, I spent one night in a tent in woods not too far from home. I was up all night fearing a snake or wild boars. I am loving nature in my own backyard from a window now. I should have tried harder, I’m just starting to see the beauty of nature. It’s great that you’re exposing your chidren to it at a young age. They won’t forget.
As long as you are seeing and appreciating nature, it doesn’t matter if it is through a window!
Ugh, rain! That seems to be our experience whenever we go to Keji. We really should invest in a large tarp before camping there again.
We love to camp! My husband and I lived in the southwest US for a few years and made the trip out to the Grand Canyon to camp and hike. I would love to take my boys there to experience it too. More locally, we enjoy camping in the National Parks in the Maritimes. Our favourite park is probably Fundy.
The husband and I spend 5 very rainy days in Fundy once! We arrived in a deluge that was just ridiculous. We sat in the car, eating Doritos and drinking beer, thinking we could wait it out before pitching camp… it never stopped. I’ve never seen us get tarps up so fast! However, that was just our bad luck… it is a beautiful place for sure.
Thanks for answering my question! No one else did…
P.S. Love the baby picture of CT, what a cutie. I never saw him as a baby.
He was a happy little tub o’ lard.
After reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Eldon wanted to go on a Bilbo/Frodo-esque kind of overnight adventure (sans Orcs, Gollum, Sauron, etc.). After a bit of prodding, Hugh took him on a three hour trek down the shore, where they had a swim, cooked beans and wieners on an open fire, played a game of cards and slept in a pup tent on the beach. I picked them up in the car around 7:30 a.m. the next day. Not quite the Hobbit-like adventure Eldon was hoping for, but it went well for a trial run and next year they’ll go a little further and longer. I’m happy father and son got to have that experience, just as your Husband and boys are having theirs.
That’s fantastic. I think my boys were also planning some wieners on the open fire. Did Frodo and Sam play cards on their journey?
Brilliant photos and happy memories!
They are that! Thanks for reading, Hermione. 🙂
Those pictures are so adorable I can’t even. “Like a burrito in a tent” – priceless! I love it!! 🙂
Thanks! It’s a bit crazy to look back and realize that’s an 8 year old burrito now…
It’s great that you’re getting your boys out there to enjoy the nature! There are too many children these days who spend all there time indoors playing computer games and watching tv. Thumbs up for that!
Well, they do a bit of that as well but it’s all about balance. Thanks for taking the time to comment!