The Perfect Picnic in Cape Breton

The Perfect Picnic at Cape Breton Highlands National Park

Photo: Helen Earley

Imagine delicious lobster, chicken or vegetarian sandwiches, fresh salads, muffins or chocolate truffles, enjoyed from the comfort of your own cheerful picnic blanket, surrounded by some of the most stunning scenery in the world!

Photo: Helen Earley

This summer, at The Cape Breton Highlands National Park, you’re in for a treat. The gorgeous views of highlands, beaches, lakes, waterfalls and forests can now be enjoyed at leisure as you dine al fresco on a delicious local meal prepared just for you by chefs from The Keltic Lodge or Chéticamp Harbour Restaurant. It’s the perfect Nova Scotia picnic!

On our visit to The Cape Breton Highlands in June 2016, we carry our baskets along The MacIntosh Brook Trail, a gentle walk through an Acadian forest, that ends at a beautiful waterfall. As we eat our healthy but substantial lunch (Mine’s a Caesar wrap and garden salad), swallowtail butterflies dance in the dappled light and fresh, clear brook water gurgles past our red checkered blankets. I have to admit, it’s pretty perfect.

Swallowtail butterflies at Cape Breton Highlands National Park/Photo: Helen Earley

Kelly Deveaux, the Visitor Experience Manager at the park, explains the rationale behind the Perfect Picnic experience, which is rumoured to be rolled out across Canada following this year’s trial in Cape Breton: “We wanted to make it easy for families”, she says, “In a world that has lots of distractions, something as simple as eating outside can bring families together to connect with nature”. Mary Tulle of Destination Cape Breton agrees: “It lets us all go back to being kids”, she says.

After our picnic, I dip my toes in the brook (deliciously cold!), and then we pack the debris back into the baskets for the easy journey back to the parking area, where we find swings, two teeter-totters and a large, clean modern bathroom area.