Watch above: Maintenance crews at Fundy National Park are still dealing with snow, which is highly unusual for this time of year. Shelley Steeves reports.
FUNDY NATIONAL PARK, N.B. – Campers booked at Fundy National Park for the long weekend could be in for a sighting that may cause them a little chill.
Park’s Visitor Experience Manager Andrew Fry says something highly unusual is still hanging around in the woods – snow.
“In order to get the park ready for the season we actually had to clear some snow away from the sites to get access to them so that we would be ready for this weekend,” he said.
Fry says just a few weeks ago there was four feet of snow on the roads leading to the campsites and crews had to use heavy equipment to clear it out of the campground.
That additional work set maintenance crews back several weeks in preparing for the season and now staff are working extra hard to get ready for this weekend’s opening.
Fortunately, Fry says, much of the deep snow melted this past week.
“Campers will see green grass and snow-free roads on the campsites and they’ll have a pretty normal May long weekend,” he said.
But he says there really is nothing normal about seeing snow on the ground in the park in mid-May. The park is celebrating it’s 65th anniversary this year and Fry says this is one of the only season he’s ever seen snow left on the ground in mid-May.
“We’ve kind of been joking around the park that we should have a snow sculpture contest on the weekend,” he said. “It will be a rare chance for visitors to look around if they want to and find a little bit of snow in the park on the May-long weekend which is a pretty rare experience.”
The park and all of its trails will still be open as scheduled for the long weekend. But Fry offers some advice to visitors.
“The message for visitors in the park is that they need to be prepared in the wilderness. The conditions can change unpredictably especially right now. They need to plan that they could encounter some snow.”
“This weekend we are advising people to check in with our visitor services staff at the visitor reception centre and just double check on what the status of the trails are,” said the park’s communications officer Livia Goobrand.
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