New Brunswick - Hopewell Cape and Fundy National Park

New Brunswick - part 3

(sightseeing)

July 6, 2018 - July 9, 2018

Drove from St. Martins to Hopewell Cape via Moncton, NB.  From Hopewell Cape we visited Hopewell Rocks Park and Fundy National Park.

Should had added maps long ago.  Our friend Alice does this on her blog and, being a map person, I think it's a great idea.  Thanks for the tip Alice!

Hopewell Rocks Park at Hopewell Cape

This is a terrific place to see the huge tides at work in the Bay of Fundy.  When the tide is out you can literally walk on the ocean floor.  When the tides are in you can have a bit of fun in a kayak around the famous Hopewell Flowerpot Rocks and along the shore in general.

Quite frankly, these figures astound me!
That amount of water is impossible for me to comprehend!

This does a good job of explaining how the tides are affected by the position of the earth, our moon and the sun.

Although described as "low tide" this is nowhere near how low it actually gets.

A good representation of medium tide.

High tide but not as high as it can reach.
I would really like to be out there in a kayak.

Our first look at some of the flowerpot rocks.
These are the same rocks as in the 3 previous pictures but a slightly different angle.
You can see here that the tide is lower in this picture than in the "low tide" picture above.

Above and below - the steps to the ocean floor.  It may look like a beach but only when the tide is out.

Panoramic shot of the area from near the base of the steps.

Great example of one of the flower pot rocks.

The black looking area at the base of the rocks on the right is actually seaweed.

The rock formations are conglomerate rock over softer sandstone.
The sandstone wears away faster than the conglomerate.

The rocks back against the shoreline also get worn away forming shallow caves.

This is the rock that the kayakers are paddling around in the tide pictures above.
Notice the color of the water in the background in this and other pictures.  There is so much silt and sand in the water it looks (and is) brown.

What a place!  I so wish we had gone back late in the day (about 8 pm) to see and photograph the rocks at high tide.


Fundy National Park

From our campground near Hopewell Rocks we drove southwest to Fundy National Park.  We first drove the length of the park, then turned around and drove back to a trailhead where we could take Barney out for a walk.

Looking out from the trail towards a small lake.

Some of the trail was on a boardwalk because much of the area is soggy.

Another lake with a picnic area alongside the main road.

Driving down one of the side roads gave us access to a hike to Dickson Falls.  It was a combination of typical trail, wooden walkways and wooden steps to get to the actual falls.

Smaller falls en-route to the main falls.  You can see some of the wooden steps and walkways.

Finally we reached the main falls.  It was cool and beautiful all along the trails.
All the water in this stream originates from a spring near here.

The park has set up these red Adirondack chairs in various photogenic places around the park.

This is the view on the other side of the covered bridge in the previous picture.

On the way back to our campground we drove to Cape Enrage which is just northeast of the park.
Some people had built some really nice rock cairns along the top of the rocky beach.
As I look at this picture now  I see it's makes the beach look very short.  In reality, it drops down to the water in a series of  levels or steps (about 5), presumably created by tidal action. Each level is sort of flat on top before it drops off to the next one down.

Laura and Barney looking for cool rocks.  You can see that the majority of the rocks would be good skippers as they are quite flat.  It didn't take us long before we were picking up lots of plastic, rope, strapping tape and other materials from the rocky shore.  We got a couple of reusable shopping bags from the car and by the time we were done we had filled up 2 1/2 bags full of junk from the beach.  Meant to take a picture of all the stuff we collected but it slipped my mind before we tossed it all at our campground.  There was not one garbage can anywhere along the beach.

The tide coming in at Cape Enrage beach.

Looking back toward the Bay of Fundy. It's about 1 1/2 kilometers from here to where this river empty's into the bay.

This is the other side of the same river - looking upstream.
The tide is coming in at this point and the water is literally running upstream instead of down! 

Above and below - short video's of the same scene as the pictures above.

We were amazed how fast the water was moving upstream!

Hope these short videos give you some idea of the tremendous water flow in the Bay of Fundy as the tides go in and out twice a day.  It was more amazing than we ever expected.