Bay of Fundy and the Roosters

Water is a very powerful entity. Water has waves big enough to topple boats and long enough to flood lands and water mixed with dirt creates landslides that destroy homes. We can harvest energy from it and refresh our bodies with a tall, cool glass of it on ice. It is as blue as the sky, turquoise on a sunny day, or black and angry during a storm. It is full of life and we cannot do without it. You want to always respect the water because you never know when she will change your course.

As we drove into New Brunswick towards the Bay of Fundy, we saw a bear on the highway up the hill. He popped out of the woods, sniffed around, and looked at the highway. He realized that the traffic was not where he wanted to be and promptly turned around back to the woods. Not a moose, but a fun sighting.

The Bay of Fundy is located in New Brunswick, an area with the highest tides in the world. As a small child, I remember visiting here and watching the water travel oh so fast out and away as the tide receded. I am looking forward to seeing it again.

We arrive at Hopewell Rocks in the town of Alma where the high tide is 1:25 pm; the low tide is 7:55pm. During high tides of the new and full moon, tides can reach 46 ft and they can travel at 6 to 8 vertical feet per hour. We are not here during a full moon, but it is still very impressive. We park in the very large parking lot and walk towards the entrance. There is a small fee but you can come and go all day so that you can catch the tides. We walk through the woods towards the Flowerpot Rocks, which are made of dark sedimentary conglomerate, and sandstone rock and the tide’s constant movement creates their shapes. The water is very brown, the color of chocolate. That is because the water constantly moves over the mud flats and the silt mixes with it creating murky waters. The tide is high and we can see water on the stairs to the beach. We walk around a bit and decide to come back later when the tide recedes.

We drive down a lovely road that follows the river where we see a lovely little covered bridge and some fun barns along the way to check into our B&B, the Maplegrove Inn. It is located in a delightful setting and they have quite a few chickens in a coop. We grab some wine and sit back and watch them as they waddle around. They are funny to watch! As I went near them they all ran away. They really did not want me to take their picture.

Time for the low tide is arriving and we decide to find some dinner at the local BBQ joint and head back to Hopewell. We go to the stairs that were flooded before and see that they are clear. Down we go and out onto the sandy beach!

There is a small crowd gathered enjoying the marvel of low tide. We walked out and around enjoying the views of the rocks and all their layers.

I was surprised that the “beach” was not muddier because it looks so brown. We were able to walk out on the sand very far. Not stinky either!

While we were walking around the water started to come back up so we watched it for a while and headed back to the B&B. Tomorrow we head back to the states and Acadia National Park in Maine.