Hopewell Rocks
The St. John’s region of New Brunswick is known for its unusual tides, some of the most extreme on earth. Most famous is the Bay of Fundy with its reversing tides. Since we’ve been there a number of times, we opted to skip that, and went instead to Hopewell Rocks.
At Hopewell Rocks the tide goes so low that you can walk on the ocean floor among sea stacks. Because you can only explore the attraction at low tide, you have to time your visit. Today’s low tide is at 11:30, the park opens at 9:00, and the drive will be an hour and a half. So we had to have an early start.
There’s only one road to the site and it was under construction, so traffic was heavy. I didn’t expect the site to be so developed. There’s a large entrance with a big parking lot, with tour buses. You pass through a ticket booth, like a theme park, then walk quite a ways through the woods to the coastline.
Large staircases lead down to the ocean floor, which is revealed at low tide. You can walk out onto the ocean floor in among sea stacks, which are large freestanding rock formations. Each formation has been given a name — e.g. “Mother-in-Law Rock” or “Elephant Rock” or “Bear Rock.”
These two photos give a sense of scale.
These two photos show us near “Lovers Arch” and “Flowerpot.”
In a few hours the water will come in some 12 feet or more, and you can rent a kayak to paddle around these same formations, much higher up. That sounds fun too.
We had a lovely blue sky day to traipse around the sea stacks. We looked for the peregrine falcon that lives nearby but never saw her.
Some people went way out into the ocean bed, into the mud flats where they sank to their knees in mud. That is prohibited because it disturbs the ecosystem but of course people still do it. That looked like fun too. But we respect ecosystems. And our shoes got plenty muddy as it was.
After we saw the site, we ate our packed lunch in a shady spot in the parking lot. It was late and we were ready to eat! Lots of steps today.
The Town of Alma — Lobster
Then we drove further south to the town of Alma, which is on the water, a very scenic fishing village. Lots of other tourists around. The wind had come up.
We ate supper at Alma’s Lobster House, with outdoor seating. There was plexiglass up for wind protection, which was necessary today. We each ordered a lobster roll and a cup of seafood chowder. It was delicious.
There was one more delight to come this evening . . .