New Brunswick

The drive to Canada was long, scenic, and the day was beautiful.  We drove along Highway 1, then cut across at highway 191 to meet up with highway 9 to cross the boarder at Calis.  The boarder crossing was uneventful, and I spied a bald eagle soaring as we neared the checkpoint.

Driving up highway 1 in New Brunswick, we stopped in St. John for dinner.  Turning off the major highway onto the minor highway 114 toward Alma, the poorly paved road became a gravel road.  So, not only was there the road to really pay attention to, we had the possibility of moose crossing the road. Unfortunately, we were driving along this just at sundown when these animals are usually on the move.   Luckily, no moose were sighted.

We arrived at Barb's B&B north of Alma, New Brunswick around 10pm  In the morning, the four huge windows we saw nothing out of when we arrived gave a spectacular view of the marsh that gave way to the bay of Fundy.  The owners, Rick & Barb, served us a wonderful breakfast while providing a font of information about the area.  After consulting with them and the tide tables, we made the decision to spend the day at the Hopewell Rocks.

This bay has the worlds largest tidal changes which we experienced it up close and personal.  Low tide was a 0.0 ft tide around 9am, so we headed out to the Hopewell Rocks about half way through low tide.  There we walked on the “ocean bottom” around the bases of the Flowerpot Rocks.  These are rock formations of glacially deposited conglomerate and sandstone that have eroded due to the tidal shifts in a way that has made them separated from the mainland.  Kind of like our stacks off the Oregon coast.  They were pretty impressive, especially after we saw them during high tide at 44 ft.

The left picture was at low tide (0.0ft).  The center picture is of me at the base of the arch in the left picture.  The right picture was at high tide that same day (44ft).  Amazing.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon at Barb & Rick’s.  I used the time to write about our adventures.  We went into the nearest town of Alma and ordered take out from the local diner.  The seafood chowder was wonderful.

The next day we packed it all up into the car and headed for Prince Edward Island (PEI).