Author Archives: Jill and Bud

Nuff said.

Admittedly, our standards are now pretty high. But although Caribou-Munroes Island Provincial Park looked promising, it has proved to be a bit of a disappointment.

I had high hopes at 3:30 Friday afternoon, sitting in my little screen tent and looking out over Northumberland Straight towards Pictou Island.

But by 4:30 this was my view!

It does have some nice open spaces and a good beach. The water in Northumberland Straight is supposed to be the warmest ocean water north of the Carolinas.

And Canadians do like to take advantage of “summer”. I was wearing two light jackets when I took this photo. Anyway, the park was full with too many kids and dogs for our taste.

Saturday was a gloomy day so I went to the cute little town of Pictou to do my wash.

The laundromat was in the picturesque part of town and I had the little place to myself, but I paid more than I’ve ever had to for wash. $4 a load to wash and $4 to dry, and they weren’t huge loads!

I had high hope Sunday. We were going to walk out along the beach to Munroes Island where there is reportedly a stand of old growth birches.

We did see the ferry heading out for Prince Edward Island.

But we found no old growth trees. We just found a lot of the rubber bands they put on lobster claws, which we gathered up and put in the trash.

Today we tried to play disc golf. There was a close course but it was at a high school, which was in session. So we drove about 30 miles to this course on Keppoch Mountain. It was a pay to play course on a recreation area. We put our $10 in the box and set out. We might have known things weren’t right when the first basket was somewhat haphazardly placed among odd discards.

We kept going, despite the berry bushes that grew in thorny groves along some parts of the fairway. Bud managed to get both his feet wet in a bog.

Obviously the course was not getting much care, but the kicker came when we came across many missing baskets.

We gave up and walked out. So another day that was pretty much a bust.

Oh well, at least this park has one little plot of woods to feed my soul.

This is our last day on the shores of the Bay of Fundy for this part of our trip. The tides here just fascinate me; as I’ve said, these are the highest tides in the world.

We took a short drive to Wassons Bluff. There a trail takes you down to a small beach near cliffs where tens of thousands of dinosaur bones have been found.

It’s a very pretty place in the vicinity of Two Islands.

While Bud wandered over to look for fossils I became fascinated with the tide, which was now coming in.

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon, and to a lesser extent, the sun, on the water in the oceans. How high a tide is at any place depends on how the water is pulled against the land. In places where there is a large continental shelf the water piles up. In places where the continents restrict the flow of water the water piles up. Both of those things happen at the Bay of Fundy, but there is another contributor. Water sloshes in the bay just like it will in a basin if you tip it. How fast it flows from end to end depends on the size of the basin. It just so happens that water sloshes in Fundy Bay in about 13 hours. The tidal cycle is twelve and a half hours. So as water is moving either into or out of the bay from sloshing, the moon gives it another pull, amplifying the movement.

And that movement is astonishing. This is a one minute video I took of the tide coming up on a rock. It may seem like a slow video, but what you are seeing is the actual rise of the tide, the water was otherwise still. At the end of the minute I looked closely at the depth of water on the seaward edge of the rock. It was at least an inch deep. An inch in a minute. That’s five feet in an hour!

And this is happening all across this huge bay. That’s an almost unimaginable amount of water moving.

People get stranded along these shores all the time. Rescuers are dispatched in boats to save them. It’s already happened twice this season at this campground.

Now I can see how strandings happen. You are wandering about looking for fossils or taking pictures…

and a half an hour later, half your beach is gone!

We stayed where we had a path up, but many people walk along the base of the rock cliffs and if they misjudge they are stranded.

That’s why there is a sign with the current tide times posted at the beach entrance here.

We will be spending one more day here at Glooscap Campground in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. I was going to wait and make a single post about our explorations but I’ve already got almost too many photos for one post.

First the tides. This was taken from the bank in front of our camper at low tide.

This was taken about an hour before high tide. The tides right now have been about 34 feet here. The record tide is 54.7 feet recorded at Burntcoat Head, just over twenty miles from here as the crow flies. The amount of water that flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy with every tidal cycle (about 12.5 hours) is more than flows over Niagara Falls in a year and eight months!

Just after I took that second picture, late morning yesterday, we headed over to Partridge Island for a hike. The island is on the other end of this sand spit. Since this was pretty much high tide I think this is only an island during rare storms.

As we walked out I saw this adorable house off to the side.

It sits pretty much by itself but is only a couple of miles from Parrsboro. I love it.

At the end of the sand spit a green and leafy trail went up the island.

We climbed until we could see back down the way we’d come…

and then far out along the bay.

We spotted the shore where our camp is…

yep, that’s us.

After lunch we visited the Fundy Geological Museum in town. Turns out there are rocks from every geological age at the surface in Nova Scotia, and examples of them are all here along the cliffs near Parrsboro. The erosion from the high tides is constantly revealing new rocks and new fossils. My favorite exhibit was this replication of ancient tracks found that they mounted under glass in the floor. At the end of the tracks is a model of the creature that made them. The two red tracks on top of the glass are just their guides through the museum.

Late in the afternoon when the tide was still falling we walked along our beach to the cliffs at the end. These are sandstone cliffs along the way.

Near the point the sand was piled in waves from the action of the tides.

Matey was excited to get to run on sand, but even where the sand waves were less pronounced they gave him trouble.

The cliffs got bigger…

until at the point they were huge monoliths.

We didn’t find any fossils…

but we enjoyed the strange shapes.

Today we drove towards the end of the peninsula that splits the head of the bay. The whole tip is Cape Chignecto Provincial Park. There’s a day use area where the red pin is. We wanted to take a hike there. Unfortunately a bridge is out on the normal entrance road.

So we had to take the Eatonville Road, which started like this…

but soon enough became a single track through the woods…

with bridges barely wider than the truck. Which is why my map program says the 43 mile trip would take an hour and 29 minutes. That was probably a bit of an underestimate.

At the end of the drive was this huge building, at this time totally empty. It looks like they’re working on the entrance drive, we had to walk in a couple of hundred feet. The whole time we were there we were the only ones.

The view from the platform gave a taste of what was to come.

We took the Three Sisters Trail. Most of the trail was like this.

It had a number of nice picnic areas.

The last little bit was a cut through the woman at the park office told me about. It made the trail a loop and cut off probably almost a mile of backtracking. As it was we walked 1.8 miles. But along the way were lookouts.

The first one was for Anderson Cove.

Look-off 2 was Eatonville Harbour…

which now looks like this.

At the next lookout was this dramatic split…

as well as this sea spire. Signs explained that the spire started as a split but then eroded to this single column.

I was able to catch a shot of one of two sea kayaks that were exploring by water.

The final Look-off was of the Three Sisters, and it was gorgeous!

Then we took the Eatonville Road back across to the other arm of the bay.

Now you see why I decided I’d better post our visit so far!

We are now very close to the head of the Bay of Fundy, at Glooscap Campground just outside Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. We’re the blue dot on the map.

I booked this site on February 6th, so there were lots of choices. We’re the camper closest to the water. Inland from us there’s a break where there is a walkway to the lane going down to the beach.

This is the view from in front of our door.

Matey and I took a walk down the lane to the beach. I think those lupines on the bank are just growing wild.

This is looking west towards Parrsboro. It’s about an hour from low tide. Way to the left you can see Partridge Island, which is a place we will probably explore while we’re here.

This is looking east, and I gather this is the direction to go to explore the bottoms of the cliffs. To get a feeling on the size of the exposed beach notice the couple headed towards the cliffs.

For this photo I was standing about halfway out the beach looking back at our camper. Can you see the roof just left of center?

There are some bugs here so after our walk I took five minutes to set up my new Clam Quick-Set Traveler screen enclosure.

I think when we’re not out exploring Matey and I will be spending our time enjoying this view.

How can you not want to try a round of golf when you approach the pro shop and see this off the first tee? Bud and I both succumbed to the lure of the Fundy Park Golf Course. Bud played three rounds in three days, me just two.

You can just picture your ball soaring across these beautiful fairways.

Just don’t look down or you’ll see the very rough rough and the ball eating creek. This is another Canadian National Park golf course designed by Stanley Thompson and is renowned for its elevated tees.

If you’re intrepid enough to walk this is your exit from the first tee.

Even in a cart it’s a steep descent.

And did I mention the ball eating creek? Here it is again across the fairway on hole two.

Looks can be deceiving. The fairway on hole four looks very inviting…

but to get up here to the green you have to cross another ball eating creek.

Here’s another set of stairs, up to the white tee on hole five.

The white tee on hole six looks like a lovely spot to relax,

but not so much when you see where your tee shot has to go.

Whether you’re successful or not, you are rewarded with quite a view when you return to your cart.

The tee shot on hole seven is bad enough,

But there’s another ball eating creek to cross before the green. We spent some time at this one.

Even the par three hole eight has its own creek guarding the green.

And hole nine has two creek crossings. One that you hope you soar over off the tee and another up there in the middle of the fairway.

If you make it past those there’s a steep uphill to the green.

Still, when you’re all done, tired from just nine holes, and you look back across what you’ve just played, you think “Gee that’s a beautiful golf course, it would be nice to try it again.”

And if we were staying longer I probably would.

It’s hard to capture what it’s like here at Fundy National Park.

The campground is nice enough, but nothing special.

There are plenty of pretty places around.

And the open areas are lovely.

The only wildlife we’ve seen are gophers…

and geese.

But then you get near the cliffs and there’s that world class view of the Bay of Fundy.

There are vantage points here and there that almost take you by surprise.

You can look down at the little village of Alma. I took this this morning at high tide.

Yesterday we drove down to town to Collin’s Lobster Shop.

This is the park viewed from their parking lot.

We were there at low tide and the fishing boats were all aground.

Whether or not you have a waterfront lot depends on the tide.

It’s a fascinating and beautiful area and we bought these fine lobsters for our dinner for about twenty bucks, U.S.

It’s an altogether satisfactory place.

We are staying at Fundy National Park, which was our second stop in Canada last year, too. But today the weather was pretty iffy, quite cool with clouds, showers and a little sun, so I looked for what might be a nice drive.

I found this route that looked promising so we loaded up Matey and off we went.

A lot of the route was through the country here. It was lovely and the road was empty. Imagine our surprise when after traveling on roads like this for 30 miles we came to a gate and entrance booths. We’d come to the eastern entrance to Fundy Trail Parkway Provincial Park. (By the way, that’s not dirt on the hood of the truck, it’s spruce pollen. But perhaps because of the humidity or the species, Bud’s allergies aren’t flaring up.)

We paid our entrance fee and the nice young man at the booth told us not to miss the Walton Glen Gorge/Falls Overlook. So we parked and took the trail. It was just under a mile one way.

Along the way we spotted this species of trillium in bloom. This is Painted Trillium (Trilium undulatum ). It’s beautiful and I don’t remember ever seeing it before.

We also saw this beautiful Pink Lady’s Slipper orchid.

I may have seen these before, but I don’t remember ever seeing one this big!

Then we came to the overlook. I could hear the water but it took a while to spot the falls way, way down there.

The glen was impressive.

This tree lived a while on the precipice, but no longer.

Way in the distance you could just spot the Bay of Fundy.

We returned to the truck and drove on to another overlook the young man recommended. This is the view at Martin Head Lookout and I can see why he said it is his favorite.

I thought this view at the Big Salmon River Lookout equally dramatic. This is looking west, not east.

We went as far as the Big Salmon River…

where we took another short walk…

across this suspension bridge.

I carried Matey. The bridge made him nervous and then his paws slipped into the cracks.

I stopped on the bridge to take this photo of a fish trap. This is a restored salmon run, so we figured this was set up for counting fish.

They also had this contraption. The large funnel can be lowered into the water. It appears to have vanes that would make it spin in the current. We’re not at all sure what it’s used for, though.

I’m also not at all sure what this is. There were several in a row. They’re pines, but have a bush form, no leader, not even a trunk. My ID programs call it a Jack Pine, but none show this bush form.

Whatever the answer to our mysteries we are very glad we came to this place. It as, as the brochure says, “Truly Spectacular.”

Today we went back to Minister’s Island. This island, just off the coast at St. Andrews, NB, is only accessible during low tide. You drive across the ocean bar that the tide exposes, so the hours it’s open change daily. Today it was open from 8:30 AM until 1:45 PM Atlantic Time. We got there right at 8:30 and followed these vehicles across the misty ocean floor. Turns out they all belonged to workers, as when we checked in we were given tag #1. The tags are numbered and when you leave you turn your tag back in. That way they know everyone has left the island before the tide cuts it off.

There are miles of trails on the island and the first thing Matey and I did was walk a mile loop through the woods.

The morning sun was beginning to penetrate the fog and it turned the woods magical.

This is about as far from desert as you can get. Even the lichens are green and leafy here.

My shoes were soaked from the wet grasses, but walking alone in this beautiful landscape was worth it.

There wasn’t much of a view out to sea yet, though. That’s the rocky bottom you’re seeing as the tide is quite far out.

This whole island was the summer estate of the William Van Horne family from 1890 until the 1940’s. There are still remnants of the carriage roads, walls and gates that crisscrossed the island.

After our walk we found that Bud was no longer in the truck. One of the docents told us he was touring the “cottage”, Covenhoven, so Matey and I waited on the veranda.

It was a pleasant wait.

A nonprofit organization now manages the estate. They hold concerts during the summer as part of their fundraising. The large white tent is most likely where the concerts are held, a pretty nice venue.

When Bud came out I toured the house. I particularly liked the sunny main bedrooms on the second floor.

There is only one small balcony, but the views were spectacular out any window.

We walked out to the bathhouse, which sits right on the water and is surrounded by windows. This visit I noticed the ceiling and light. The lights in the house ran on acetylene that was produced in the gas house behind the main house. I don’t know if this was an original acetylene light, but it looked like it might have been.

After a picnic lunch on the broad front lawn we went back to tour the barn. Matey’s favorite part of the whole island is all the lawns. He’s never seen so much grass for rolling. I love this spectacular barn. We had wanted to tour the creamery, the building in the foreground, but it was empty and shut.

This was a working farm and supplied all the food for the family, their guests and employees. Van Horne and after him, his daughter Addie, took great pride in their Dutch belted cattle. They even have one on the wind vane.

You can see the immense size of the barn in this shot of Matey and I at the side of it.

At the end of our time there we drove back across the bar. I took this picture about an hour before we left. The water is quite a bit lower than when we came on. We left at about 12:45; I think they close well before the tide comes up to be sure everyone leaves and to give time for the employees/volunteers to wrap up their jobs and also get off. These days no one stays overnight.

This is certainly a unique place, and worth a second visit.

We came Sunday to New River Beach Provincial Park which is only a short drive from the border at Calais, Maine on the coast of the Bay of Fundy. This is our second visit and it is just as beautiful as I remembered.

Just a hint to those who might drive up here. You can only bring either 2 bottles of wine or 1 large bottle of liquor or 24 bottles of beer per person, not all three. So we were well over the limit. The border inspectors were very nice and only charged us duty for 12 bottles of beer; $27 Canadian. They also went through our car and camper, but that took just 15 or 20 minutes and nothing was too messed up. We won’t make that mistake again!

We are here just over 6 weeks earlier than we were last year. In addition to the creeping dogwood, which was still blooming last July, I’ve seen several new spring flowering shrubs.

I thought this was a wild azalea; it’s Canada rosebay, and although it is in the genus Rhododendron it is not closely related to the azaleas. It is beautiful and it and the creeping dogwood carpet the woods (along with the mosses) in the campground.

There are also a lot of these guys, some species of Amelanchier, though not the serviceberry I knew from western New York. These flowers are much bigger.

And there was one bush with these pretty cone shaped panicles of flowers. It turns out to be red elderberry.

It’s still quite cool here, and yesterday was cloudy so we opted for a drive to Deer Island. That involved a short ride on a free ferry.

We drove to the far end of the island, Deer Island Point Park.

There’s a small campground there and they actually had 30 amp electrical service and water at the sites. But despite these campers that were sitting there the park is not yet open.

They need to fix their signage before they open.

The spot is known for the Old Sow, a tidal whirlpool. Here the incoming tide is causing the boil you see, but sometimes, under the right conditions, an actual funnel whirlpool is formed.

There is a small commercial ferry that runs from here to Roosevelt Campobello International Park. The park preserves the place where Franklin Roosevelt summered. The island is Canadian, the park is run by both Canada and the U.S. and the only access when the ferry isn’t running is a bridge from the U.S. Not only was that a longer ride than we wanted to take, Bud was not up for four more border crossings. Too bad the ferry wasn’t going.

When the tide isn’t too high this is a through road, though now the mooring lines of the ferry run across it. This car turned around rather than try to drive across that second line. The road to the point is a loop, so you can enter from the other side.

I took a few pictures on the ferry ride off Deer Island.

This is our Apple map navigation screen. We were headed to St. John for some errands, which is why it was 51 more miles. St. John is about 30 miles past our campground from where we were.

This pretty little house was sitting on Macs Island.

There are two ferries that run 18 hours a day. Here we are passing the other ferry midway.

We were on the Deer Island Princess II and the ferry was full.

It only takes a moment to land, they lower the gate and we all drove off.

One of our chores in St. John was to get Canadian money. Another hint to travelers, RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) will not change money if you are not a client. TD (Toronto Dominion) will. And the nice young man gave me 130 loonies and some change for my 100 USD.

So today, on this rainy day, I could walk from my trailer to the laundromat at the end of this building and do my wash. Two loonies to wash and two to dry. If you have sound on, that’s the surf you hear in the background. Now that the rain has stopped we’re going to walk down to the beach to see how high those waves are.