Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick (08-22-13)

Although we stopped at the Bay of Fundy on our first swing through New Brunswick, we wanted to make a second stop so we could see Hopewell Rocks.  This place has one of the highest tides in the world, up to 44 feet.  The idea is to go check it out both at high tide,and at low tide.  When you buy a ticket, it’s good for two days. 
But, first you have to get there, and that’s where we ran into trouble. We made reservations at the campground closest to the rocks, and got within a few miles of it when we came upon an accident scene. It was a pretty serious accident, and the road was completely closed.  Someone was standing at the turnoff giving directions to people on where they needed to go for the detour.  When we reached the front of the line, Paul asked if he was tired of saying the same thing over and over, and the guy says “well, I’ll be telling you something different, because you’ll never get this rig down the road everyone else is using.”  He proceeded to tell us which roads to take to detour. 

We wrote it down and went on our way.  About 15 minutes later, we passed a sign that said 3.5 meter height limit. Uh oh.

   We could see the low bridge, so we pulled the rig over, got out the tape measure and started to walk down the road to measure it.  We weren’t that close to it because we stopped next to a convenient place to turn around.  A neighbor came out and told us we’d never make it, and directed us around and over the mountain. 




We turned around and once again went on our way, stopping once or twice to double check where we were.  One time when we were stopped, a car passed us and pulled over in front of us, and the driver came over to talk to us and make sure we knew where we had to go.  Wow.  Extremely nice people around here.

It was at least an hour to an hour and a half delay getting to the campground, but at least we made it ok.


The campground posts the high/low tide times which made it easier to figure out our plan of attack. Because of the tide differential and the height of the rock cliffs at the water’s edge, about two hours before low tide, you are allowed to go down the stairs and walk “on the ocean floor”.  Two hours after low tide, every one has to leave, before the water arrives.  The tide comes in at a rate of 7-9 feet per hour, which is a seriously fast rate.  Our timing was perfect for low tide, so we headed over to walk among the rocks. For picture comparison purposes I have put similar shots next to each other- one showing at low tide, and one at close to high tide, although we didn’t see the high tide until the following day.



 
  Looking from up above you don’t get a sense of the size of these rocks, but they are enormous! In retrospect, it probably would have been more dramatic to see it at high tide, then go at low tide and head down the stairs.  Oh well, it was still pretty cool.
















Here’s Paul standing between two of the rocks:






 

The day after the low tide visit is the day we went to see the high tide. To get the best viewpoint, we decided to take the guided Kayak tour. That way we’d get pictures of the rocks from the same angle as the “floor” shots.  It wasn’t meant to be.  The wind started picking up and a little while before we were supposed to leave, the guides were letting people know that they’d be getting very wet, and probably wouldn’t be able to take pictures because the water was getting too rough.

Ah well, I decided I wasn’t interested in that, so we decided not to go.  It turns out they canceled that trip anyway.  We went to the edge and watched the people on the trip before ours.  They were struggling a fair amount, and waves were breaking over the kayaks.  Watching them ride the waves made me feel less of a wimp.






Hopewell Rocks was one of our last major stops in Canada. From this point on, we are making a beeline for Michigan, with maybe a day or so of exploring along the way, but not much.

We took a picture for another couple and they insisted on taking our picture for us.