Sonya's Blog - Day 108 - Hopewell Rocks

Sonya’s Blog - Day 108 - October 8th - Hopewell Rocks

According to the tide schedule we were given High Tide was going to be at 8:48 AM and low tide was going to be at 3 or so. We wanted to see Hopewell Rocks at both high tide and low tide, which meant that we needed to be out of the RV by 8. The kids were not really happy about that, but too bad for them. This is the one day we have to do this, as it is supposed to rain tomorrow and I don’t want to walk around in the rain if I can walk around today when it is not raining.

We got on the road just after 8, which was perfect. We got to Hopewell Rocks just before 9 and, as it turns out it, it was good that we were not earlier as the gates do not open until 9. It was about a 15 minute walk to Hopewell Rocks from the parking lot.

They had shuttles that could take you down there, but we chose to walk it because, well it was only 15 minutes. We also had Kizmet and she loves to walk and probably would not like a ride on the golf cart shuttle. The walk down was through the trees and very pretty. We arrived at Hopewell Rocks right before High Tide. It turns out the schedule I looked at was not quite accurate, or I read the wrong times. Probably the former:) The water was really up, so it was good enough for us. I guess the tide is quite low right now. They had really high tides during the Supermoon, but now the high tide is a little bit lower than average. It was good enough for us. We got some great pictures and then walked around to other lookouts to get different views of the Bay of Fundy. It was all super fantastic.

We walked around for a couple of hours and then headed back to the truck. We had packed snacks and a lunch, so we had a snack and then decided to drive towards the Bay of Fundy National Park. We wanted to be back for 3 so that we could see low tide and walk on the ocean floor. It was a coastal drive to the National Park and it was very pretty They have a lot of covered bridges. There was one that was just off the main road, so we pulled over to check it out. It is very Sleepy Hollowish, so we pretended that Kizmet was running away from the Headless Horseman. Blake tried to be the Headless Horseman, but it looks silly. It was funny, nonetheless. We got back on the road and stopped in Alma, which is the town right outside of the National Park. It is just a tiny little town and we walked up and down main street, which didn’t take very long.

We then went to the National Park and discovered that our yearly pass expired at the end of September. We opted to just pay for the day and get our yearly pass when we travel back to Canada next year. We are only in Canada for a couple more days and then we will be in the US for 6 months. It is hard to wrap our head around that, but that is what is going to happen. It is quite a large park, but we only had an hour to explore. We went to check out the coastal hike, but it was too long (5 - 6 hour hike one way) so we drove down to the beach instead. They had some red chairs there so we got our picture! We then went and goofed around on the beach. They had very large flat stones, so we were trying to skip them. Natasha did the best and managed to skip one twice. We decided to take a drive to Wolfe Point and then go back to Hopewell Rocks to see the low tide. It was a pretty drive and we went through another covered bridge.

We are now back at Hopewell Rocks and walking on the Ocean Floor. The tide is almost all the way out, but we are not allowed to walk on the mud flats, only near the shoreline. We got some great pictures by the rocks that were fully submerged only hours ago. We walked all the way along the shoreline and came up a different set of stairs. It is pretty unique down there and we had fun. Blake decided he would take off his shoes, which was a mistake. They got covered almost immediately by the brownish red mud and he had now way to rinse them off, since the water was way out there. He then had to walk all the way to the staircase without his shoes on and the rocks are quite sharp. Once we were up the stairs they had buckets of water so that you could rinse off your shoes, or feet as the case may be. The water was REALLY COLD and Blake suffered a little washing his feet (I found this highly amusing).

We decided to go back to the Visitor’s Centre and have a snack and then go back to the rocks to see the tide coming back in. The park closes at 5 so we won’t get to see it come in all the way. We watched if for about 15 minutes and then had to go back to our truck as they were closing the gates.

We drove back to the campsite and had supper. We were all pretty tired by this time so we called it a night no long after that.

Sonya