Moncton, New Brunswick

This is my last blog about my trip this year in Canada.  What a great trip, I am already thinking about doing this again in several years.  I stopped in Moncton, NB Sept 14 - 18.  I used this as a base to visit Fundy National Park and the Hopewell Rocks. 

I hiked a few trails at Fundy National Park.  One of my favorites was Dickson Falls Trail.

After leaving the falls, the trail went right beside the creek.  It looked like with a big rain the trail would be under water.   The man in the picture above is on the trail!

The Hopewell Rocks area has one of the highest average tides in the world.  The tide can be up to almost 50 feet.  While I was there it was about 38 ft.  At low tide I walked among the rocks,  but at high tide they let you stay down at the ocean floor until there is just about no place to walk, then they made everyone leave .

Low tide -

Below is an emergency station.  If you are out there when the tide comes in and have no where to go, you can go up onto this platform.  I was told that is not used during the season as they make sure everyone leaves the area.  But during off season and at night it has been used several times. 

The tide coming in --

I enjoyed seeing the difference at high and low tide, but I most enjoyed the rock “sculptures” that the water and tides have created.

While in Moncton, I debated going to see the tidal bore. I had heard that it could be boring, but someone else told me that it was interesting.  So I headed to the Tidal Bore Park in downtown Moncton.  Basically the river flows into the ocean, but because of the huge tides in this area, twice a day the river changes its flow direction.  When this happens there is a wave from a couple of inches to a bit more than a foot.  

There were probably 35 – 40 other people waiting to see this 1 foot wave!

 

Ok, it could be boring, but I started thinking about what was actually happening and it made it interesting.

While driving down a country road (I think leaving Fundy National Park), I noticed this shoe tree!

 

I stopped in St. Johns, NB just for an overnight before heading back to the U.S.  Crossing over to the U.S. was a bit more time consuming than when I crossed into Canada.  This time a U.S. customs agent asked a bunch of questions and he got in my RV and looked in the fridge and in several cabinets.   I forgot to mention my lettuce when he asked me about fresh produce and when he saw it in the fridge he gave me the “evil eye” and pointed it out!

From here I headed back the Bar Harbor area for a few days. 

Prince Edward Island

I can’t believe I still have not finished all my blogs from my trip to Canada.  I spent Sept. 7 – 13 in New Glasgow, PEI at New Glasgow Highlands RV park. While I really liked the RV park, I didn’t really like PEI.  I was there after their “tourist season” and some things were closed, but I wasn’t really interested in them anyway.   The weather was not very good while I was there, but even with all that I don’t think I would return.

I had planned to do a good bit of biking in PEI National Park, but because of wind and rain I only went twice.  It wasn’t quite what I expected.  It was a nice trail, but most of it was just beside the park road.  The other side was the ocean.

 

There was some nice beach scenery --

While there I went to Basin Head Provincial Park, where the sand is supposed to sing when you walk on it.  Actually it is a squeak.  I could not get it to do it while I was there. While touring part of the island I visited the East Point Lighthouse.

On the way back from a day of touring, I stopped in Charlottetown, PEI at Dave’s Lobster for a lobster roll.  It was great!

I have one more blog and I will finally finish my blogs for my Canadian trip.

Parrsboro, Nova Scotia

I stopped in Parrsboro, NS Sept 4 – Sept 6 and stayed at Glooscap Campground.  This is on the Minas Basin which is off the Bay of Fundy, so you may know that this area is known for it’s extreme tides.  It was interesting to watch the changes in the tides from my campsite.

The reason that I came here was for the rocks and fossils.  I headed to Cape Chignecto Provincial Park and did a short hike.

The rock formation above is called the Three Sisters.

I headed to Joggins Fossil Cliffs to find some fossils and while there I decided to do a ranger lead walk.  The one I did required you to wear a hard hat.  When I heard that I worried a bit about what I had gotten myself into!  While we did get close to the cliffs and occasionally small rocks would tumble down, I decided it was more so they would know who was supposed to be on the walk. 

More than 300 million years ago this area was home to huge trees, big bugs and the first known reptiles.  We saw fossils of the huge caterpillar like bugs tracks.  The bug as several feet long!  We also saw fossils of trees and tree roots.  Because of the tides were were not able to see the huge tree fossils that they are known for. 

I also went to Five Islands Provincial Park for a short walk.  The walk I did you only had a few hours to do it because of the tides.  While many people are there to go clamming (see the last picture), I wanted to walk to the red cliffs.   I ended up walking in a lot of red mud that was just an hour or so before was covered with water.  The mud ended up being much thicker than I expected with my feet getting stuck many times.  At one time I wondered if I was going to be able to get out!  I ended up taking my feet out of my shoes and then pulling my shoes out of the mud. I later realized I could have stayed close to the cliffs and not gotten as muddy.

Cape D’Or lighthouse -

From here I headed to Prince Edward Island.

Parkers Cove–Nova Scotia, CA

I decided to go on a whale watching trip in Digby, NS , so  I stayed at the Cove Oceanfront Campground in Parkers Cove August 31 – September 3.  This is a nice RV park, but it is quite a drive to most things I wanted to do.  I probably would not stay there again. 

I timed my tour so that I would have time to hike Balancing Rock trail beforehand.  It is a fairly easy hike except for a lot of steps!! But it leads to a beautiful basalt coast with, surprise, a balancing rock!

You have to take 2 ferries to get to Brier Island.

After checking in at the tour office, I had about 1.5 hours to  spend before the boat trip.  I visited a lighthouse and an interesting beach.

I wasn’t really sure that I wanted to take another whale watching trip since I have had pretty good luck with whales this summer.  But I decided to go anyway.  I am so glad I did.  One of the workers on the trip said this was the best trip she had ever had and she had worked for the company several years. 

I have seen pictures of very lucky whale watching boats having a whale or 2 come very close to the boat but have not experienced that with a humpback until this trip. At one time we had 4 whales very close to our boat.  We saw more 30 whales and they were able to identify 17 of them.    We saw just about all activities of humpback whales.

Typical diving whale tale -

Breaching in a distance -

Tail slapping, the next 3 are shots taken in a series -

More tail slapping-

I forget what the 2 below are called.  They basically just hang out a while with their tail up in the air. 

Getting closer to the boat –

Spy hopping --

We had been warned that if they got close they have horrible breath.  I had heard that before but never smelled it, until this trip.  When they got close to the boat and sprayed us it stunk!!The spray was also sticky and made the filter on my camera messy.   These guys got within several feet of our boat.  This was awesome.  I am ready to go on another whale watching trip just by looking at these pictures again.

The one below seems to be checking us out --

On the way back, we passed more beautiful basalt coast.

I had one more stop in Nova Scotia before heading to Prince Edward Island.