Day Two at Hopewell Rocks

Today we climbed down to the ocean bottom twice, and climbed back up once! We are camped next door to the Hopewell Cape Ocean Floor Exploration Site, a beautiful Bay of Fundy landmark that really demonstrates the power and depth of the tides here. From the visitor’s center it is a 15 minute walk downhill to the steps that lead down to the beach at low tide and allows visitors to stroll among the Flower Pot Rocks that have been formed over time.

The rock here is a conglomerate of sand and gravel that has been compressed and cracked by volcanic action over the last few hundred thousand years. Because the rock is relatively soft the tidal action erodes the rock causing large fissures that separate the standing rock formations from the cliffs and then proceed to erode the bases until they collapse. In the meantime new formations are being formed. If you won’t get here for awhile don’t worry, they estimate that there is enough material left in the cliffs to last another 100,000 years or so!

We then climbed down the steps to the ocean floor and strolled down the Bay seeing the different formations at low tide this morning at 9:36AM. After our stroll it was time to climb the 5 levels of steps and the 15 minutes climb back UP the path to the visitor’s center!

We then drove up to Moncton to stock up at Costco, have lunch and visit Magnetic Hill, a Moncton landmark that is probably overrated but seems to be on everyone’s list of must-see sights. The hill gives the illusion of driving down the hill for a few hundred feet and then, with the car in neutral, pulls the car back “up” the hill.

After lunch we worked our way back down the bay to Hopewell Cape again, this time at high tide at 3:47PM. We walked down to the steps and took photos showing the difference in low tide this morning and the Bay full of water this afternoon. Tide today was 41 feet.

After walking down twice and climbing back up this morning we decided to ride the tram back to the parking lot. We then decided we hadn’t had lobster for two days so it was off to a local restaurant advertising a Lobster dinner for $21.95-MISTAKE! The lobster Jeff had was small and tough, another lesson that you get what you pay for! Oh well, we have another 7 weeks or so to find some more good ones; our next stop is Shediac, the Lobster Capital of NB and then PEI and Newfoundland who are both known for their great lobsters.

We returned to The Ponderosa Pines Campground next door to Hopewell Rocks, not one of the better campgrounds we have been in. The crowded campsites are too small and covered with trees that prevent us from using our satellites. They have constructed new campsites that are out in a meadow overlooking the Bay but have not raised the money to have the local utility run new power lines to the property.

But that is not a problem either, we leave in the morning for Shediac, NB.