WITS Virtual Tour: New Brunswick, Canada
Every once in a while, I’m introduced to a coastal travel destination that wasn’t previously on my radar, and I promptly become obsessed with it. This is the case with New Brunswick, Canada. Since I went on Visit New Brunswick’s virtual tour at WITS, I’ve been researching, poring over photos of, and scheming ways to visit this unique water-woods-wander destination sandwiched between Maine and Nova Scotia.
The tour kicked off at Hopewell Rocks, one of nine provincial parks in New Brunswick, with General Manager Erika Degrace guiding us into the park through a serene wooded area. She was joined by Kevin Snair, a park interpreter, who took us on a wild golf-cart ride down to the ocean floor.
Yes, the ocean floor.
The funnel-shaped Bay of Fundy, where Hopewell Rocks is located, is home to the world’s highest tides—generally between 32 and 46 feet, the equivalent of a four-story building. But when those tides recede, you can actually walk along the sea floor, among piles of prehistoric-looking seaweed and around rocks that have been carved into fanciful formations by millennia of water erosion. (They’re sometimes called “flowerpot” rocks. To me, they look more alien than anything.)
Want to see the rising tides in action? Watch this video filmed at Hopewell Rocks, where the tides can sometimes rise at a rate of 1 foot every five minutes.
Among the 20 rocks, Erika, Kevin, and their colleague Paul Gaudet pointed out Mother-in-Law, who, with her pointy nose, pouty lips, and fluffy foliage that looks like scraggly hair, scowls out over the bay. We also saw ET, which looks more than a little bit like the wrinkly head of Spielberg’s signature creature (see? Told you they have an alien quality). And we got a glimpse of walking between some beautiful rocky arches, a great blue heron soaring out over the water in the distance. The Bay of Fundy is prime bird-watching territory; our guides report seeing several varieties of sandpipers, as well as a pair of peregrine falcons that have been nesting in the park for 13 years.
Because the view of the Bay is completely different depending on whether it’s high tide or low, it’s a good idea to come back over the course of a couple of days, timing your visit according to the tide tables, so you can appreciate both scenes. You can also join a tour in which you walk out onto the ocean floor at low tide, sit in a kayak, and wait for the tide to come in before paddling off into the bay. The park is open late May through October, and passes are good for several days. You’ll need to rent a car, or else take a taxi or ride-share, to get there.
From here, we headed with Nancy Lockerbie and Kristen Scott to the Fundy Trail Parkway in the Fundy Trail park, 6,300-plus acres of woodland and water views along the southern coast of New Brunswick. A UNESCO heritage site, the park boasts a variety of features, including 16 hiking trails, a 275-foot suspension bridge leading to the 35-mile Fundy Footpath, and replica cookhouse, and a brand-new observation deck that perches you above the 300-foot-deep Walton Glen Gorge. If you want to see waterfalls, beaches, forests, this is the place to visit. Remember to take the coastal roadway looping around the park and along the edge of the Bay of Fundy, for a ride you’re unlikely to forget.
For a virtual trip, this New Brunswick “sampler” experience was pretty exhilarating. So I was glad to slow things down in Saint John (not to be confused with St. John’s in Newfoundland), about 2 hours from Hopewell Rocks, with Jill Silliphant from Envision Saint John and Gilliane Nadeau from Uncorked Tours. Like a two-woman show, the two entertained us with history and anecdotes about the region. What I learned:
- New Brunswick is the third largest producer of maple syrup in the world, after Quebec and Vermont, and is also a major blueberry producer.
- The tides aren’t quite as high here as at Hopewell Rocks, but still regularly top 26 feet.
- At 70,000 people, Saint John is considered a small city (says the person who lives in a town of about 1,500).
- Saint John also has a wealth of restaurants and accommodations, all in about a five-block radius.
- There’s lots of great seafood here—of course—including a 2-pound lobster roll from the Saint John Alehouse, which can comfortably feed you and three of your closest friends. (Their secret: they mix the tomalley into the mayo dressing).
- One of the region’s signature dishes, maple-smoked salmon, is, in Gilliane’s words, “friggin’ delicious.”
- New Brunswick knows how to make a cocktail. Courtesy of this little goody box sent to attendees, we were able to join along in swigging the Slocum Maple Smash, made with vodka, lemon juice, and maple syrup.
I get the feeling there’s a lot more to learn about New Brunswick, and I’m hoping to do it soon. In the meantime, I’ll keep daydreaming over those photos . . . .
