Get a drink and buckle your seatbelt. This is a long one. Rather than split it into 2 or 3 parts, I boiled the 100 some edited photos down to 37, which is a lot of photos for a blog. I dropped the Of the Day feature just for today, to try to reduce photo overload. Some of the other photos might show up in the Of the Day feature.
Some scene setting. Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park is about a half hour drive down the Fundy coast from Moncton. Being in the Bay of Fundy the tides are enormous. Millenia of wave action erode the softer rocks, leaving these pillars of somewhat harder rock, sometimes with vegetation clinging to life on top. The tide height means it's possible to walk on the ocean floor and look up at the pillars of rock. A few hours later one can kayak around the high tide marks and get a completely different view of the rocks. In a couple of the photos you might see some park staff who are acutely aware of the tides, and gently herd the unwary back to the access stairs.
We got there pretty much at low tide. The ocean floor is mostly rock and gravel, with a bit of mud. We wore our regular walking shoes, and didn't have any problems staying dry. Some people wore rubber boots and could be a bit more adventurous in their explorations. We had lots of time for a fairly thorough exploration, then went for lunch. The cafe is excellent! Our meal was certainly in the top 3 for our trip.
We did a bit of strolling on the other trails, then went back to the viewpoint to watch the tide come in. It's quite impressive, in a quietly inexorable way. As you'll see, if you get trapped you have a big problem.
As one of my photo buddies says, "Of all the places to get great photos, this is one of them." Seriously, if you're in New Brunswick anywhere near the Fundy shore, this is a must do. Making a trip to see Cape Enrage, and revisiting Hopewell Rocks, is something I'd consider, and plan it around tides, and time of day for dramatic photos. Oh, and the Caves Restaurant, that too.
1. The view from the top of the stairs. There are 101 stairs, like a 5 or 6 story building's worth, depending on how you count. My camera timestamp is 7:25. I didn't bother changing it for the trip. The park is only open certain hours, which sometimes restricts what exploration can be done. I saw one set of northern lights photos over the rocks, so the photographer must have made a special deal with the park staff.
2. Part way down the access stairs.
3. From the bottom of the stairs. I didn't even try to get photos without people in them. If they were "in the shot" I took it anyways. Plus it gave a sense of scale. I sort of thought about getting the tripod and doing the photos as long exposures, which would make most of the people invisible, but then you get people trails, which would be distracting.
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5. Arches, with Linda giving a sense of scale.
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7. Eventually, sooner rather than later in geologic time, that slender base will erode away and the rock will topple over.
8. The rock shapes are fascinating.
9. Lots of places are blocked off by these warning signs. The rocks are soft enough they could be damaged by people climbing on them. Or some geologic thing happens and the rock falls off the cliff at an unexpected time. That would be bad if you're underneath.
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14. At the far end, they build an emergency escape stair, just in case. You can just see an observation deck above it, but the two are not connected. You'll stay dry, but you have to wait for the tide to go out again. This is the end of the normally accessible part of the beach. If you're into some serious scrambling you can go a bit further. At the other end it kind of settles into a not so interesting mud flat. I didn't turn on my walk tracker thingie, so I've no idea how far one can walk along the beach.
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16. The shark fin rock. I managed to get this photo between two family groups that were posing around it.
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20. Another photographer working the scene. You can see that trying to scramble up the cliff to escape the incoming tide is an act of futility.
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23. There's all sorts of little nooks and crannies, large and small, some are blocked off, and some you can walk into.
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25. Vegetation clings to nearly every crack and crevice.
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29. The tide is starting to come in. Camera time stamp is 8:37.
30. 8:46.
31. 8:53
32. 9:07
33. 9:17. The tour group is listening to a park staff person talking about the park. They are only a few meters from the bottom of the stairs.
34. We went to explore some of the other trails and had lunch, then came back to the top of the stairs. Timestamp 11:04
35. 11:06
36. I walked down to the bottom of the stairs and kind of leaned over the chain that blocked of the next set of risers. The staff person watched with amusement, but wouldn't let me go down to the next landing. The water really is that kind of disgusting muddy brown.
37. 11:11 as we left, not quite high tide. We could have come back the next day, since the ticket is good for 2 consecutive days. Lots of people plan their visits to have one day at low tide, and one at high, to skip the transition. I thought of doing the tripod thing, maybe doing some really long exposure film photos, hoping for really nice light and not a lot of people, but in the end the next day we went to the beach.
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