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Published: September 16th 2014
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First of all, I would like to thank everyone for the positive comments on the blog. Today we took a day trip to Hopewell Cape here in New Brunswick. It is located on the southeast side of New Brunswick near the Bay of Fundy. I had an experience that I had never had before. I was able to walk on the floor of the ocean. This is a very nice area to view the tides coming in and out. We arrived around 10:00 in the morning. We were able to walk down 106 stairs(I counted) to the floor of the ocean as it was low tide. This is a very unique place. Because 6 hours later we returned to see high tide. Today the high tide was around 39 ft. Usually, the highest the tide gets at high tide is 46 ft. I took some pictures at low tide when we were able to walk around. Jim walked over a mile down the beach. I took a picture of Jim when the tide was low and where he was standing there was about 15 ft. of water later on. The interpreter at the park said that the reason for the unusual
high tides here is the shape of the bay and the length of the bay. The bay is shaped like a funnel, so when all the water comes in, it has nowhere to spread out. So, it has to go up. Also, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun affects the height of the tide. The moon accounts for 70% of the pull and the sun 30%. When the moon and the sun are aligned, there is a higher tide. Also, there is a higher tide with a new moon or full moon. It takes 6 hrs. to change from high tide to low tide. The large rock formations have many shapes and sizes. The one in the picture with the arch is called Lover's Arch. The one next to it is called Bear Rock. These have been formed over millions of years by the movements of the earth and erosion from glaciers, tides, snow, ice and winds. The story the of rocks began approx. 300 million years ago when fast flowing streams deposited thick layers of sand and gravel at Hopewell Cape from the nearby Caledonia Mountains. Over time the sand and gravel compacted into layers of rock
and sandstone. Forces within the earth thrust and tilted the rock layers creating large vertical and horizontal fractures. From this point on, the rocks began to evolve into their own unique shape. Last year, Hopewell Rocks had around 183,000 visitors. They are open from the middle of May to the middle of October. After viewing the area at low tide, we drove along the coast to the small settlement of Alma. We had lunch there. Jim and I had a delicious seafood chowder and a seafood platter consisting of clams, scallops, shrimp and fish. Very good. I said before I came on this trip that I was going to eat as much fresh seafood as I could. The Bay of Fundy separates New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. On the back of the menu at the restaurant, there was this bit of information. The bay of Fundy is associated with some of Canada's earliest history. French and Portuguese fishermen visited the area in the 16th century and it is believed that the name Fundy derived from the Portuguese "Rio Fondo" meaning deep river. In 1604 Samuel de Champlain visited the bay, claiming it as part of the French colony of Acadia
which was later to become Nova Scotia under British rule. In 1784 the present Provence of New Brunswick separated from Nova Scotia. We then drove back by a scenic route to Hopewell Rocks to view the area at near high tide.
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Brenda Talley
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Great Job!!
I love reading your blog each day! You do a terrific job! We did a cruise and have seen some of these areas, but you add so much interesting information! Thank you for doing your blog. :-). Tell Mary Ruth and Charlie hello. Safe travels to all!