Our last destination before returning home was visiting Saint John in New Brunswick providence. Frank wanted to see the reversing falls which is a natural phenomenon where the powerful tides of the Bay of Fundy reverses the flow to the Saint John River creating rapids and whirlpools.
We wanted to find some head lights and fishing villages. About a 45 minutes drive from Saint John was St Martins which is located on the Bay of Fundy. It’s known for its historic shipbuilding past and natural attractions like the St. Martins Sea Caves and the Fundy Trail. It has the highest tides in the world up to 70 feet. We visited at low tide. Fundy Trail Provincial Park was closed for the season when we visited. The park is composed of 6,323 acres featuring a 19 mile parkway hugging the southern coast of New Brunswick. You can drive the paved parkway that hugs 820 ft coastal cliffs, explore trails that connect to paths or stairways leading to pristine beaches and river estuaries, cross an 275 ft suspension footbridge, an interpretive center and discover the rich history of a once thriving lumber industry. It is also part of two UNESCO designated sites — the Fundy Biosphere Reserve and Stonehammer Global Geopark — and home to the beginning of the Fundy Footpath, considered by experts to be one of the top 50 hiking trails in the world!
On the way to St. Martins we found the Quaco Headlight.
The headlight was constructed in 1855 and was replaced in 1966 and altered again a decade later with a concrete square structure .
History of St. Martins
The area once know as Quaco was founded in 1783 and is now known as St. Martins. In 2021 the population was 320.
In 1783 the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution and approximately 40,000 Loyalists fled New England to establish a new life in Europe, England and other parts of British North America, including such Bay of Fundy neighborhoods as Saint John and Weymouth. Read more about the Loyalists who settled on Fundy’s shores…
Fishing boats in infrared sitting on the bay floor.
The tidal range in the Bay of Fundy is about 52 ft; the average tidal range worldwide is only 3.3 ft. Some tides are higher than others, depending on the position of the moon, the sun, and atmospheric conditions. Tides are semidiurnal, meaning they have two highs and two lows each day, with about 6 hours and 13 minutes between each high and low tide.[5]
She has seen better days.
Visitor center
Scenes around St. Martin.
Fishing buoys
New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy is world renowned for whale watching and is the home to a dozen whale species. The Bay of Fundy is a prime location for observing these incredible creatures. Its tides (the highest in the world) carry huge quantities of plankton, krill and various kinds of fish, providing whales an ideal environment in which to feed and raise their young.
In one half-day tidal cycle, about 100 billion tonnes (110 billion short tons) of water flow in and out of the bay, which is twice as much as the combined total flow of all the rivers of the world over the same period.[6]
Low Tide
The Bay Of Fundy has many, many different ecosystems ranging from cold-water estuaries, to crashing rocky shorelines. Along with these, the bay is littered with sea caves that flood when the tide rises. In these caves, thousands of fossils from 300 million years ago lie. It is for this reason, that the Bay of Fundy is not only a UNESCO Global Geopark, but a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Low Tide
Information for this blog taken from:
Some informative links:
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