Acadia: Jordan Pond

Enjoyed a salad and a popover with jam here on the Tea Lawn at Jordan Pond. Popovers at Jordan Pond seem to be a “must do” at Acadia.

Back in the USA

 

I’m sitting on the balcony of my room in Northeast Harbor, Maine, with this bit of a view of the harbor, listening to the Mariners game. They just got their first hit and hopefully that will turn this game around. The air is brisk - it is October after all. I’m here for a week, ready to explore Acadia National Park, the Maine coast, and hopefully relax a bit too. Life is good.

Lepreau Falls in New Brunswick

The Algonquin Resort in St. Andrews, NB

My first photo in Maine at a primitive rest stop. 

But the scenery was pretty and the fall colors are coming out.

Reversing Falls

There’s a phenomenon in Saint John, New Brunswick called Reversing Falls, where the incoming tide of the Bay of Fundy reverses the waters of the St. John River. It changes from a modest set of falls going out towards sea at low tide to rapids heading inward at high tide. I visited the area three times today to see the differences.

Near low tide

Mid-afternoon, shortly after slack

High tide

Video: Low tide

Video: Same location at high tide

Video: Downstream at low tide

Fundy Trail Parkway

St. Martin’s

Friday I spent the day exploring the Fundy Trail Parkway. 

It’s a scenic multi-use area with a driving parkway, a long biking and walking trail, and many pull-offs and side trails to viewpoints and waterfalls. Unfortunately, I didn’t get good pictures of many of the waterfalls.

I stopped along the Big Salmon River to eat lunch and ran into a couple of women I’d seen two other times on my Canada journey, first a week ago sharing a bench at the end of the Greenwich Dunes Trail on Prince Edward Island, then last Monday at Luckett Winery in Nova Scotia. One woman is from Saskatchewan and the other from Ontario, and as we’d talked about our planned itineraries, none of us were surprised to run into each other again. It was nice to see familiar faces!

Long Beach on the Bay of Fundy

Suspension footbridge over the Big Salmon River

Falls at Walton Glen Gorge

Extreme Tides at Hopewell Rocks

I’m in the Moncton, New Brunswick area and visited the Bay of Fundy today. The Bay of Fundy sees the highest tides in the world. There were two provincial parks on the Bay of Fundy that I wanted to visit. The first is Burntcoat Head Park in Nova Scotia, where the tide rise is the most extreme. But that park sustained sufficient damage from Hurricane Fiona that it’s been closed all week - due to open tomorrow (Friday). The park I visited today was Hopewell Rocks, which sees high tides of up to 46’ (today’s was 43’).

I got there a couple hours after low tide so I could get down onto the beach. I brought some snacks for lunch and a book and hung out for the day so I could see the rock formations at both low and high tides. It made for a nice, relaxing day.

View from the top viewing deck when I arrived near low tide

Same rocks from the same location at high tide

A tower of stairs takes you down onto the beach

Peggy’s Cove and Lunenburg

I had a beautiful drive today outside of Halifax. Here are some of the stops I made:

Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse. I’d read that the parking area fills up quickly and it was recommended to get there early before the cruise tour coaches arrive. Although it was a foggy morning, at least I timed it right to get some photos without people.

And then the buses showed up. By the time I left, there were 10 coaches in the parking lot.

As the buses arrived, a bagpiper started to play. It was a neat addition to a misty morning.

Mahone Bay

Lunenburg

Rainy Day in Halifax

 

I didn’t take many photos of Halifax today because this is what they all would look like. And it was so wet out, my cell phone camera started malfunctioning. One thing you don’t see from this pic is the 3” of water on the ground all along the waterfront so my feet were squishy wet all afternoon.

There are still a large number of power outages in this area. The hotel that I’d reserved a room at across the inlet in Dartmouth still didn’t have power so I called around and ended up with a pricy room right in Halifax near the Citadel. At least tomorrow’s weather is supposed to be much nicer for my road trip down the coast south of here

Yesterday I had a nice relaxing day in Wolfville. I drove around wine country, checked out a couple wineries that I’d read about, and had dinner at a brewery in a former church building.

Luckett Vineyards has a beautiful view of its vineyards, the local farmlands, and out further, the sea.

In the middle of their vineyard, near the tasting room and restaurant is an old British phone booth. 

The phone worked until recently, and they allowed guests to make calls.

Church Brewery in Wolfville