The Bay of Fundy on the Atlantic Ocean, is well known as having the largest tidal range in the world. You really can’t miss this Canadian phenomenon if you’re travelling around here because you can see it’s effects in so many areas in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
We first noticed the power of the Bay of Fundy when we were in Moncton, New Brunswick as we looked out and noticed the brown river would sometimes be full and other times really low. Then we discovered the Tidal Bore – a strong, single wave of water that marches along the river against the current. There is such a large amount of water coming in with the tide on the Bay of Fundy that it creates a strong force that pushes this wave many kilometers up the Petitcodiac River until eventually the river fills up. In fact, all of the rivers that connect with the Bay of Fundy are tidal and would show this phenomenon to varying degrees.
So after Moncton we drove South in New Brunswick to spend time in Fundy National Park and Hopewell Rocks Provincial Parks.
Fundy National Park is a beautiful landscape of lush Acadian forests, mystical waterfalls, and colourful rocky beaches on a powerful body of water. I would love to come back for some backcountry hikes and some proper stargazing, as Fundy National Park is a Dark Sky Preserve! Here, we got our first experience of the tides of the Bay of Fundy where the water flows in and out and the distance between low and high tide reaches an average of 16 meters high! Some areas we visited you could see for kilometers to the water at low tide whereas other areas the difference was more drastic in the height of water that disappears and reappears with the tides.
In Fundy National Park, I remember one late afternoon at where I was laying on a beach at low tide and I was so tired that I fell asleep. Aidan was out exploring the rocks that are underwater half the time and there was one family hanging out nearby to me. I woke up and the water was inches away from my head! It’s a good thing that I woke up (I must’ve had an internal sense) otherwise me and my stuff would’ve been soaked. That family nearby had already moved their things back a few meters – I sure hope they would have woken me if the water had come any closer!
When the tide is low, some areas reveal mud flats which are important feeding grounds for shorebirds to bulk up before migration. We were at Penny Beach in Nova Scotia where we slept for the night and we decided to have a walk on the beach before moving on. It was low tide, mudflats stretched on to the shoreline as the sun rose over the horizon and we saw a beautiful murmuration of Semipalmated Sandpipers, dancing, feeding, peeping… all in the beautiful light of morning. We won’t forget that special moment, the feeling of awe, knowing that there is so much more to life than our little world.
Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park is not to be missed for the novelty of walking on the muddy sea floor at low tide, gawking up at these stacks of muddy/rocky earth with trees living on top! There is a lot to explore and you’ll have a few hours which is more than enough time to walk away from the populated main area, find an arch to inspect the muddy walls, and even play in the mud at the waters edge like I did.
Of course, then you must come back for high tide (your admission ticket is good for 24 hours) and see where you were once walking is filled up 10 meters high with water!
A similar awe-inspiring seafloor walk can be found at Burntcoat Head Park in Nova Scotia, but with way less people around.
So why does the Bay of Fundy have world-record tide ranges?! The bay becomes narrower and shallower, like a funnel, toward land and all that water has to go somewhere. Also, because of the length and depth of the bay, water oscillates (sloshes from side to side) in a way that aligns almost perfectly with the lunar tide of the Atlantic Ocean (the Moon’s gravitational effect on the tides) which amplifies each tidal pulse. Can you believe that the amount of water flowing in and out of the Bay of Fundy in one tidal cycle is twice the combined flow of all the world’s rivers?!
Two other interesting locations to see the effects of the Bay of Fundy is Cape Split Provincial Park in Nova Scotia and Reversing Falls in St. John, New Brunswick. When you hike the trail at Cape Split and get to the lookoff at the end, if your timing is right, you can see the waters mixing together at the tidal change in powerful, beautiful patterns.
At Reversing Falls Rapids in St. John, New Brunswick, timing also matters. This is where the St. John River meets the Bay of Fundy and it’s an epic natural phenomenon where the power of water in the bay actually reverses the direction of the river! We saw this happen at high tide where the water pushes river water up stream, causing rapids that appear in different parts of the water. These rapids are noticeable because of the many random drops cased by a submerged waterfall! Interestingly, there is a time period of only 20 minutes where the river water and bay water are balanced, leaving the gorge safe for vessels to pass through. Only 20 minutes! Now that takes some coordination. I’d like to come back and leave time for the full experience, relaxing into the show of low tide, slack calm, and high tide.
All this to say, the Bay of Fundy is a beautiful and wonderous phenomenon that is well worth the visit! One could dedicate an entire trip to the Bay of Fundy and get to know it from different angles. Go ahead and let yourself be immersed in one of nature’s most powerful displays of waterflow!
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