PhotoGeo Trip Down East: Part 6 – Fundy

2453 words; 13-minute read

My trip is winding down. This is the last ‘photo stop’ and it has proven to be a good one.

Fundy National Park is yet another gem of a Canadian park. Thick Acadian forests, sheer cliffs plunging into the Bay of Fundy, vast tidal flats, sometimes fog, and always, the world famous tides—the highest in the world. Given the twice daily rise and fall of 10m or more, you can imagine much of life here is driven by the tides.

Just like the changes from summer to winter and back again, tides dramatically change the landscape. As the tide recedes, wide, muddy-brown rivers become narrow, clear streams with lots of empty real-estate on either side. Beaches can completely disappear at high tide only to be converted to hundreds of metres of red mud flats at low tide.

For photographers, this daily change is both a blessing and a curse as much depends on how the tides line up with state of the weather and the time of day. You can make your luck, but as the photos will show, the stars aligned on my behalf.

Sackville Waterfowl Park

On my way to Fundy, I stopped overnight in Sackville at the old and charming ‘Marshlands Inn’. In its heyday, Marshlands catered to the well-heeled. As I messaged back home, “Given its dated furnishings and decorations (our grandparents would approve), I was thinking it would be a great place for a murder mystery à la Jessica Fletcher, but I may be the only guest at dinner!” And sadly, I was. They have a wonderful, plush restaurant that served the best seafood platter I had the whole trip.

The next morning, down at the Waterfowl Park, I was curious to see how things changed over the few weeks since Dan and I had visited. How is the grebe nest doing? Are the songbirds still as active?

The grebe nest was doing quite fine with five hatchlings that are already taking to the water. Mom and dad are very busy going back and forth finding food and feeding the youngsters.

The swallow was equally busy, but the songbirds were more elusive, with only a Cedar Waxwing and fledgling Red-winged Blackbirds putting on a show.

Cape Enrage

In the afternoon, I arrived at Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park, one of the premiere places on the east Coast to get a real sense of how significant the tides are. It’s billed as a place to ‘Walk on the ocean floor’ and you can, twice a day, provided low tide occurs during opening hours. Wisely, the entrance ticket is for two days, so you can come back and see Hopewell at high tide.

However, it is 30 June and it is a gorgeous day. The multiple parking lots, while not full, indicated the heaving mass of people that were enjoying the park. I took a pass, reserving it for tomorrow, Canada Day, even busier, yes, but I doubt first thing in the morning. Low tide is at 11:38am, so arriving by 8:30 should place me on the sea floor before the crowds.

Instead, I headed for Cape Enrage, about halfway between Hopewell and Fundy. How could I not visit Cape Enrage. The name alone is worth the drive. I had visions of monstrous waves pounding the shore cliffs, sending huge sprays of sea foam skyward. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. I guess it helps to have an imagination.

Not only was it a $10 charge to go into the private park, it was late in the day and I was feeling too cheap to pay that much for an hour of photography. So I went to the cobble beach outside the park and was not disappointed. While there were no huge breakers, there were still dramatic cliffs and boulders, which inspired me to get out the tripod and get my feet wet.

That’s the thing about high tides—they rise very quickly. After all, a 10m tide still has only 6 hours to come in—that’s about 1.5m an hour or 9” per minute! No sooner had I set up and made a few exposures, trying to catch the movement of the water at just right instance, when the waves, pushed by the rising tide, were suddenly around my feet and covering the very rocks I was photographing. Even when I took into account the rising waters, I was still caught short two or three times! Oh well, good fun!

Behind the multiple mounds of cobbles, built up as raised beaches from the various heights of tides, I found an oasis of green in these beach peas. The greens seemed so bright and full of life compared to the masses of grey cobbles along the beach.

On the way to Fundy, I found a couple of scenes that captured my imagination.

After setting up my campsite, I went back down into Alma for a delicious seafood dinner at The Boathouse —highly recommended, not as fancy as some of the other restaurants, but great food. I made a few evening photographs along the river then packed it in early, hoping the clear skies above the fog would continue through the night.

Canada Day

I’m beginning the celebration of my 63rd Canada Day at Fundy National Park by capturing some iconic Canadian landscapes. My day started at 1:30am to pursue some Astrophotography. Arriving at the Fundy Viewpoint, I was bewildered by hundreds of fireflies, their bright green pulses lighting up the field below. They were magnificent and I knew they had to be a part of what ever photograph I made.

The red chairs? They are a trademark of sorts of Canada’s National Parks. Red chairs have been brought into a number of significant viewpoints in all the parks and have become an icon.

After a few hours of sleep, I was up again, at 6am, this time to the sound of two of our favourite songbirds: a Junco, who spends every winter with us in Guelph, and a White-throated Sparrow, known for its song, “Oh, sweet Canada, Canada, Canada”

Then I was back to the Fundy Viewpoint enjoying brilliant sunshine gleaming over a fog-filled Bay of Fundy.

The heavy fog didn’t bode well for the sea coast, which was my next destination. By 6:30, I was down at Wolfe Point to check out the covered bridge where the views were just opening up. With the fog playing tag with the morning sun, the conditions were hit-or-miss. I managed a couple of ‘hits’.

By the time I reached Herring Cove the fog had receded somewhat, giving way to direct sunlight—a real challenge, which demanded careful exposure. Knowing there was additional dynamic range with HHHR mode, I was able to tame the brightness and maintain open shadows while keeping the offshore fog in balance. Too many internet pundits just don’t understand how versatile and capable the OM sensor is!

By now, the tide was receding quickly—about 20m of beach was exposed in half an hour—so I decided to forego breakfast and head straight to . . .

Hopewell Rocks

I arrived around 8:30am, not long after opening but before the Canada Day rush. Hopewell is such an engaging place. It’s a unique experience wandering around one of the wonders of nature, seeing first-hand the erosive force of the tides and the fascinating sculpted sea stacks. The provincial park is well-organized to receive thousands of visitors without feeling overly touristy. Credit for that goes to the wide stone dust paths (not paved!) and the excellent interpretive centre which provides geographical and geologic context to the tides, the sea stacks and the Bay of Fundy itself.

Along the 750m trail from the entrance to the grand staircase down to the sea floor, there were a few view points. This photo is from one of them. And yes, they really are Peregrine Falcons.

Unexpectedly, one of the first images I made down on the sea floor was almost identical to one I made 15 years earlier: the ‘classic view’, I guess.

Importantly for me, I managed to make a number of significant landscape photographs before and after the fog had lifted and before the crowds forced me back up the stairs. It was still hours before the rising tide would close over the ocean floor, forcing everyone back up.

Back at the car, I had a picnic breakfast then was off back to Fundy with a couple of stops along the way to check out places I had stopped at the day before. So far, the day was going well but I still wanted to get to another favourite, Dickson Falls. With tomorrow and Thursday being driving days, and wanting to make the most of today, I had a quick snacky lunch followed by some downloading and editing at my campsite and, by this point, a nap.

By 4pm, I was thinking that if I want dinner and some photography, I’d better get down to the Boathouse, eat first, then have the rest of the evening for photography. Perfect. Before it got busy with the Canada Day crowds, I had my last fresh seafood dinner back at the Boathouse, then was off to Dickson Falls.

The Acadian forest in Fundy is so lush with bright green ferns and moss in abundance and Dickson Falls shows it off well, Once the morning fog had burned off, we were in bright sunshine. The last thing I wanted were contrasty shadows, so I was pleased to see some cloud roll in.

However, I hadn’t planned on it raining! Halfway through my exposures, a gentle rain began then tapered off, only to increase again. Worse, I had left my tent open for airing and some of my equipment out. Oh well. I wasn’t going to rush my time here in this beautiful forest.

The only trouble with Dickson Falls—from a photography point of view—is the boardwalk. Not only is extensive as it wraps its way around the falls and up the other side, forcing difficult compositions to exclude it, the boardwalk bounced every time someone walked close by. And, as it turned out, I wasn’t the only one enjoying an after-dinner stroll down the many steps to the falls. I lost count of how many times I had to pause what I was doing until everyone had passed by and the boardwalk settled back down.

Now wet, but elated with the Dickson Falls experience, I headed back to my campsite to begin drying out. The next morning, I stuffed the wet tent and fly into its stuff sack and was on my way westwards, back to southern Ontario, by 6:45am.

With a good Anthony Horowitz detective audiobook playing and the 16 hours of driving up the St. Lawrence split over two days, I was good to go.

Looking back, I can only see successes. Sure, not everything worked out perfectly, but I was in the right headspace to create, what are to me, some very memorable photographs that capture the essence of place and the art inherent in nature.

Thanks for reading. Please continue the discussion by adding your questions, comments and observations to the COMMENTS section. As well, I invite you to SHARE this post with others.