New Brunswick’s Fundy Coast – Postcards from Canada, 2025

Irving Nature Centre, Saint John, St. Martins, Fundy Parkway, Fundy National Park, Cape Enrage, Shepody National Wildlife Area, Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park

It is an easy drive of just over an hour from Fredericton to Saint John, but I was soon driving through fog as I got closer to the coast. Before driving into the city I visited the Irving Nature Centre, a 600-acre wooded peninsula and popular park for walking, hiking, and biking. These were my first views of the Bay of Fundy at Saints Rest Beach!

The fog began to lift as I walked several sections of coastal and forest trails to access small coves, a bog, and a boardwalk over a salt marsh where I saw the iconic red silty sediment of the Bay of Fundy.

I then drove to see Saint John’s Martello tower, a National Historic Site, but the entire tower was covered in tarps for restorations, and its famous hilltop view of Saint John’s harbour was completely obscured by fog. I did enjoy the Visitors Centre though, with its excellent film about the history of this military tower which was constructed at the time of the War of 1812.

Saint John is not the prettiest city, and it had a depressed and rather forlorn air on a foggy Sunday morning. It is a working city of factories, oil refineries, and harbour facilities, with its historic centre located around King’s Square and the nearby Prince William Streetscape. These late 19th-century stone and brick buildings were constructed after the Great Fire of 1877 and included banks, hotels, insurance, shipping, and legal offices.

Located nearby and on the riverfront was the Area 506 Waterfront Container Village. Many of its shops and cafes were not yet open when I visited, but that was fine as my eyes were drawn mostly to the workings of the river port facilities, with the shapes of the tall blue cranes ghostly in the fog.

Soon it was time to visit the Reversing Falls where, on an incoming high tide, the Bay of Fundy waters force the St. John River to reverse its flow and this creates rapids and whirlpools through a narrow gorge. There are parks and viewing platforms located at both ends of the bridge which spans the gorge, as well as views from the bridge. I loved watching the cormorants who took turns to fly in, perch on a boulder located in the centre of the falling swirls of water, and then dive into the river, often to return with a silver fish in their beak!

I continued on to St. Martins, less than an hour away, where I would camp for the night. I was here to see the sea caves at St. Martins beach. On the high tide, kayakers paddle along the coast here, and into the caves, but I would wait for the low tide to walk into the caves. I enjoyed visiting the nearby small marina, visitors centre, and two historic covered bridges over the Irish River, and then I checked into my campsite to putter and rest and read a while while I waited for the tide to recede.

In the late afternoon I returned to the beach with a piping hot order of fish and chips purchased from Spinney’s Seafood Restaurant and Market. This restaurant is consistently voted “Best Lobster Roll” in the province, and I was very tempted to order my very first lobster roll there, but I decided to save that pleasure for further down the road, maybe on PEI or in Nova Scotia. I parked my camp chair at the far end of the beach to enjoy my early dinner with views of the sea caves in the distance, and ended up chatting with a Quebecois fellow who had noticed my Toyota camper set up. He had been travelling all over Canada and the U.S. in his VW Eurovan for about 18 months and it was fun to talk together about places seen and places yet to see. Then, I enjoyed my walk across the wide cobbled beach to view and enter the sea caves that are carved deeply into the soft stone of the red sea cliffs.

The following morning I set out early to drive the Fundy Trail Parkway, a 30 km scenic coastal drive high above the Bay of Fundy that features twenty viewpoints, forest and coastal trails, and access to beaches and waterfalls. The morning was foggy again, and I stopped shortly after entering the parkway to wait a while for the fog to lift. I had paid over $20 to drive the parkway and I wanted to see it! I enjoyed the quiet of my foggy perch, took photos of the lovely plants around me, and then lay on my bed for an hour to read – quite happy with the forced rest!

But, I am not the most patient person, so, after that hour of rest I continued on a short distance through the fog to the next viewpoint and hiked down to Melvin Beach where winter storms had created an impressively high bench of layered stones.

I stopped again, just minutes further down the road, to do the short hike to Fuller Falls,

and then continued on to stop at most of the viewpoints. The Parkway dipped down to the Salmon River,

and then rose again to more viewpoints as the receding fog finally revealed the bright blues of the sea and he sky.

I loved driving the Parkway, and was impressed by its visitor facilities, but I also loved the quiet loneliness of the drive on Shepody Road from the East Gate of the Parkway to the border of Fundy National Park – few cars, and easy curves through low forested hills and wetland areas. I was happy that I would be spending three days in one place, camped at the fabulous Fundy National Park with its three campgrounds and multiple trails through upland forests, bog, and coastline. Highlights of my first afternoon in the park were walks on the Caribou interpretive nature trail and to Dickson Falls, and the drive to Wolfe Point to see its red covered bridge and to walk the beach there.

My campsite was in the Headquarters Campground, tucked under tall trees on a bank high above the Upper Salmon River and in walking distance to the town of Alma with its restaurants, shops, cafes, gas and groceries. No dining out for me, but I did indulge twice in a cinnamon bun from Kelly’s Bake Shop that had been recommended to me three times as I crossed Canada! The furthest west recommendation had come from a young woman at a Toyota service centre in Winnipeg. She had spent many summers in the area with her grandparents and said that I, “just have to get a cinnamon bun from Kelly’s”. As I set out on my first morning of explorations in the area, fog again obscured the bay, and the Upper Salmon River at low tide left the fishing boats in Alma’s marina high and dry, and when I returned in the afternoon the fog had mostly cleared and the boats were happily floating again!

My first destination of the day was to see the lighthouse at Cape Enrage. I would visit it three times and each time it would be hiding in thick fog! But the drive there was fabulous, with thick borders of vibrant wildflowers lining the road as I passed salt marshes on one side and fields on that other that were created in the 1700s by Acadian settlers who had diked the salt marshes to create arable land and pastures.

From Cape Enrage, I drove to the Shepody National Wildlife Area to hike the beach out to Mary’s Point which is located on a forested headland at the end of several kilometres of beach walking that is only fully accessible at the low tide. With forest, beach, salt marsh, and freshwater wetlands, the Shepody Wildlife Area is an important ecological reserve for resident, breeding, and migrating waterfowl and shorebirds, including hundreds of thousands of semipalmated sandpipers that congregate here in the late summer. All was quiet though, for me, on this late morning, with just a slight breeze riffling through the dune grasses, and with only a few sets of footprints to show that others had also walked this beach. I love my times in these lonely places, with sea air and long distance views and the meditative repetition of one foot in front of the other.

After my wonderful walk at Mary’s Point, I drove up the coast to the Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park, one of the best places to witness the tidal changes of the Bay of Fundy on the New Brunswick coast. Admission to the park is rather pricey, but it allows park access for two days to better enable viewing of both the high and low tides. I had planned my arrival for a few hours before the high tide in order to have time in the visitor centre and to walk the trails. The Hopewell Rocks are sea stacks, known here as flowerpots, that are carved by the sea from the soft red sandstone cliffs along two kilometres of shoreline at Hopewell Cape. Here is a view down to the flowerpots of Big Cove,

and here are views from the viewing platform down to the flowerpots at Lovers Arch, as well as one view taken from down on the beach as the tide rose inexorably (middle right photo).

All visitors were then required to exit the beach, and it was quite something to see the high tide rise to fully engulf the bases of the flowerpots and splash against the cliffs. The average tidal change here at Hopewell Rocks is between 12-16 metres (40-52 feet), with maximum tides of 16 metres (52-56 feet), while across the bay, at Burntcoat in Nova Scotia, the maximum tides are even higher, with the world’s highest recorded tidal change of 21.6 metres (70.9 feet)! On each tidal cycle, up to 160 billion tons of water flow into and out of the Bay of Fundy!

The next morning I again drove to Hopewell Rocks, this time to walk on the sea floor at low tide. Luckily, there was a free guided walking tour beginning as I arrived and it was was excellent! I learned many new and interesting facts about the Bay of Fundy and the Cape’s geology and history. There were fewer visitors this morning, and it was fun to take a slow and educational walk from one end of the Cape to the other.

The day was fine, and as I left Hopewell Rocks I decided to try again to see the lighthouse at Cape Enrage, and to explore a bit on the way. Google maps showed a lighthouse, the picturesque wooden Anderson Hollow Lighthouse, located in the oddest place in the middle of an estuary, but access was impossible as the road there was closed due to bridge work. Nearby though was the tiny hamlet of Harvey with its historic community hall built in 1884, while across the street was a church of similar vintage, and nearby (and all along this coast) were other fine heritage homes and buildings.

I considered a second visit to the Shepody Wildlife Area and Mary’s Point as I passed, but the sky was bright and I really wanted to tour the lighthouse at Cape Enrage. ( I had driven there a second time, on my return from Hopewell Rocks the previous day, but it was still encased in fog.) Third time lucky, I hoped, but it was not to be. It was a beautiful, pastoral drive, with sun, sun, sun, until I drove up and into a wall of fog just five minutes away from the lighthouse! The woman at the visitors centre told me that there had been bright sun for about an hour that had ended shortly before my arrival, and she had taken some lucky visitors into the lighthouse for a tour. (Tours are not allowed during periods of fog because of the loudness of the foghorn for peoples’ ears.) Oh well! I walked about for various views, and then descended the staircase down to the narrow beach. The cliffs here are composed of Carboniferous sedimentary rocks from 320 million years ago and contain many types of fossils.

On my return to camp in the late afternoon, I considered choosing a short trail to hike, but opted instead to try out the park’s outdoor swimming pool. What a treat! Full, but not too full, of happy kids and families, with a bright sun and sea breeze, it was a great way to end my three day visit at Fundy National Park. The next morning, as I left my campground, I stopped one last time to again photograph the boats at Alma. Morning fog was present again,

but it burned off as I headed inland toward Moncton. There, I stopped at a riverside park and considered waiting for the time of the Tidal Bore event, a wave which travels up the Peticodiac River on an incoming high tide from the Bay of Fundy. But it was already very hot, humid, and busy in Moncton close to noon, and I was anxious to finally see and cross the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island. So, off I went, very very happy with my time in wonderful New Brunswick, and knowing that I would return again later to explore its northern coast.

Taking it Easy in New Brunswick – Postcards from Canada, 2025

Grand Falls, Florence and Hartland Covered Bridges, Kings Landing, Fredericton

I woke on my first morning in New Brunswick with a welcome feeling of ease as I had a short driving day of less than 300 km ahead of me, with plenty to see along the way. My first stop was at Grand Falls, where I walked wonderful trails on both sides of the river to view the powerful falls and deep narrow gorge.

From there I travelled for a distance south on the surprisingly-quiet Trans Canada Highway through low forested hills with pleasing far-distant views. I transitioned to Route 130 which follows closely along the St. John River on its west side, and then crossed to the east side of the river at the pretty town of Florence to visit its historic covered bridge. New Brunswick is home to more than half of Canada’s covered bridges. Once numbering over 1,000 at the turn of the century, there are now around 70 of these heritage structures remaining in the province.

The bridge is open to pedestrians and I enjoyed the walk across, with wonderful views of the St. John River looking both upstream,

and downstream. The St. John River has been designated as a Canadian Heritage River for its natural, cultural, and historic value. It was known to the Maliseet and Mi’kmaq nations as “Wolastoq”, “the good bountiful river”, and it was a vital transportation and communication route that influenced colonial settlement patterns, military campaigns, and the movement of people and goods. It is a wide, tranquil, and really beautiful river!

My next stop was at Hartland to see the longest covered bridge in the world. Built in 1901, with a walkway added in 1945, it is 391 metres long and is a designated National Historic Site.

Cars can still drive through the one lane structure, but I elected to walk across,

and then I returned to the east side of the river to walk downstream until I could just fit the entire structure into my camera’s frame. It took a bit more walking than expected!

I enjoyed the peaceful and scenic drive south on Highway 105 as it paralleled the river and passed small settlements, fields, woodland, and farms with beautiful old farmhouses. I crossed over the river again Southhampton to reach my next destination, the 300-acre living museum known as Kings Landing. This historical village features over 70 buildings that represent rural life in a New Brunswick Loyalist settlement from the years 1795 to 1925.

My first stop after perusing the Welcome Centre exhibits was at the small schoolhouse, and when I entered a costumed group of young campers, all girls, were participating in a lesson. I would later see these campers at the end of the day performing sketches and musical numbers for their parents at the theatre!

There are working farms onsite,

and many farmhouses of various styles with their interiors furnished with period items. Costumed interpreters are ready to give details about each home’s history, and to demonstrate various period crafts, jobs, and tools in and around the home, farm, and barns.

There were a multitude of other buildings to visit, including three churches (Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian),

and also a general store, forge, print shop, sash and door factory, sawmill, gristmill, hotel, restaurant, and pub. In each, costumed interpreters are on hand to talk about and demonstrate traditional livelihoods, goods, techniques and machinery.

It was a peaceful and pastoral place to wander. I loved the flowery meadow on a hill above the mill pond,

and then scenic views of the fully-operational gristmill and large sawmill, both of which are powered by waterwheels.

I spent over three hours at Kings Landing, on a beautiful sunny day, with lots to learn about and many beautiful things to see. Just as I was beginning to tire and consider the trek back to my car, campers were gathering in order to put on a show for their parents. The “Visiting Cousins” (9-12 year olds) were at the end of their five day overnight camp experience where they had dressed in period clothing and participated in many activities such as playing traditional games, making crafts (including carving wooden toys), cooking, gardening, animal care, etc. They had also spent time creating small skits that were clever and funny, and they performed these skits, as well as some musical numbers, in front of their proud parents and visitors. Watching their performances, in the cool shaded interior of the theatre, was an unexpected and very wonderful way to end my day at this exceptional living museum!

Afterwards, I had an easy 75 minute drive, again alongside the St. John River on scenic Highway 102, to reach my campsite at Mactaquac Provincial Park which is located only a half hour from Fredericton. I had a restful evening in another green, shaded, and peaceful campground, and then an early night, ready for a city day on the morrow.

Fredericton, the capital of New Brunswick, is a wonderful little city! It was easy to enter the city and make my way to its downtown where I found free street parking on a Saturday! (Priced at only $1.75 per hour, weekdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday free! Take that Vancouver!). I was parked on Queen Street in the Historic Garrison District, and within a block of the Saint John River. I had planned to do a free historical walking tour at 10, but had about an hour to myself before it began, so I set out on a stroll, first up onto the Carleton Street River Lookout and then south along the paved Riverfront Trail.

I passed the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly building,

and visited the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral. Built between 1845-1853 in the Gothic Style, its steeple is almost 200 feet high, and its interior features beautiful stained glass from the 1850s.

There were many large and elegant Victorian-era homes in the leafy neighbourhood around the church, one of which has been converted into a popular art gallery, Gallery 78 (below right). I wish that I had booked two full days to explore and enjoy Fredericton as I would have made time to visit Gallery 78, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, and the Fredericton Region Museum, all of which I passed on my stroll.

I returned to the Guard House and Soldiers’ Barracks where my walking tour was to begin. The excellent one hour tour was led by two young fellows (below). We walked much of the same route that I had strolled, and there were many interesting facts and stories shared about the history and early settlement of Fredericton. Later in the afternoon, I would have the pleasure of watching a clever and humorous play created by the three talented young tour leaders below. The woman played a soldier interested in a newly-widowed female (in the shawl), but the widow was more interested in first a dashing and forward rogue (fellow with the bottle), and then an officer with a nice big house (same actor), than with a lowly rank and file soldier. The seated audience consisted of only myself, and one of the players’ mother and her friend! But, we more than made up for the lack of a larger audience with our laughter and enthusiastic appreciation of the players and the play.

My walking tour had ended at the very busy and popular Fredericton Boyce Farmers Market where I happily perused the stalls and splurged on some lunch items. I returned to the Guard House area just in time to view the city’s annual Pride Parade – small but cheerful and enthusiastic, it was another unexpected pleasure to be had.

After the parade and the play I spent time in the coolness and quiet of the nearby public library where I did some much-needed trip planning and downloading of photos, and then I finally returned to my car to head to my Airbnb. I didn’t drive far though, before noticing the Bill Thorpe Walking Bridge that crosses the St. John River. I stopped, found parking, accessed the bridge from the riverside trail, and walked the 600 metre length of this former railway bridge that is now used by pedestrians and cyclists. There was a breeze, the sky was blue, there were views upstream of the cathedral’s steeple rising above the trees, and views downstream to where I imaged the river flowing into the Atlantic not too far away! I would be there tomorrow! Cyclists and pedestrians crossing the bridge, mostly locals and some visitors, were noticeably happy, and I was feeling very happy too with my day in the great little city of Fredericton.

Breakdown in Quebec City (Emotional, not Mechanical!) – Postcards from Canada, 2025

Ottawa to Quebec City – 445 km

I left Ottawa on the late side as I had lingered over breakfast and conversation with my host and with the other guests at my B&B. It was a bright sunny day and I was thrilled to drive over the bridge that crosses from Ottawa to Gatineau, Quebec – I was now in my sixth province! I enjoyed the first hour or two of the drive, through some nice rolling forested hills and with occasional views of the Ottawa River, but then I quickly grew tired of the increasing amount of traffic on the main highway so I rerouted to some secondary roads more to the north, but they were also surprisingly busy, and many of the small towns that I passed through (with wonderful names like Sainte-Sophie, Sainte-Esprit, and Joliette) were bookended on their outskirts with traffic lights and the non-too-appealing line of gas stations, box stores, and fast food outlets typical of so many Canadian towns. I wasn’t loving the drive, the afternoon was growing very warm, and as I rejoined the freeways and finally neared Quebec City the traffic began moving really fast and there were multiple on and off ramps to negotiate to get to where I was going which was an Airbnb located in a leafy suburb about 30 minutes from Quebec City’s historic downtown.

The Airbnb was great, with a lovely hostess, and I had booked two nights there with a plan to park my car and take a local bus to visit the city’s historic centre, Vieux Quebec, on the following day. I had visited Quebec City three times before. The first time was when I was 17 years old and had travelled solo to Quebec to visit with relatives and to attend the Roberge family’s Tricentennial Celebration on L’Isle d’Orleans. That visit had sparked my love of travel and history, and I was greatly looking forward to revisiting Vieux Quebec’s charming cobblestone streets, the quaint houses and shops of the Lower Town, and especially Place Royale square with the architecturally simple yet exquisite Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Church which was built in 1688. Here are photos of 17 year-old-me at the Citadelle, and on a Quebec City Street.

But…, I soon found out from my hostess Suzanne that all of the Quebec City buses were on strike! Also, there was a large music festival on in the city, and two cruise ships full of tourists were docked in the harbour which meant that the streets of the old town would be crowded with visitors. The afternoon had grown incredibly hot and humid, which I am not at all used to, and I suddenly felt extremely tired and very dispirited.

I tried to make the best of it – my accommodation was on the lower level of a nice house which had a lovely garden and a swimming pool that I was free to use. I had a relaxing swim, chatted with Suzanne over coffee about travelling in France, made dinner in my suite, rested, then googled driving routes to downtown and where to park, etc. for the following day. Perhaps I didn’t sleep well, because in the morning when I woke I was so tired that the thought of driving a half hour into the centre of the city, and being amongst crowds in the heat and the humidity, was just too much. Also weighing on my mind was the long drive of 580 km on following day to get to my next campsite in New Brunswick so I told Suzanne that I was thinking of abandoning my second night of accommodation and leaving that morning in order to divide the next day’s drive in half. She responded with such kindness and compassion that it was easy to burst into tears and sob in her arms about my fatigue and the heat and the driving and no buses, etc. etc., etc. She encouraged me to stay, and even offered to drive me downtown, but I told her that I would call home and then decide. More sobbing over the phone as I spilled my woes, but with Brent’s patient listening I calmed quickly and decided that I really did need to give up my visit to Vieux Quebec and break up the next day’s travel.

Quebec City to Parc Provincial de la République, New Brunswick – 311 km

I thanked Suzanne, packed up, and headed out, still feeling exhausted. Once on the network of freeways, the driving was immediately challenging and fast, and then it was positively terrifying driving across the bridge over the St. Lawrence because very dark and low thunderclouds had built up quickly and just as I drove onto the bridge they let loose a thick torrent of rain. My windshield wipers couldn’t keep up, and I could barely see anything in front of me or beside me, BUT NO-ONE SLOWED DOWN!!

The rain and heavy traffic continued for another hour or two as I travelled away from Quebec City and towards the border with New Brunswick. I made a short stop at La Pocatiere for a much-needed break and to walk to the edge of the St. Lawrence River, but even that was a bust as the shore was inaccessible. Here are the only two photos that I took on my two days of travel through Quebec!

I rejoined the highway and thankfully the traffic eased once I was past Riviere-du-Loup, and I was finally able to relax a bit for the last hour and a half of the drive. I was thrilled to cross the border into New Brunswick – I was finally in the Maritimes! – and relieved to find a decent campsite a short while later at the peaceful, green and shaded Parc Provincial de la République. I settled into my site and walked off some of my stress on a trail along the river. Then more stress seeped away as I sat at a table near the pool and wrote in my journal, charged my electronics, and did laundry. The teenage workers there were wonderful – friendly, curious, and fluent in both French and English. I chatted with several lads, and with the lovely girl who was working in the gift shop. On her break, she asked to sit with me because she saw me journaling and felt inspired to work on her poetry beside me. We talked for a while (her mother is a published author), and then wrote in silence, side by side, companionably. I felt happy and grateful, and so glad that I had made the decision to break up the long drive into two days. I was also feeling proud and relieved – I had driven across Canada, safely, all the way to the Maritimes! So, here is one of my very favourite photos from my entire trip. A bag of New Brunswick’s famous Covered Bridge potato chips to show that I had arrived!

Thank you, readers, if you made it through all of the above woe-is-me text! Next time, lots of joy and photos from the beautiful province of New Brunswick. (And later, much more positive times in Quebec!) 🙂