Well Known and Lesser Known Crazy Rocks – Bay of Fundy - Hopewell Rocks and Cape Enrage, New Brunswick [July 7 & 8, 2018]

Islands that you can walk around at low tide.

Have you ever wondered what an island looks like under the water where it descends to the ocean floor?  At Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick you can walk at low tide on the ocean floor beneath huge sandstone monoliths that have been carved by the Fundy tides.  You can return at high tide and see them as islands, topped by trees and greenery. 

Low Tide

High(ish) tide

Of all the Bay of Fundy sights, Hopewell Rocks is one of the most iconic.  Whenever you see something about Fundy, these rocks are almost always featured as one of the visuals.  People flock to this New Brunswick Provincial Park to walk on the ocean floor beneath (and through) these rock formations.  It is hard to imagine the scope of them.   

To reach the rocks, you walk (or can hitch a shuttle ride) through a pretty forest, with overlooks to the rocks below.  Then, when the tide is accommodating, you walk down 101 steps to the gravel seabed, from where you can walk in both directions looking up at these amazing creations.

 We spent several hours exploring this interesting shoreline at low tide, and as the tide was starting to come in.  You are "allowed" on the sea floor 3.5 hours before and after low tide.  We returned the next morning to see the rock formations as islands.  We were only 2 hours after high tide, but already some of the sea floor was exposed and people had gone down to walk among the rocks that were accessible. (We did, too.)

Nothing says “Bay of Fundy” quite like the Hopewell Rocks.   

Cape Enrage lighthouse keepers duplex and lighthouse

Further along the coast is a much less known but possibly more dramatic Fundy destination, Cape Enrage.  Cape Enrage is the location of a light house perched atop a wind-swept escarpment sticking high out into the Bay of Fundy.  Another New Brunswick Provincial Park, you reach Cape Enrage by way a windy (barely) two-lane road with steep inclines and blind turns.   

The lighthouse close up

The remote light house complex has been restored.  The lighthouse itself is still “working” so you cannot climb up inside it.  In fact, there are signs warning you about the possibility of damaging your hearing should the fog horn sound while you are in front of it.   

On top of a very tall cliff...

You can rappel down this cliff or "simply" walk down the narrow metal stairs to the beach below

The lighthouse keepers’ duplex homes are now a restaurant with a million dollar view.  There is a zipline that goes from cliff to cliff over the open water and rock climbing down the rugged cliffs to the beach below.  New Brunswick is a happening, high adventure place.  It was so windy while we were there that we did not attempt the long, narrow, steep, metal stairs down to the beach.  It was simply spectacular to be up on the top of the cliffs looking out at the view.

Oh, it was windy and cold.  You can see part of the zipline to the left of the photo.