Saint John, NB (not to be confused with Saint John’s, NL), is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, and the 2nd largest city in New Brunswick. Its location where the Saint John River meets the Bay of Fundy made it the perfect spot for heavy industry and shipping. The city now boasts of reinventing itself as it modernizes and expands into more high-tech industry, tourism (it’s now a major stop for cruises on the east coast) and the arts.
In the heart of the Saint John’s North End, Rockwood Park is one of Canada’s largest urban parks. It was designed by architect and landscape designer Calvert Vaux, who also designed Central Park and Prospect Park in NYC with his partner Frederick Law Olmstead. Fortunately for us, among the many park activity offerings is camping. Although we don’t visit cities that often, it’s nice to have an urban campground to serve as a convenient location from which to explore. Nothing we wanted to visit was more than a 15-minute drive away.
~2pm – The Saint John River is flowing to the left (south) toward the Bay of Fundy. It was so normal that I didn’t think to take a video… (Irving Pulp and Paper across the river)
~4:30 – The Saint John River becomes relatively still and flat
~6:30 – The River is clearly flowing to the right (north)…
The birds are loving it! It’s like they get to play in the rough choppy water twice a day and this is their time…
Although there are several examples of the extreme tides around the Bay of Fundy, Saint John is known for its Reversing Rapids. We arrived about 2 hrs after low tide and the water was rushing south toward the Bay. At the mid-point between low and high tide, there was an eerie stillness in the river. And at about an hour before high tide the river was actually flowing steadily away from the Bay, the rising tide pushing the Saint John’s River upstream. The power of water!
As a port city, Saint John has no shortage of containers. There’s also no shortage of artists in the community. In 2022, the idea emerged to develop the Waterfront Container Village – aka Area 506 – a creative, colorful space that showcases the city’s music, small businesses, arts, food, and other entertainment. The Graffiti Alley’s murals made it our fave – stare down the alley long enough and you’ll see a little bit of everything. The 3-story bar made of containers and surrounded by different levels of outside decks was also pretty cool.
Saint John was as far up the NB coast as we’ll visit – for now (we’ll be returning to NB a little later in the trip). We took the ferry to Digby, Nova Scotia to explore that area for awhile.
For anyone who’s interested, more Rockwood Park, Container Village and ferry pix…
Some Thoughts I’m Having about the Bay of Fundy
When I’ve told people we’ll be visiting Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, several have asked if we plan to visit the Bay of Fundy. Some volunteered that they, too, are going to visit the Bay of Fundy or have been there, themselves. And I sense that people have heard of the Bay of Fundy and its massive tides and envision it as something like Boston Harbor or even San Francisco Bay, except with these massive tides you can watch go in and out. But the Bay of Fundy is 9 times as large as San Francisco Bay, which is itself 8 times as large as Boston Harbor. The Bay of Fundy isn’t really a destination to visit in the same sense that one might visit a landmark, a mountain, a city, or a lake. To my mind, it’s more like visiting an ocean.
The Bay of Fundy is the enormous Bay between the south shore of New Brunwick and the north shore of Nova Scotia. Anywhere near either coast, all things, including the air we breath and the fog that surrounds us is the Bay of Fundy. I’m sitting here in camp overlooking the Bay of Fundy, in and out of the fog, and enjoying the view. We can’t avoid the Bay of Fundy.
It’s famous for the highest tides in the world due to its funnel shape. Here’s a comparison… The difference in the water level between low and high tide in Portland, ME averages 9 feet. At Saint John, NB, the average is 26 feet. In Wolfville, NS, near the end of the Bay, the average is 52 feet.
So througout our travels, we’ll highlight some of the unique sights and features of Fundy, like the reversing rapids above. There are more to come… However, there won’t be a separate Bay of Fundy post.
