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Saturday, September 19, 2015

Bay of Fundy Tides

I may be back home in Wisconsin now, but I have quite a few posts left from our trip out east to do yet.  When we were at Fundy National Park in New Brunswick we stopped in the town of Alma twice a day to check out high and low tide.


Our first time down in to town we lucked out and I got the above shot in perfect light.  It's my favorite shot from the whole trip!  Don't think light makes a difference?  Check out the same shot from the same spot at low tide in different light below.


Of course the next day Wayne had his hands on the tide schedule and we marched out to see just how far from town we could get with the tide out.  I timed the walk back and figured we made it straight out about a mile!

Alma from the Bay of Fundy at low tide

A lot of things we saw and did on this trip reminded me of when we drove to Newfoundland with the kids in 2001 and the Fundy tides were something we experienced with them at Parrsboro.

Cory wearing my jacket, 2001

They loved walking out in the mucky sand and digging around searching for creatures.
Whenever I see pictures of them as children it surprises me so much how quickly it all passes.


Katrina, 2001
The tides in the Bay of Fundy are the highest in the world and are semidiurnal, tides that have two highs and two lows each day. The height that the water rises and falls to each day during these tides are approximately equal and the gal at the visitor center said the height difference is usually around 30 feet in this area of the Bay.  It can range anywhere from 11 to 53 feet!  There are approximately six hours and thirteen minutes between each high and low tide, which made it easy to time when to show up.

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Did you know that barnacles are actually crustaceans, closely related to crabs and lobsters?  Weird!   And until Wayne picked one up and showed me I never knew what a scallop shell looked like.  They don't come served in their shells at the restaurant, after all.

scallop shell

How often can you say you walked on the ocean floor?  


If you decide to walk out during low tide keep track of the tide because it can come back in pretty quickly and folks have been stranded.  Next time we come this way we need to get out to Hopewell Rocks but there just wasn't enough time...

8 comments:

  1. I can see why that top pic is your favorite. It's just about perfect.

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  2. That was a great shot! We've always wanted to visit this place; our tides here on the Pacific coast move so slowly it's hard to tell what's happening. The waves are huge though, so you can never turn your back on them. Looking forward to the rest of your stories about this area. I'm making my list using you as a reference!

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  3. Absolutely loved the tide change! It is something you have to see to really understand.

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  4. There's something visually appealing about colorful boats in harbor. I can't get enough…
    Box Canyon Mark

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  5. Hopewell Rocks is another great place to view the low/high tide difference. Hard to wrap your head around such a phenomenon. At St Andrews, where the tide isn't quite as dramatic, I think we walked close to a mile out in low tide. You're right about kids, how quickly they grow from tots to grown-ups.

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  6. That picture with the boats is spectacular. I wonder why they paint them so colorfully.

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  7. That picture with the boats is spectacular. I wonder why they paint them so colorfully.

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