Fundy Tides and the Hopewell Rocks

After Saint John we went to Fundy National Park in New Brunswick and spent a couple of days. This is a good base to explore the tides in the Bay of Fundy. Due to unique geographical conditions, the tides in the Bay of Fundy are the largest in the world. Much of the extremes in tides in the bay is due to the fact that the time it takes water to flow into or out of the bay is close to the time interval between tides. This harmonic situation causes the water to slosh back and forth in the bay. As the water flows into the bay, the narrowing, shallow ends of the bay amplify the tidal change. At the head of the bay the tide can change by over 50 feet!



Here is the harbor in the village of Alma, right next to Fundy National Park. The same location was photographed near low and then near high tide, just over six hours apart.



Another part of the Alma harbor, taken at both low and high tide.


We also visited a famous area called the Hopewell Rocks. Here the movement of the water due to the tides has caused interesting rock formations to erode from the cliffs. At low tide you can walk around the rocks "on the bottom of the ocean".



Here is view of all the rocks and visitors "from sea floor level" and the usual picture to prove that we were actually there.



Here is a view of the Hopewell Rocks from the top of the access stairs near low tide and again near high tide.