New Brunswick's Great Outdoors

By Tom Bross 

Hopewell Sandstone Formations

LOW TIDE                               HIGH TIDE

Sandstone Formations
Protected salt marshes spread over much of the landscape, and those mighty tides continuously carve sandstone promontories into eye-catching formations. The best-known and most-photographed are nicknamed the Flowerpot Rocks, on Shepody Bay at the Hopewell Rocks Ocean Tidal Exploration Site, where an expanded interpretive center and Bistro by the Bay restaurant opened in August, 1998.

Fundy National Park
The Fundy National Park covers 80 square miles of pristine forests, deep river valleys, waterfalls, bogs and beaches, plus a 65-mile trail network. And what used to be the province's trackless Lost Coast is being traversed by the scenic Fundy Trail Parkway, which will ultimately extend 35 miles from the picture-pretty village of St. Martins westward through the park. On the Northumberland Strait's francophone Acadian shoreline boardwalk curves 1.25 miles above shifting sand dunes speckled with beach heather, habitat for great blue heron and rare piping plovers.

Birdwatching
Between late July and mid-August, as many as two million sandpipers, plovers and other feathered fliers swoop onto the nutrient-rich mudflats. Having traveled three days nonstop from the Canadian Arctic, they arrive with heavy-duty appetites, eager to fatten up on shrimps and snails in preparation for their four-day nonstop flight to upper South America. Result: Fundy's renown as a birdwatchers' paradise—as at the peninsular Mary's Point Shore-bird Reserve amidst the Shepody National Wildlife Area.

Watching for Whales
Various species of whales, sighted as they migrate northward from July to September, feast on the bay's squid, plankton, herring, mackerel and krill.

Day Adventure Packages
New Brunswick's tourism officials have been promoting such outdoor attractions with a New Tide of Adventure theme. Package programs marketed as Day Adventures include jet-boating over the swirling Reversing Falls at Saint John, the province's biggest city, ideally located at midpoint on the Fundy coast. Another is sea-kayaking (for groups and individuals).

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