Fundy National Park–Part I

We found a semi-urban camp spot near the reversing falls in St John, NB, but it was wild enough that Hailey got to meet an orange cat and a deer at the same time.

  It was getting dark, so the photo is poor.  Kayakers moved into the area in the Falls Park to take advantage of the river when it started to flow in the ‘correct’ direction again! For Michelle – unless you know which way to the ocean, you wouldn’t necessarily know if the river was running backwards or not.  But there is no mistaking the direction at the time as it is racing upstream in big rapids when the tide is coming in, and even larger rapids the other direction when the tide is going out!

We then took the scenic route down the coast past Gardner Ck, then headed for Fundy National Park on the coast.  A deserted cutover just outside the northern boundary of the park provided peace and quiet for the night, and a  moose visitor in the morning.

I guess that ‘we’ were the actual visitors there, not the moose …?

In the morning, it was into Fundy, where we checked out the lakes and attractions on the way to the coast.  There was some pretty impressive fish ladders and monitoring equipment at Bennett lake, however the staff at the visitor centre seemed to know nothing about it !?  I guess the Parks cutbacks are already having effects?

Enter Google …………….

This in spite of the fact that there was a grand opening only a month before where the Environment minister and the local MP were present!

http://www.mrc.ca/mrc_projects/bennet-lake-dam-reconstruction/
http://news.gc.ca/web/article-eng.do?nid=686039

I really liked all the signs warning of fast water .

Photos below from online – taken during construction.

Discovered that this national park has campgrounds that are now providing wi-fi – not sure if there is an extra charge or not.  A couple more new (to me) things:

All the park garbage here is to be sorted, for some reason?  Composting, perhaps?

And, various signs around the park contained QR codes to be scanned with your smart phone for more information, as well as the lat –longs for that location!

At Point Wolfe, there was a nice covered bridge, but I read that it had been built in the 1990’s, based on 100 year old plans.

Fundy is a park of countless long boardwalks and stairways leading down to the ocean and to waterfalls and viewpoints.  I took this video of fog drifting in across the trail at Wolfe Point.

Fundy fog at Wolfe point

Nearby, was a plaque commemorating one of the first Park Wardens in the country.  He’s probably turning over in his grave somewhere after hearing that a petty Parks bureaucrat ended the Warden Service tradition of service to the parks – at 99 years – all in a petty battle over officer safety.  Sad, but true.

While at the park there was a free concert one night at the outdoor park theatre.  The show featured young NB musician Kathleen Gorey-McSorley. She was a great fiddle player, has an awesome voice, and even did some tap-dancing.

You can check her out on Youtube.

More Fundy on next edition …