Do you see the bear? A gorilla’s head? Upside down heart (or butt checks)? (and a male appendage?)
July 11, 2026
We went to HOPEWELL ROCKS Provincial Park in New Brunswick, Canada. This is a prime spot to witness the incredible high and low tides of the Bay of Fundy!
We walked to the beach. The amount of the ocean floor that we could walk on was immense!
A look back at the stairs–the only way up and down.
At high tide the water will be over the height of everyone’s head in the pictures above.
These conglomerate rock formations were huge. It was cool to walk where water would be well over our heads once the tide goes back in!
Flower Pot Rocks – These are formed from sand, mud, and rocks eroded by rain, streams and glaciers. Over millions of years sediment accumulated and compressed to form two types of solid rock. The harder of the two is formed by stones and pebbles cemented into place by hardened silt (conglomerate). The other is softer. It is formed by layers of compressed sand (sandstone). As the continents moved and collided these layers were tilted and broken. Cracks appeared providing openings where water and ice could enter.
See two faces in the picture below? (Back to back)
The Interpretation Center with a little optical illusion in the tan brick section!
This was a really cool set of three pictures. One at high tide. One at low tide. And the one that “combines” the two. It shows people walking on the ocean floor at low tide and a portion of what it is like at high tide when kayakers come through. Most low to high tides we are familiar with at the seashores don’t cover this kind of distance let alone have the shallowest of the high tide be over your head!
This was such a cool experience that we decided we had to come back in the morning to watch high tide arrive!
We boondocked a few miles away using a spot from “Park4Night” app. There was a large paved pullout area closer that probably would have worked, but we came to this spot…larger with a few picnic tables. It was a nice, quiet night. One other RV joined us but we each had our own area. Glad the rain came after we were done at Hopewell Rocks.
July 12 – High Tide was to be at 10:45am.
We arrived at 8am. We didn’t just want to see this at high tide, but to watch the last 2-3 hours of the tide coming in. 8am was the earliest we could get into the park, so we were at the gate ready to enter as soon as it opened.
160 billion tons of water moves in and out of the Bay of Fundy every 25 hours! It is powered by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. These are among the highest in the world and vary daily with the changing positions of the sun and moon. During full and new moon the tides are higher.
The tides start rising slowly, but speed up when they are about half-way in. At their fastest, the tide can be rising straight upward (vertically) at a rate of 13 feet per hour here!! The point of low tide becomes about 46 feet deeper at high tide!! WOW
Arrival shot from above @ 8:19am:
On our way down to the ocean floor.
The water really does come up fast, but there aren’t any crashing waves like we are used to along the ocean. That took me by surprise.
Our picture in front of the “Lover’s Arch” formation at 8:25am. The water at this point was already under the arch! The “left leg” is fully surrounded by the water.
8:27am
8:38 am As the water continued coming in, I enjoyed conversing with Kathryn – a knowledgeable and friendly ranger.
When the tide comes in or out along the ocean coasts, it is a much slower transition of several hours. Here you can see the water level come up about a foot every 5 minutes! It’s more like filling a bathtub or swimming pool.
8:45am we were all being moved to the staircase! WOW! That was fast and there is so much more water to come in over the next two hours!!!
Do you see a bear looking at you or one looking outward with its mouth open? Neither? or Both?
9:33am
The small opening under “Lovers Arch” was cool for kayaks to go thru! At the highest high tides it’s a close fit.
10:35am
I really enjoyed meeting and talking with Kathryn, a Hopewell Park Ranger. We talked about seeing the bear, the heart or butt checks, and the phallic piece. She told me that there are a lot of people who don’t see “the bear”, or can’t see the two figures kissing that gave “Lover’s Arch” its name. Kathryn and I discovered we had a lot in common. we both saw “both” bears on “the Bear” formation. We shared how we love seeing animals or objects in cloud formations. Nature is just awesome.
Lover’s Arch used to be two fully formed archways in 1965, but natural erosion and a rockfall between 1975 and 1977 caused one side to separate, creating the “Bear Rock”.
Before leaving each day after hiking back to the upper park area, we took the trail to Diamond Rock and the view of Daniels Flats (mud flats). Here are views from both days.
It was time for us to get back on the road. We are going to Prince Edward Island today!