Happy Mothers Day to all moms out there. Speaking of moms, I don't recall going on any hikes with my mom. She has bad knees now, but I should find a flat trail and bring her for some great views.

This week, we head to Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park. My first time visiting this place was way back in summer 2003, when I joined a Canadian east coast bus tour and Hopewell Rocks was one of the hot tourist destinations to visit. I went back with my family again last year during our summer east coast road trip, in the summer of 2024, 21 years later, and found that the tides at Bay of Fundy still come in high and still recede low. Famous for their tides, high tide at Hopewell Rocks could be as high as 16 meters (52ft). To allow visitors to fully appreciate the height of the tides, all entry tickets have unlimited entry into the park for two consecutive dates, and visitors are encouraged to visit once during high tide and once during low tide to see in person the scale and height of the tides. Unfortunately, we were on a tight schedule during the day we visited Hopewell Rocks, and had to Prince Edward Island in the afternoon as well as get to Halifax by evening. Thus, we decided to only visit during low tide. The park is also famous for nature sculpting special rock formations through tides.

The Park has a very large parking lot and is very well run. It is also very accessible, with shuttle cars for the disabled and the lazy to get to the ocean floor during low tide. There were also trails along the coast that weaves in and out the forest, connecting view points and also the stair access to the ocean floor during low tide. We walked the trail and visited each viewpoint along the way until finally reaching 101 Steps, the stair access to the ocean floor. Because it was during low tide, we were able to descend the stairs and walk around on the ocean floor. The ocean floor was pretty muddy as it is under water a lot of the time. My little one had lots of fun jumping and stepping in the mud on purpose. I guess the teachings of Peppa Pig still lingers even when you're seven years old. I was also pointing up and showing my kids where the water would have been during high tide. It was an itinerary planning failure on my part, as I should have accounted for time to visit the park again during high tide. I'm not sure when or if we will ever visit New Brunswick again, but if we do visit, I'll make sure to plan the time to visit the park during both high and low tides.

Park entrance. Very well run park.

Trail map from the park's website. Notice there's shuttle service lots of the points of interest.

One of the view points looking out into Daniels Flats.

Walking trail in the forest that connects all the view points and also the stairs to get to the ocean floor.

Section of ocean floor where it is safe to walk. Most other sections have mud too soft to walk on.

Special rock formation from the tides.

Stairs to access the ocean floor. It shows the times of day during which high and low tides would occur.

Down at the ocean floor.

Looking up, the tides go as high as the lowest trees.

More strange rock formations.

Walking through a rock arch. Little one is checking out the mud.

Lots of seaweed.

All this would be under water during high tide.

Low tide.

Even more seaweed.

Shoe / feet washing station at the top of the stairs to wash away the mud from walking on the ocean floor.

Check out my previous hikes: