The magic of the Cliffs of Fundy
Nova Scotia’s tidal landscapes make a UNESCO Global Geopark
I’m standing on a small spit of land that leads to Partridge Island on the outskirts of Parrsboro, in Nova Scotia, watching an unusual phenomenon. The water all along the shore looks as if it’s boiling. As thousands of bubbles surface and pop, I feel a deep connection to the earth, water and sky — thanks to Glooscap, the legendary hero of the Wabanaki, meaning “People of the Dawn.”
Closing my eyes, I recall a story that Mi’kmaq artist and storyteller Gerald Gloade shared with me about Glooscap’s grandmother and her magic cooking pot. “Her home was Partridge Island, and she was always ready to receive company,” Gloade said, “and if she cut off a piece of moose meat, it would just grow back. Twice every day, two hours before high tide, the water churns as grandmother stirs her pot.” The experience is both mystical and mesmerizing.
Later, while hiking along a beach at Five Islands Provincial Park, I catch sight of a magnificent rock formation called Old Wife, sticking up out of the ocean. On the shoreline to my left are giant diamondshaped red sandstone imprints, topped by contrasting Jurassic basalt.
I get goosebumps thinking how this scene was formed more than 200 million years ago, when a supercontinent called Pangea broke up, giving birth to our present continents and the Atlantic Ocean.
Five Islands is also related to Glooscap. Annoyed with the mischievous Beaver, the legendary figure flung huge sods of earth at Beaver, forming the chain of islands known as Moose, Diamond, Long, Egg and Pinnacle.
This is all part of the Glooscap Trail, where I’m exploring the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark, a designation granted in July 2020. In the words of the United Nations agency, Geoparks are “single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development.”
Globally, there are169 Geoparks in 44 countries. China has the most, with 41; Canada has five. This one, the Cliffs of Fundy, features 30 Geosites between Debert and Apple River — a distance of 137 kilometres. Each site is unique. Want to hike down a rare slot canyon? Check. See spectacular waterfalls? Check. Learn about Mi’kmaq culture and traditions? Check.
This entire region is part of the Bay of Fundy, also designated one of the Seven Natural Wonders of North America. I learn more about this fascinating region when I visit the Age of Sail Museum in Port Greville. As luck would have it, I’m greeted by the museum’s executive director, Oralee O’Bryne, who offers to take me on a tour.
Standing in front of a large interpretive panel titled “Tides of Fundy,” O’Bryne explains how the tides here are the highest in the world. “They rise and fall upwards of 50 feet (16 metres) twice a day,” she says.
“More water rushes in and out of here than the flow of all the freshwater rivers in the world!”
Over my three days of travel last July, I take a wrong turn here and there, and get lost. As I knock on doors, I’m often greeted with a cordial invitation to come in for tea and cookies, or an offer to bring me to specific sites. When I try to find the Londonderry Iron Mines, where more than 2 million tons of ore were mined in the late 1800s, the person who answers my knock replies simply, “Hi, I’m Sally. Hold on — I’ll take you there.”
Sally takes me not only to the former site of the mines but also to the old coke ovens I’d heard about, hidden in the woods: 50 semicircular brick ovens, side by side, each about four feet high and 12 feet wide — like camouflaged caves. “Sometimes we brought our children for picnics in the old ovens,” Sally tells me. “They loved that.”
Camera buffs will have a heyday in the region as photo ops are around every corner. One of my favourites is a picnic stop at Soley Cove in Lower Economy, where I find the famous “flowerpot,” one of the many Triassic sandstone sea stacks carved by the power of the tides.
I’m intent on retracing my journey to the Cliffs of Fundy before the year is out. This time, I plan to visit all 30 sites.