St. Martins: Sea Caves and More

One of Bay of Fundy's more popular attractions is the Sea Caves at the Village of St. Martins.  At low tide, you can walk across the open beach and explore the rocks and caves. They are made of sandstone, which, in some layers, has become a conglomerate with a wide variety of older rocks and stones embedded in them.

We had to set our alarm for 5:30 am in order to get to St. Martins by 8:30 am for the low tide.  It was a 2 hour drive, but worth it.

Here was our first view of one of the Sea Caves:

The view from inside the cave, back across the stony beach to the Village of St. Martins was almost as interesting:

At low tide, the beach stretches perhaps 200 yards out beyond high tide line.  Near the caves, the sandy mud eroding from the cliffs in which the caves are carved make for mucky walking in places, and rockweed has found its grip in crevices of larger boulders where the sandy mud has created a type of soil:

We found two caves immediately, but had to walk around a point to get to this formation.  It was lucky that we tried at low tide, because, within a half hour or so, the path we took was becoming inundated with the incoming tide.

Here is a view from inside the little valley of caves shown two photos above:

Websites and signs at the beach carry warnings about watching the incoming Bay of Fundy tides, because they can trap hikers in caves, on rocks, or back in what we've called the little valley of caves.  Interestingly, at the head of the valley, we spotted a knotted rope that undoubtedly is used for escaping the rising tide, or climbing down to enjoy the sheltered beach at high tide, or both.  Below, David demonstrates the proper method of escaping high tide by knotted rope:

While David was climbing for his life, Kathy was busy scrutinizing the walls of the caves to examine what types of stones are embedded in the sandstone.  It marvelled us to realize that the stones Kathy was pulling out of the sandstone matrix haven't seen the light of day for millions of years!

Having reached and explored the furthest caves, we worked our way back to the beginning of our hike, getting another view of one of the caves:

To reach the caves, we had to wade across small streams that fanned out across and through the stony beach.  We walked down to water's edge, where Kathy started rockhounding.  David, on the other hand, stood at the outlet of the stream to watch a mini tidal bore work its way upstream as the incoming Bay of Fundy tide forced its will on the current of the little stream.  He also experimented with standing at timing the approach of the incoming tide, amazed that, in the space perhaps 5 minutes, the water crept about 5 feet up the beach.

Driving back into the Village of St. Martins, we observed the local fishing boats still stranded in the sandy mud with the incoming tide not having reached them yet:

St. Martins boasts a lighthouse reconstructed in the center of town and developed into a beautiful little landscaped park.

The village park was bookended by -- not one, but -- two old covered bridges crossing the Irish River, which flows down into the village.  Here is the upstream bridge --

-- and this is the downstream bridge.  It's partly obscured by a modern, metal bridge that take the vehicular traffic because the covered bridge has deteriorated to the point that it will not support the weight of cars and trucks:

Driving back the 2 hours from St. Martins to our campground in Oak Bay, we passed the time doing some research for a lunch spot and were reminded that St. John boasts a feature called the Reversing Falls, where the current of the St. John's River meets the tidal bore and forms whirlpools and rapids, whose shape and location change as the tide flows in and out.  At low tide, the rapids flow downstream; at high tide, the rapids are reversed and flow upstream.  Here's a view of the whirlpools as they circled and passed the clifftop restaurant where we had lunch:

Another chance discovery on our drive was Oven Head Salmon Smokers, where we bought the tastiest smoked salmon pate, as well as salmon tails and fillets, all smoked by the "cold smoke" method, whereby the brined salmon is cured -- not cooked -- at 68F for 35 hours over smoking maplewood chips.  As we got out of the car, we could smell that luxurious aroma of smoked salmon wrapping itself around the little shop.  This made us hungry, and you know what happens when you shop for food when you're hungry...