What to see while road tripping through Canadian Maritimes
We discovered the Canadian Maritimes this summer, hiking and camping throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Highlights of places I think most worthwhile on the way to and from Maine are listed below.
Caribou and Munroes Island Provincial Park, Nova Scotia: This campground will give you a lot of bang for your buck. Dirt cheap but with fantastic amenities and iconic ocean views.
We knew nothing about this campground when we booked our campsite online. Based on the online photograph, we thought it was on the edge of a field. Once we arrived at the site and started pitching our tent, we heard the sound of the ocean. We walked over a small knoll and discovered that our campsite was actually near the Northumberland Strait.
I recommend swimming. This body of water boasts some of the warmest saltwater swimming north of the Carolinas. You can see Prince Edward Island from the beach. I also found an intact, vibrantly purple blue mussel shell. It was remarkable. So was eating at our campsite's picnic table: Someone who came before us etched the phrase, "The Dark Lord will Rise Again" into it. As you can imagine, this sparked more than one conversation about Harry Potter.
Pictou, Nova Scotia: We wandered into town and discovered the Hector Céilidh underway at the deCoste Centre. Céilidh (pronounced KAY-lee) refers to a social visit in Scottish Gaelic. The Hector Céilidh, like most modern usage of the word "céilidh," was a concert, with musicians, dancers, and pipers, as well as being a social gathering.
As the name Nova Scotia, which is Latin for "New Scotland," suggests, this Canadian province has rich Scottish heritage. More than 50,000 Gaelic settlers immigrated here between 1815 and 1870. Most of the roughly 2,000 Canadians that speak Scottish Gaelic live in Nova Scotia.
Besides the céilidh, we visited the Hector Heritage Quay which is home to a replica of the Hector. The Hector was a ship that landed in Pictou on Sept. 15, 1773, with 189 settlers from Scotland. These Highlanders founded the first Scottish settlement in Nova Scotia.
Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia.: After the American Revolution (1775–1783), about 33,000 Loyalists fled their homes in the U.S. and settled in Nova Scotia. Former New York City mayor David Mathews was among them, emigrating to Cape Breton.
Overall, the landscape bears a striking resemblance to Scotland. Mushrooms of all sizes and colors, butterfly sanctuaries, and other mystical flora and fauna await on the Skyline, L’Acadien, and Lone Shieling trails. I had my first run-in with a black bear on the Lone Shieling Trail, and enjoyed an awkwardly worded park pamphlet that suggested we’d see whales on the Skyline Trail. (As opposed to in the water.) The L’Acadien hike was the most difficult and most beautiful, boasting Lord of the Rings-like scenery and a trail that followed a winding brook.
Our campsite neighbors at Chéticamp campground made the trip memorable. We discussed Canada-U.S. relations with folks from Alberta, and our Nova Scotian neighbors had a little boy whose distain for showering (“This is a cruel place!”) provided us with life-long, comical memories.
Hopewell Rocks (131 Discovery Rd, Hopewell Cape), New Brunswick: New Brunswick is not only Canada’s only bilingual province (English and French), it is home to the highest tides in the world and the Hopewell Rocks, After the last glaciers retreated, water filtering through the cliff’s cracks eroded and separated these formations from the rest of the cliff. Meanwhile, the tides eroded the base of the rocks, giving the rocks their unusual “flower pot” shape. The rocks, are now one of New Brunswick’s most-visited attractions. Watch a time lapse video of the tides coming in and out here.
Be sure to check out the Interpretive Centre. It has a display that explains how and why the tides act as they do and how the "flower pot" rocks formed.
World’s Largest Axe (152 Otis Drive, Nackawic, New Brunswick): Built as a monument to New Brunswick's forest industry, this axe was constructed in 1991 and is 15 meters (49 feet) tall. Considering how big it is, it's surprising we initially couldn't find it. We stopped at a store to ask for directions.
The axe is impressive. It's located in a park by the Saint John River and hosts the annual Big Axe Craft Beer Festival.