Tuesday, July 8, 2014

That Dutchman's Cheese Farm


Today's drive was only a bit over 150 miles not really long at all.

Still we like to break up the driving and see stuff whenever possible.

Today stop was That Dutchman's Cheese Farm.

 Obviously they make cheese here! And have lots of cheese and snacks to sample.
 It is also a working farm. You are free to roam the whole thing.
 It is also part animal park and general roadside attraction.

It was a little scary towing the trailer down the long road into the farm thinking we might not be able to easily turn around or get back out.  But it turned out fine although parking was tight.
Who doesn't love baby goats!

You can feed a lot of the animals and they come running when they hear the food dispenser.
 Not this guy he was trapped behind a gate.

We brought him some food too.
 Big Bird!
 Off a bit further on the property were some pigs.
 And a short hiking loop took us past these small but very furry cows.

They are Scottish Highland Cattle and pretty awesome at that.

Quick overnight in Parsboro NS

We aren't moving very fast through NS or at least not driving too far each day.

Tonights stop is Parsboro where the campground is right on the beach.
 We got in early enough to head to the beach with Cheese and Crackers and Beer and Wine.
We watched the sunset from the beach.
 We just stayed here the one night. This campground was a bit off the beaten path but the ocean front location was worth it.

Tucker also enjoyed being off leash on the beach.
 There was a lot of erosion going on up and down the beach. There was a lot of sandstone which was giving way to runoff and the surf.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Joggins Fossil Cliffs

We took a little side trip to visit Joggins Fossil Cliffs a UNESCO world heritage site.

It is a trove of fossils from the Carboniferous Period about 300 millions years ago.

Our arrival was timed pretty good, we had enough time to make a quick lunch in the trailers before taking a tour.

You can wander around yourself but you don't learn as much and with fossils can sometimes miss them entirely.
At Joggins it would be hard NOT to find a fossil as they are everywhere all over the beach and the cliffs.

Check out this tree trunk in the cliff wall.
 The tour guide is giving us a lot of good information and the tour group is finding the fossils.

She explained one great thing about Joggins is how the erosion of the cliffs if exposing new fossils all the time.

Even these ripples are a fossil of where waves disturbed the mud and somehow it got fossilized.
 The tree trunks are really cool. And entirely different from other fossilized and petrified trees we've seen before.
 Tucker even joined in the search for fossils.
 It was a bit of a dreary day but the cliffs were still beautiful.

I forget the exact number but as the layers in the cliff go it was about 4000 years of time per foot.
The entire fossil encrusted exposure is over 9 miles long. We only explored about a mile of it.

 Really large tree trunk about 3 feet in diameter.

There is also still a lot of scientific studies going on at the cliffs.





Saturday, July 5, 2014

Hopewell Rocks

We took a drive to Hopewell Rocks today. After a short walk you can see the rocks which are advertised as many different sensational things.
 Sometimes they are called the flow pot rocks because trees grow out of them like flow pots.

 It is also advertised as "Walking on the sea floor" (Which I mean any beach really is).  But this is much cooler since the really high tides form these crazy rock formations.
 We times our visit at low tide which is important as the only way to get down here and walk around is low tide.

If it was later we would need to kayak to visit the same spot and the water would be up much much higher.

The biggest arch you can kayak under at high tide but most of them we walked through would be under water.
That is the arch you can kayak under, however you still have to duck your head to get under it at high tide.


Friday, July 4, 2014

Fossil Hunting

All of the Canadian Maritimes is basically covered with fossils and interesting geology.

Today we are hiking down this cliff (OK there were stairs is wasn't really a hike) to look for some fossils.
It was another foggy day, but it was a nice rocky beach.
 As with many of our hunting expiditions we are ill informed and not sure what kind of fossils we are looking for.

But that didn't stop us. I am sure we found a few things we believed to be fossils.
Later I informed myself and found out we really needed to walk further around this point to get to the spot with a lot of fossils.


Thursday, July 3, 2014

Rainy day hikes

The rain was on and off today but never that hard.

We checked out the museum and did a few short hikes around the park.

The misty weather makes the greens really green and lush.
We hungout on this beach for a while and I think had a little snack or lunch. The sun was out so we just enjoyed it.
Same beach but a huge bank of fog was blowing in. Only took about a minute or so and we went from sunny and warm to cold and no visibility.
Heart shaped log.

I don't remember exactly but I think we spent the evening doing some laundry and taking a drive into down to hangout at coffee shop for some better WiFi and of course some kind of cake!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Laverty Falls Hike


Today we did a nice hike along a couple of rivers and saw some waterfalls.

Will and I actually went swimming in the freezing cold water.  Really cooled us off for the return hike back to the car.
I think this was actually the spot we went swimming, I thought maybe we took a picture of the swimming but couldn't find it. (These posts are being written months late)

Bay of Fundy NP

We are staying a few days in the Bay of Fundy National Park. The weather is a little iffy but we splurged for full service sites that even have internet.

The Bay of Fundy is know for having the highest tides and they really do seem to be incredible.

The tide is out and it looks as if you can't even see where the water begins.