Travel Diary: Tour Through The Maritimes of Canada - Part One
At the beginning of summer, we had decided that we'd be exploring The Maritime Provinces of Canada for our big yearly expedition, but we knew VERY little about the area. We dove 100% into researching New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island & Nova Scotia. We had no clue there was SO MUCH going on up there! With such a long drive from our home in Kentucky, we also decided to make a pit stop for a day in Acadia National Park on the drive up. From there, we spent a day in New Brunswick, multiple days in Nova Scotia & one day in PEl.
Brakayla chillin’ on the Cabot Trail.
We ended up driving our Vanagon almost 5,000 miles across 9 US states and 4 Canadian provinces. It was one epic trek! We were away for 10 days, but, with all the things we experienced, it felt more like a month.
We left right after work on Friday afternoon and headed east. About 40 miles from home we ran into bigtime traffic. A semi trailer had overturned that morning, and cleanup was STILL going on! We ended waiting 4 hours in traffic. So much for making good time! Once we got moving again, we drove well into the night through Ohio & West Virginia until finally stopping for bedtime in a Cracker Barrel parking lot in Pennsylvania.
Sleeping in a parking lot ain’t glamorous, but it’s free!
In the morning, we continued on beginning to make our way north. We passed through New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts & New Hampshire before finally settling into a Walmart parking lot just outside of Acadia National Park in Maine. We had a nice and quiet night’s sleep.
The next morning began our first day of real fun on our great expedition. We wanted to get a fun 1/2 day hike in before we headed into New Brunswick. A quick Google search in the morning led us to the Precipice Trail. The trail is only a mile long (one-way), but it takes you to the top of Champlain Mountain with a quickness using iron rungs and rails. As you climb up the trail and walk along narrow rocky edges, you can turn around and enjoy remarkable views of Frenchman Bay all the way up to the top.
We arrived to the trailhead before 7am, and got a jump on the crowd. It took us a bit to find our legs after riding in the van for almost two days, but what a thrilling way to begin our fun! 10/10 hike!
A lovely view of Frenchman Bay from the Precipice Trail.
After we had a bit of a rest, we stopped by the water and had lunch before we were back on the road.
Lunchtime on the water.
We left Acadia National Park and drove north into New Brunswick with an easy, breezy border crossing. We camped that evening at a place known as The Shire, a popular free camp on the iOverlander app. There was only one other vehicle parked there. We showered that evening and went straight to bed.
The next morning, we rose early and met the other family that was camping at The Shire. The father walked over to apologize for being so loud, but we hadn’t really heard a peep from them. We had a conversation about where we were from and where we were going. He then gave us a joint to welcome us into New Brunswick! He said the stuff you can buy there is no good, so he basically forced upon us his own self-rolled fatty!
Once we got everything packed up, we drove 1/2 hour to Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park. OMG, how cool this place was! If you time your visit correctly (we did), you can walk on the ocean floor and look up at the exposed sea stacks where the Bay of Fundy's tide has receded. Every six hours, the bay's tide levels change anywhere from around 30-60 feet! We've never seen anything like this.
It’s hard to believe all of this was under water just 6 hours earlier.
We spent a lot of time here snapping a ton of photos and just playing around getting muddy like the kids that we are. We HIGHLY recommend a visit if you're anywhere near Hopewell Rocks. After a few hours of fun, we were back on the road headed toward Nova Scotia.
-Andrew