St. Martins, Saturday, 10-Jun-2023
For our only full day in St. Martins, we went to Fundy National Park to do a couple of waterfall hikes and walked around a pond. Later, we drove through a pair of covered bridges in St. Martins.
There are three major waterfall hikes in Fundy National Park, so we picked two of them to do. After having breakfast and gathering our things, we got on the road.
Third Vault Falls
We pulled into the Third Vault Falls Trail parking lot, which was a bit more than half full. As we were gathering our things, several vehicles arrived, and they all seemed to be a group. We got a good head start over them, but it's hard to know how fast such a large group would hike.
Most of the trail is a gentle downhill slope, but it got quite a bit steeper towards the end, including several staircases. It was at about this point when we heard a lot of voices behind us, and eventually let the large group go by. We were impressed with how quickly they were hiking.
When we got down to Third Vault Brook, we saw a section that was no longer trail, only rocks and boulders in the brook. We decided to continue on, figuring our boots did pretty well at keeping water out. Several places were large steps down, and eventually, we got to the trail again. One more staircase, then we needed to cross the brook. There was a taut rope across the brook but it ended up being easier to use our poles and find our own way across.
Once we turned the corner after crossing the brook, we got a look at Third Vault Falls, which drops over 50 feet. The large group (at least those who hadn't turned back before the trail became wet) was sitting around having lunch. We had some of our snacks, then started working our way back through the brook, up the stairs and steep sections, then finished up with the gradual slope up.
As we were driving away, not only was the parking lot full but even more cars were parked along the road. We were glad we arrived when we did.
It was time for a late lunch, so we drove to nearby Alma and had fish and chips at a local favorite, then went back to the park.
Dickson Falls
After driving by the park's golf course, we arrived at the Dickson Falls parking lot, which seemed small but wasn't full. This trail gets more use, so to protect the waters and plants there are a lot of boardwalks, especially when you get to Dickson Brook. From the first view of the brook, the water cascades over rocks, making you wonder if one or another of the steeper ones is the falls. However, once you follow the boardwalk around a corner, you know that you're looking at Dickson Falls.
The boardwalk takes you almost right next to the falls, so you get a really good look at them. After that, the trail climbs back up. Normally you have a choice between a shorter or longer loop, but the longer one was being worked on, so we did the shorter loop.
McLaren Pond
Since we were in the area, we went over to McLaren Pond for a short walk around it. As we were starting, a lot of Canada geese came in, all announcing their arrival. It was a quick walk around the pond, which is about 65 feet deep. At various points on the path are signs which describe how different plants were used for medicinal purposes.
St. Martins
We started heading back to our cabin but decided that it would make sense to go straight into town to have an early dinner, since after cleaning up, we might not feel like heading out again. Since it was kind of early, we went to an ice cream shop to get dessert first.
Near where we were eating our ice cream was a covered bridge. After we finished, we went up to take a look. It's got two lanes and a pedestrian lane, so we walked across the bridge and back. The bridge is relatively new, being built in 2022. It replaced the previous covered bridge which was deteriorating.
After we got off the bridge, we looked over at another covered bridge that looked older. It was built in 1946 and had one lane.
We picked a restaurant for dinner which happened to require us to drive across the 2022 covered bridge. We parked, then went down to the water to look over at the St. Martins Sea Caves. The caves were formed by the ocean eroding the cliffs' sandstone over time. You can walk in during low tide, but the tide was halfway between high and low, so we just looked from the beach.
When we got to the counter to order our dinner, there were only a few people ahead of us. Not long after, dozens of people showed up. Ends up they were there for a rehearsal dinner. We felt lucky to have arrived as early as we did.
While eating, we chose a seat next to the window so we could look out at the sea caves. As we started heading towards the car, we saw some kayakers going up to the caves.
Back to the cabin, and as we predicted, settled in for the rest of the night.
