East Coast Canada Roadtrip: Day 3 & 4, New Brunswick, Canada

You can read my complete trip recap on my East Coast Canada Roadtrip, here.

You can also read Day 1 & 2 in Maine, here.

Now onto days 3 and 4, which were both spent in New Brunswick, Canada. New Brunswick is one of eastern Canada’s Maritime provinces. It encompasses rivers, pine forest, mountains and the Bay of Fundy, known for extreme tides and whale watching. It has so many great stops if you are driving from Maine to Nova Scotia.

Day 3 – Bar Harbor, Maine to Alma, New Brunswick, Canada

Sips & Eats, Bar Harbor: Coffee Hound Coffee Bar – 27 Main Street B, Bar Harbor, ME 04609
Daily 7:30 am – 5:30 pm

I go to Coffee Hound at least once a visit anytime I am in Bar Harbor, but I would go every morning if I could. I love the Maple Leaf latte and I can also recommend the bacon croissant, it’s yummy! I always walk across the street to Agamont Park and enjoy my coffee and sandwich with a harbor view. Coffee Hound is closed seasonally after October 31.

It took about 4.5 hours to get from Bar Harbor to Alma, New Brunswick.

Tip: DO NOT forget your passport or passport card. The border crossing itself is very easy and is pretty similar to going through customs at an airport. When we arrived about mid-day on a Monday there was little to no line and it moved very quickly.

Staying: Alma Shoreline Suites and Cottages – 24 Foster Rd, Alma, NB E4H 1H3, Canada.

I booked the Alma Shoreline Suites very last minute (at the end of June) as we were driving to Alma. While none of the cottages were available, they had a few rooms left. It was cute, very clean and in a great location. We did, unfortunately, have some upstairs neighbor our first night that was stomping around and slamming things until 2 am. Thankfully they checked out for our final night here.

Sips & Eats, Alma: Tipsy Tails – 8607 Main St, Alma, NB E4H 1N6, Canada
12 – 9 pm daily

This place was one of my favorites from the trip. You get an amazing dinner view during the summer as it sits right on the harbor and you can watch the lobster boats come back in. Oh, and the patio is dog friendly! I can recommend the strawberry rhubarb IPA (I freakin’ love strawberry rhubarb anything), the fish tacos and the cinnamon roll bread pudding (yes, that is as good as it sounds). We honestly just relaxed here for a bit after our drive and it was the perfect spot to just sit and enjoy a small meal and a beer.

Now let’s talk lobster roll, verdict: you know I had to try the Tipsy Tails lobster roll and I think it makes my top 5 list, which I will absolutely share at some point. I really liked the bun on this one and it was just the right amount of lobster to bun ratio.

Hopewell Rocks Park visit number 1: 131 Discovery Rd, Hopewell Cape, NB E4H 4Z5, Canada
Summer hours are different and right now they are only open on Mondays. We got here a few hours before the sunset and we didn’t get to see it at the highest or lowest tide. It’s a gorgeous spot either way. But we did have the place almost entirely to ourselves.

Day 4 – Fundy National Park

I’m going to do a post about why you need to visit Fundy but first:
BRING BUG SPRAY!

Fundy National Park showcases a rugged coastline that rises up to the Canadian Highlands, the highest tides in the world and more than 25 waterfalls, plus, it’s impressively beautiful.

I started with a waterfall hike, because with so many waterfall options, why wouldn’t I? I’ll give you a hint, it’s one of the most popular hikes in the park and for good reason. Click here to see which waterfall I think is a can’t miss!

Hopewell Rocks Park visit number 2:
After doing the waterfall hike, I decided to try to get to Hopewell Rocks for low tide. The tide timetables are listed everywhere. They were in our hotel room, they are posted at Hopewell Rocks Park, and on their website. Hopewell Rocks are home to some of the highest tides in the world but when the tide is out, you get to walk on the ocean floor! Cool, right? Click here for tips on what to expect on a summer visit to Hopewell Rocks.

I’m going to write more about this later but it was definitely one of those travel expectations versus reality places. Particularly after being there the night before with only a few other people.

Sips & Eats Alma: Octopus Garden Café – 8561 Main St, Alma, NB E4H 1N1, Canada
8 am – 10 pm. Closed Monday.

This spot was really cute and it was great for a quick lunch after hiking all morning. I can recommend the strawberry lemonade, chicken pesto sandwich, and the special (of that day), which was a fried bologna sandwich. The food was great and so was the service. The atmosphere is very relaxing. I would absolutely recommend eating here if you find yourself in Alma.

The failed attempt at Laverty Falls:
Tip: Do not rely on Waze or Google Maps while you are in Fundy National Park. While those apps may work for most trailheads, they got us pretty freakin’ lost when trying to find Laverty Falls.

Story Time: I had heard Laverty Falls was gorgeous, so we headed here but only after, driving to the Matthew’s Head trailhead, and deciding to do Laverty Falls instead. Looking back, I wish we just would have hiked the Matthew’s Head Trail, which is 2.8 miles and offers stunning coastal views.

Instead, we hopped back in the 4 Runner and went looking for the Laverty Falls trailhead. Waze couldn’t even find the trailhead, as in, it was coming up “location not found.” The trailhead was listed on Google Maps so off we went hiking to our waterfall, or so we thought. Google Maps took us to an unpaved road, no problem, I drive a 4 Runner so that’s not an issue. We drove on the dirt road for over an hour. It became clear that it was taking us to Laverty Falls but not to the trailhead. It was all of a sudden telling us we were at Laverty Falls when we were just driving on the dirt road. Our line of thinking is that it most likely was Laverty Falls just not in a place where we could hike or get to it.

My mom honestly started to get freaked out as we only passed 2 other cars the entire hour, we were driving down this dirt road. I’m not sure if it’s all of the horror movies she’s seen or the fact that we were on our first mother/daughter solo trip, but we turned around and headed back to the main road.

Eventually, we did find Laverty Falls Trailhead and by the time we did, we were both pretty intently set on hiking to the waterfall. It’s a 2.8 mile, out and back trail but once we started hiking down, we noticed that everyone else was hiking back out. Then we checked the time and realized that there was no way we were going to make it back to the car before dark. I was seriously ill-prepared for this hike. I didn’t take my backpack with my camelback, so we had no water. I didn’t have my headlamp and I didn’t spray with bug spray before starting the hike. I just grabbed my camera quickly and we started down the trail. It was a serious hand to head moment.

We never did make it to Laverty Falls. We hiked about a mile and half down before realizing we wouldn’t make it back and turned around. As I’ve said, this has been a year of lessons for me and this hike was 1000% one of those lessons.
Lesson 1: Do not hike unprepared. Always bring water and a headlamp!
Lesson 2: It’s not ALL about the destination. Part of the reason I love hiking is that most of the time the entire hike is beautiful.
Lesson 3: So what if you don’t make it to the waterfall or the summit. It’s not about that. That’s just an added bonus.
They were lessons that I needed and I tip my hat to the universe for sending them my way. However, at the time I was just pretty mad about the entire thing. Haha

Since it wasn’t quite dark we decided that we probably had a little more time to see some sights before calling it a day.

Point Wolfe Covered Bridge: Point Wolfe Rd, Alma, NB, Canada

I’m not really big into covered bridges because where I grew up in Central Pennsylvania you could throw a rock and hit one. So, I’ve been seeing them my entire life. The current Point Wolfe bridge is actually a replacement, built in 1993 when the previous bridge was badly damaged in a construction mishap. But it’s a beautiful area. We couldn’t get down to Point Wolfe Beach but if you want some photos that aren’t so touristy and like everyone else that is a great vantage point. It’s definitely worth a stop if you are in the area and it’s the only way to get to the Point Wolf Campground!

Next, we quickly stopped at the lookout over Alma because I had been eyeing it ever since we arrived. The lookout features those famous red adirondack chairs, but you couldn’t see my head at all if I sat in the chairs (haha).

And finally –
Sips & Eats, Alma: Sopranos Pizza – 8553 Main St, Alma, NB E4H 1N1, Canada
11:30 am – 6 pm

Honestly, after an incredibly long day and so much hiking, we were dirty, sweaty, and tired. And sometimes you just want pizza, a shower, and to relax! Sopranos fit that bill, but it was actually pretty excellent pizza. We honestly weren’t expecting much but we got a small Hawaiian pizza (yes, I am pro pineapple on pizza) and it was delicious!

Final Thoughts:

I wish I had at least one more day for Fundy National Park. While we weren’t overly scheduled out on this trip, I did book the glamping dome for 2 nights in Cape Breton. We could have stayed at Fundy for an extra day but instead, we headed to Cape Breton. Fundy was really beautiful and I’m hoping to make it back there for a Fundy National Park only trip. I’d love to take the boys because Canada’s National Parks are so much more dog friendly then US National Parks.