Travel – Page 3 – Aspiring Nirvana

Dare to Walk in the Seabed with World’s Highest Tides – Hopewell Rocks Park

If you aspire to walk on the ocean floor and few hours later kayak at the same spot with 50 feet high tides, then you must visit Hopewell Rocks, home to the highest tidal range in the world!

Hopewell Rocks Park, Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada

The Hopewell Rocks Park is one of the Marine Wonders of the World. The rocks at the park are between 40 to 70 feet tall, with unique formations caused by daily tidal flows of up to 50 feet, containing 175 billion tons of sea water flowing in and out daily! The time difference between a high tide and a low tide is about 6 hours.

The Hopewell Rocks Park is located at the coast of the Bay of Fundy, at province of New Brunswick and close to Nova Scotia, Canada. The Bay of Fundy itself is one of the 7 natural wonders of America.

On the way back from Nova Scotia, we stopped at the town of Mocton, New Brunswick. From there we headed to the Hopewell Rocks park which was about half-hour drive. When we reached at the park it was time of low tide, so we took stair to reach “ocean floor”. We strolled at the sea bottom along the base of rocks and admired their unique shapes and enormous size.

A word of advice based on our personal experience. Remember, you will be walking on a wet and muddy ocean floor, so dress appropriately with proper footwear or walk barefoot. There will be water facility to clean your footwear near the stairs.

The base of rocks have been eroded over the years by tides. The rocks harbor diverse sandstone forms and their tops are usually covered with trees. Usually the difference in tides is just few feet at other places, but the size of Bay of Fundy uniquely matches gravitational force of the moon push pull cycle, that results in high tidal waves at Hopewell Rocks.

We strolled through the area while admiring the unique geology on the ocean floor. After few hours, the tide started reversing and ocean water started tricking in. We safely moved above the shore using the stairs and watched as the area below started submerging in ocean water again.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Hopewell-Rocks-Boats-1024x563.jpg — Hopewell Rocks, High Tide

Having watched one of the unique natural wonder of the world, it was time to bid goodbye! Before heading back home, we paused and admired one more time, the complex and unique geological landscape on Earth!

Our rating: 4.5*s out of 5

This concluded our week-long trip to Canada provinces New Brunswick and Nova Scotia .

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Rare Walk with the Giants of Earth at Sequoia National Park

If you aspire to stand next to the tallest, widest, fastest-growing and longest-lived of all organisms on Earth, you must visit Sequoia National Park to view Giant Sequoia trees. These trees are as tall as 25-story building, have width similar to a city street, and are older than 2500 years. You have to literally stand next to one of them to appreciate the stunning size of these giants!

Sequoia National Park is located in California, close to town of Visalia that is mid-way between San Jose and Los Angeles. We started driving from town of Visalia and reached the park entrance in about 1.5 hours. The route cuts across steep and winding mountain roads that offer beautiful scenery along the way.

We parked near Giant Forest Museum and walked inside to get information about giant sequoias and nearby attractions.

Outside the museum we took Big Trees Trail that is about 1 mile loop. Throughout the trail we saw incredible sequoia trees and lovely meadow with plenty of photo opportunities.

Big Tree Trail, can you spot tiny humans?

Once back to the museum, we boarded one of the free shuttles that takes visitors through the main attractions of the park. We highly recommend taking the shuttle.

General Sherman is a giant sequoia tree and is the largest tree in the world; standing about 275 feet tall, about 100 feet in circumference, weigh 1,385 tons and is believed to be 2,200 years old. Our reaction after watching it was “this is a BIG monster..”

You may have done plenty of drive-through for coffee, but if you ever wanted to drive through a tree then you need to visit Tree Log Tunnel. The tunnel is 8 feet tall and 17 feet wide. The tree had died of natural causes and was later turned into a tunnel.

Crescent Meadow is a small and beautiful meadow in the region and is often praised as “Gem of the Sierra”. We strolled through this peaceful place that was flourishing with lush greenery.

Our last destination was Mono Rock, which offers best view of the whole park.

Moro Rock is a large granite dome that has elevation of about 6,750 feet. We hiked to the summit by taking about 400 steps of concrete stairway. Be careful of the narrow and sudden drop-offs along the route, although handrails makes it somewhat safer to climb. From the top, we saw spectacular view of the valleys and wilderness in the surrounding area.