Day 23 - Canadian Maritimes 2026 - St John, New Brunswick - Reversing Falls - Sea Glass Beach

Actually we had a very quiet night at the casino parking lot at Moncton, New Brunswick.  It was nice to have a place to park after a long day of driving. But we really don't see the need to do it again. I suppose some people would take advantage of The Players Club and being a new visitor you get free play money, but we just wanted a spot to sleep and then head on again. Honestly, it was better than a Walmart though. And much quieter. 

I took some video footage in the morning of the casino lot, but it turned out that the camera was stuck on slow motion and I couldn't speed it up or get still shots from it. So you'll just have to take our word for it that we were in a casino parking lot for the night. 

It was time to hit the road and we actually had a beautiful clear blue sky to travel through the gorgeous colors of the changing trees.

Our intended route today would be heading West from Moncton and going towards St John.  We learned that it's important to not add an "s" to St John, as to not confuse it with St Johns of Newfoundland. Two different cities, in two different provinces. But I guess the locals get upset if you don't identify it correctly.

We were pretty excited to have a clear day with blue skies. After having spent the last few days in wind and rain and fog with dull gray scenery, we were really appreciating these gorgeous colors. Of course, I snapped about 50 gazillion pictures. But I will only post a few of them here. 

The scenery was unfolding in front of us and we were enjoying the miles and the smooth roads as well as the gorgeous colors and the sunshine. These are the travel days that we will remember the most.

Zooming along in the motor home, being comfortable and cozy as we were working our way further west. We just love traveling this way.

We took a little break at a roadside stop to work on some breakfast. It's kind of nice to just be able to stop on a whim, whip out a fry pan and some eggs and bacon etc. 

We sat down with a second cup of coffee and went over our bills. Even though we are out traveling, it was still "payday" on the 1st of the month and we needed to take care of everything from back home too. So once the light bill, the phone bill, the Starlink bill,  and the house and car insurance etc etc were all taken care of, we could close down the websites and hit the road again.  It is so convenient to be able to take care of things online and not rush back home to pay bills that arrive in the mail. 

Years ago, we used to make a family member go get our mail, open it all up and read it to us over the phone out loud what the totals were. And then leave them a series of blank signed checks to fill in the amount and mail them off for us. Boy have times changed?

Now, we do have our granddaughter going over our physical mail that does arrive at the house, and she scans it in and sends it to us via email if there's something important.  But so far, there was nothing that needed any immediate attention. 

As we got closer and closer to St John, it was clouding up and getting misty as we are descending down closer to the Bay of Fundy. 

It was like the town was surrounded by swirls of clouds as we got closer to the water levels in the middle of the city.  Up overhead, we could see the blue sky. But all around us was a misty fog with a funny tinge of gold because of the sunlight shining down through the haze.

We had heard of an interesting phenomenon that we wanted to go and look at. Fellow YouTubers Terry and Cindy O'Keefe, along with their Sheltie Ranger, from True North RVing Channel had done a segment about these "reversing falls" in the middle of St John. So we had to go see them for ourselves. 

We found a little spot in the city parking lot further away from the viewing platform. There really isn't any parking for large RVs in the main area, so we snuck down on the far end of the second lot and snuggled into the corner. The rest of the lot was empty except for one car. But we didn't know if other people would be arriving and we didn't want to go crossways and take up four or five spots! We don't want to be selfish that way... 

We made up some lunch and got a few things ready to bring the cameras down to the viewing platforms.  I charge batteries while we are driving, and then I have to get everything reloaded and set up to go walk down by the viewing platforms.

One part of the main platform was closed for construction! That was the one we plan to walk out on. Instead, we were rerouted down a flight of over a hundred stairs!

I opted to not take the stairs, do to my torn meniscus in my knee. It's torn completely free and that means at the tightest bend I don't have anything to help straighten it back again. Also it means when I'm at the straightest extension, I don't have anything to pull it back up. Which essentially, is the most you use when walking up and down stairs. 

So the next best thing was to hand Steve the camera and tell him "go at it"!! 

So he walked all the way down the stairs only to come face to face with a large group of people. He tried to get some video footage but all they did was talk, talk, talk in the background. They were actually talking about how to swing themselves off to the side of the platform to urinate? So I had to delete all the audio on the footage! Geez! 

The view from down there really wasn't all that good either. I stayed up on the top and walked along the railing of the parking lot. The views up from the top were a lot better. (Through the foggy haze). 

The river is clearly going from right to left. That is UPstream! It is running up over the rocks technically being a reversing waterfall. We were told that if we go on the other side of the river and further up on the other bank you can see it even more clearly with more rapids and more rocks.

Now the reason for this phenomenon is because the Bay of Fundy has the highest and lowest tides of anywhere in the entire world!!! It has a range of 28 ft from high tide to low tide. 

Twice a day, the massive incoming tide from the Bay of Fundy overpowers the Saint John River, causing the river to reverse its flow upstream.

So here we worked our way over onto the other side of the river. Here the water is flowing from the left to the right this time, which is also UP steam.  You can even see the waves...

We stayed there for a while and watched it, and then we decided it was time to move on and head towards our next stop. 

Steve decided to find a gas station to fuel up. The New Brunswick prices are a little bit better now. We fueled up at $2.68 a liter which converts over to $7.14 a gallon in US funds. We are averaging about 12 and a half MPG with all the hills and rough travel over this last tankful. Our next tank will probably be a bit better? 

When we were done fueling up, Steve spotted this sign on the corner at the gas station. Hmmmmm?  He wanted to get rid of all the filthy grime and mud that had accumulated on the motorhome over the last few days.

Over in the back corner of the lot was another sign, and this one is situated near a little garden shed building. Next to the shed is a line of cars waiting to get washed. Two gentlemen are outside with long brushes and a hose and they are washing each car in line. 

Their garden shed has a hose running over to the back of the gas station faucet. In the garden shed is a generator and a propane on demand water heater. They have buckets with soap and long-handled brushes. It's a self-contained car wash in a little movable garden shed!!! 

Steve walked over to ask "Jed" how much it would be to wash both our motorhome and our cargo trailer? He looked at it and said probably $45 or $50. That sounded good to us and we had Canadian cash on hand, so we got in line.

When it was our turn, Jed and his partner went right to work. They soaped us up and scrubbed us down. They said the cargo trailer was so dirty it needed work four times of getting scrubbed! 

They worked quickly but thoroughly and made sure everything was wetted down, scrubbed thoroughly with soap, and then rinsed free. 

Jed went round and around, removing all the grime and even some of the bugs that we've had with us ever since we left Wisconsin. This other guy was able to reach way up over the front windshield to the eyebrow of the motorhome. With his long handle he scrubbed and scrubbed until he got all of the bugs off.

When they were all done, everything was spic and span. It was amazing how much dirt came off, and how much lighter the motorhome looked.  It was really bothering Steve how grubby it was looking over the last few days. He takes a sense of pride in keeping it in good shape.

Steve had tucked three Canadian $20 bills in his pocket. Because he was quoted between $45 or $50 he thought he would have enough then for a little tip. But who knows how much it was going to cost? 

So he went over to talk to the guys while I was taking some pictures. They looked at him and said only $35!!  Well well well, for the good job that they did, and actually charging less than what they quoted, Steve gave them all three of the $20 bills and told them to keep the change. I think it made their day...

I went over on their side to take a picture of their setup.  I asked their permission to put the picture here on the blog and on YOUTUBE. They said *YES* because they want to become famous!!! 

Notice the one guy, putting all of his tip money into a plastic Ziploc bag for stowing in his sweatshirt. That's because they get so wet doing their work that I am sure his money would be soggy by the end of the day. Smart guy. 

Well, we found our way out of St John, and wound our way further to the West. Things were still pretty foggy on the highway, and we were potentially missing out on some beautiful views. We worked our way along the Bay of Fundy, sometimes seeing the edge of the water, but other times driving more inland.

Our next place on our agenda was something pretty special too. We worked our way back through some tiny crossroads and rural roads until we reached a place called Black's Harbor. This is where the ferry boat leaves to cross over to Grand Manan Island. 

Right next to the ferry harbor, is a special little place called Sea Glass Beach. We had to bypass the ferry toll booth, and explain we weren't actually going on the ferry, but we wanted to go to Sea Glass Beach. The very sweet attendant inside not only waved us through for free, she told us exactly where we could go and where we could park for the night too! 

Remember, I said the tide can raise as high as 28 ft.??? Here it is at it's highest point. The waves are right up to the shoreline and this is as high as it's going to get.

Even though it was only about 4:00 p.m., things were dark and hazy and it felt very late. We watched some of the vehicles load up onto the ferry boat that was going to depart at 5:30 p.m. The foghorn was plaintively sounding it's sad sound every few minutes. It was something we would have to get used to if we were spending the night here...

There was such a rugged beauty to this area. There weren't any houses nearby, and of course it really isn't a tourist spot or a vacation destination. But the local people know about the sea glass, and that's why they come here. 

Actually, as we were out walking with the dog, a local came by in a car and stopped to talk to us. He wanted to be sure we knew that we were at the famous Sea Glass Beach! And he said when the tide goes down you can even go around a loop of the harbor and find a second beach with even more sea glass! 

Ahead of us was a little gravel parking spot full of potholes. We didn't want to drive in there. Right ahead of this area was the sea glass beach.

But, for the evening, we were parked in the paved parking slots along with another motorhome and a fifth wheel. This would do for the night, especially since it was free!

We looked out over the surface of the water, not really sure what we were going to see tomorrow morning when the tide was out...

(I'll give you a little hint right here:)

WOWSERS!!!!!

Go back to the night before. We started to get used to the sounds of the foghorn every few minutes. That's a necessary thing when you have such craggy rocks and cliffs. The ferry left and went on it's way out to Grand Manan Island. One or two semi trucks joined us in the parking lot further over in the loop. But we were fine in the little corner that we were tucked away into. Nick did not like the sound of the foghorn, so he decided he needed to cuddle up tight with his little reindeer and get ready for bed.

Yup, that sounded good to us, too!

Here is the YouTube video post that goes along with today's blog:

141 miles traveled today

3,023 miles traveled so far