From Hampton Harbor Nova Scotia (blog post here) we continued east along the Bay of Fundy to reach Burntcoat Head Park. This park is home to the world’s highest recorded tides.
The difference between low and high tide averages over 55ft. The highest recorded was during an 1869 gale and was recorded at 70.9 feet. The Guinness Book of World Records declared that Burntcoat had the highest tides in the world in 1975.
At low tide, you can get out and walk on the ocean floor. Then you can sit and watch as the tide rolls in. Well, they don’t exactly roll in…its more of a full throttle fill! In fact, they say that 160 billion (with a “B”!) tons of water flow daily into this basin every 13 hours. For perspective, this is more than the combined flow of the world’s freshwater rivers. I read somewhere else that it is flowing at 7 to 8 knots (~9mph). It’s absolutely phenomenal.
Bring shoes with good traction as this basin can be muddy, slick, and has some slimy seaweed, which is not a great combination for klutzs like me. You won’t be shocked to hear that even though I was wearing my trail running shoes, I slipped and fell in the mud. I cut my hand, scraped an elbow, and bruised my left thigh and my ego badly. Luckily, I didn’t break anything…except the camels back on keeping the discounted running shoes I’d picked up to replace my original New Balance Arishi trail runners.
SIDE NOTE: I have since replaced the discount culprits with a pair of Saucony Perigrines which are incredibly lightweight, provide good support and have deep tread!
Low Tide 
The park allows boondocking in the parking lot. This enabled us to see high tide the next morning and visit the replica lighthouse on site to learn some history of the area.
While touring the lighthouse I met Anne-Marie. We started talking and I found out that she and her husband, Tyler, had also boondocked in the parking lot the night before and then we realized that while we were touring the lighthouse, both Doug and Tyler were sitting outside taking time-lapse videos of the tide coming in. Ha ha! Great minds, I guess. Doug’s video is below.
Lighthouse 
Procupine 
Anne-Marie
Lowi-sh Tide 
Tide Moving In
Burntcoat Head Park gave us muddy shoes and bruises, but also new connections to Anne-Marie and Tyler and the joy of this natural phenomenon!
