We drove New Brunswick’s most SCENIC drive 😍 (Fundy Trail Parkway)

Today we're driving the Fundy Trail Parkway, a 30 kilometer scenic drive along the coast of the Bay of Fundy that is said to be one of the most scenic drives in New Brunswick. Who knew views like this were in New Brunswick? I had no idea. Along the way you can find hikes, waterfalls, overlooks, beaches, and so much more, and our goal is to see as much as we can in one day. A few important things to know about driving the Fundy Trail Parkway, despite being very close to Fundy National Park, it is not in the National Park, is actually privately owned, and does have an entrance fee of $11.50 per adult to drive the road. It is also gated and has different hours depending on the month that you're visiting. We're here in July and the hours are 8 a.m to 8 p.m, so we're trying to get there right before 8 a.m to one, hopefully beat the crowds, and two, just make sure we have enough time to see everything that we want to see. We have a bunch of stops we want to make today, and the first handful are all located right next to each other at the Walton Glen Gorge, so we're going to combine them all into one four-ish mile hike. This is the Walton Glen Gorge, which is said to be the Grand Canyon of New Brunswick, and it is stunning. It is unlike anything that we have seen in New Brunswick so far. I read that it's over 300 feet deep, and right over there, you might be able to hear it, there's Walton Glen Falls, which is the second highest waterfall in New Brunswick. For our next stop on this hike, we're actually going down into the gorge to a spot called Eye of the Needle, and I think it's going to be a pretty rugged and steep journey to get there. We've been on the trail about 10 minutes, and we're already at the halfway point, but what's cool about the halfway point is that we're at the top of a waterfall that we can see from the overlook. I think the trail is about to get a little bit more intense though. It is super narrow right here, and they have these chains for you to hold on to. We're close to the end, and this is where I think things get a little trickier. We read that you have to cross some water, and we're obviously at some water, but we don't see a clear path across. This looks pretty easy to get across, but then you're met with these giant pile of trees and stuff, but then also there's one way over here where I can see people. It looks like it's matted down over there where that's where people get across, but the water looks really deep and rushing, so we're just going to keep looking and try to find a way across this. Adam went across and scoped it out to see what is the best way, and he found a route, and there's a lot of rocks to kind of hold on to, so it shouldn't be too bad. It wasn't too bad. We have made it to the Eye of the Needle. It's a big, tall, narrow slot canyon, and it is epic. This is so cool. This is easily one of the neatest things that we have seen in a while. I feel like I'm at the Narrows in Zion. This is just so cool. This is so fun. Now we have an all uphill climb back to the top, and then for our final stop on this hike we're going to check out McLeod Falls. The excitement continues on this trail. One, it's actually pretty steep, and two, get to cross more water. Hear the roar of the falls. This one's begging for a dip. It's okay. It's much colder than the other water. After admiring the waterfall, we finally turned around and noticed this insanely steep climb we have back to the top. There are probably hundreds of steps. It's called a cable ladder, and it's basically like they just draped a ladder all the way down this hillside. What's really neat about this ladder is that the wood is all just attached by these cables, and some pieces of wood aren't even really touching the ground. They're just kind of suspended, so they jiggle when you walk on them. It's definitely making this very steep incline a lot more fun. Holy leg burn. My thighs are on fire. What we thought was going to be a four mile hike has actually been over six miles long, but man, what an amazing bang for your buck. This area alone has so many incredible things to see, and we still have the entire Fundy Trail Parkway left to explore. We're only one kilometer into the drive, so there's a lot left to see. Besides hiking, there are over 20 lookouts along the Fundy Trail Parkway, each providing a different perspective of the Bay of Fundy, and our goal for the day was to try to We love tropical coastlines, but I think our absolute favorite are these just like rugged and rocky coastlines. Just seeing all these mountains jutting out and touching the water, the forest meeting the water, just the mix of colors. The greens, the blues, the tan from the sand and the rocks. It's just, it's just so interesting to look at. This is incredible. Who knew views like this were in New Brunswick? I had no idea. We're making a pit stop at Long Beach, which is a two and a half kilometer long beach and is a great spot to witness the tides here on the Bay of Fundy. At low tide, this beach goes a half a kilometer all the way out towards the Bay of Fundy. We're about three hours from low tide, but there is still plenty of beach to explore and have a little picnic. For lunch, we made these little Italian sandwiches. We have a bunch of Italian meats on here, some pesto, and then this like garlic cheese spread stuff. They're so good. The backdrop of this beach is super gorgeous. It kind of reminds us of Big Sur with all these dramatic cliffs. This road is so steep at times and we're about to go on a pretty crazy looking hairpin. Beyond this area's natural beauty, it also played a large role in the logging industry. Back in 1845, William Davidson built the first sawmill at the Big Salmon River. This area was said to have some of the best wood in the world and became an extremely successful milling site, with wood being used to build ships and pulpwood for the paper industry. Today it is now home to the popular Big Salmon River Suspension Bridge, which spans 84 meters over the Salmon River. We've seen a handful of waterfalls today, but we have one more we want to check out, Fuller Falls, and it's supposed to be the easiest one to get to. Do you want to go to the beach? Well, it's raining and we hear thunder, so we're gonna get out of here. We have made it to the end of the Fundy Trail Parkway, and if you were to do this drive without making any stops, it would take 40 minutes, and it took us 11 hours, and we didn't even get to see everything along the drive. We weren't even planning to do this drive when we were first planning our time here in New Brunswick, but I am so glad that we did it. I think we both agree that this was one of our favorite days that we have had in a very long time. We did have one more stop we wanted to make today that's about 10 minutes past the Fundy Trail Parkway, the St. Martin Sea Caves, but since we didn't want to rush today and we wanted to time our visit to them perfectly, we actually went yesterday, so we're going to rewind to then. The St. Martin Sea Caves were created by erosion from the tides, and during low tide, you're actually able to go walk inside of the caves. We're here about two hours before low tide, and the caves look free of water and safe to enter. This is awesome. Look at these trees hanging over the edge, and there's one down here that has already fallen off. That is crazy and also a little bit scary. Oh, huge cove over here. So this cove is tucked behind all the other caves, and no one is back here, because to get here, you do have to kind of step in the water. It's very shallow, and the tide is still lowering, so it's safe to get back here, but this is not a spot you want to go to when the tide's starting to rise, because you could get stuck, but wow, this is so neat. The Bay of Fundy's rugged dramatic coastline, plus ample waterfalls, forests, and beaches have already won us over, but we still have yet to actually experience its crazy tides, so it's about time we change that. We have a couple different activities booked both here and in Nova Scotia to experience it, and we cannot wait.