Thursday, April 22, 2010

4/22/2010 Reversing Falls . . . Again

Since we weren't really sure what we were seeing at Reversing Falls the first time, we thought we would stop back by again. Maybe something will look different from the last time and we can say we saw the reverse. Plus, I was reading in one of the tour guide books that there's a major geological wonder right under the restaurant/information center where we were yesterday. The one giant rock on which it stands is actually two rocks shoved together. It's where two continents have collided! Plate tectonics in action. I wanted to see the rock.

We first went to a viewing area across the St. John River (yes, the river is spelled differently than the city), and though it was cool and there was good scenery, you couldn't see the rock under the restaurant.

And even though we couldn't see the rocks under us, we did stop back at the Reversing Rapids viewing area. We went into the restaurant/information center but the info center doesn't open until the first weekend in May. A very nice hostess at the restaurant explained to us how the "reversing" works: The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world, so when the tide comes in, it pushes the water back up the St. John River. At low tide, the water comes down the river into the ocean as expected. As the tide rises, the two waters butt heads and the water where the two bodies meet just stands still for about 20 minutes, then the tide wins and the water at the bottom of the river starts going "up" the river. We were there at low tide.

Across from Reversing Rapids is the Irving Paper and Pulp Mill. Seems like an industry to us, but it was in the tour guide book as a site of interest.

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