Bay of Fundy Tidal Bore

A quick over night stay at the Tidal Bore KOA to see a tidal bore in Elm River, NS before we head to Hopewll Cape, NB to see the flower pot rocks and walk on the ocean floor at low tide.

A tidal bore occurs when the tide overflows a river. For this to happen you need a smooth fairly shallow river bottom, a funnel shape of land to so that the water from the tide gets "squeezed" in as it flows inward and a significant tide at the rivers edge. The tides are significant in the Bay of Fundy due to the natural rocking motion being matched up with the tidal cycle of the water as it moves inland. It was explained to us that this phenomenon is much like rocking when you are in the bathtub, its the sloshing that builds the waves. As you rock the water moves back and forth, building as is makes each pass. It just happens here on a much larger scale, say to the tum of 160 BILLION tons of water being moved. The tides range from about 11 feet at the mouth of the bay to 52 feet at the end of the bay.

We arrived about an hour early to get a seat to watch the tidal bore. This is the Salmon river before the tide started to move in. Nova Scotia has been in a drought and as a result all of the rivers are low, this will create a smaller bore since the water you see coming in will be the sea water and it does not really have to overcome the river flowing out. The bank you are looking at is about 6 feet or so high, and at high tide the water will reach to the base of the grasses.

Once the bore started it moves in quickly, like eight or ten feet a second. Here you can see the bore waves moving up river. On a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest of the bores, this one is rated a 2. Had Nova Scotia not been in a drought, the bore would be more prominent.

Here is a video that I took. It shows the bore moving in and the speed it is moving. Yes, those are bagpipes you are hearing. About 15 minutes before the bore arrived, a man showed up and started playing the bagpipes. It was kinda strange when mixed with the sound of the water coming in.

In the morning, we packed up and headed for a real treat, a walk on the ocean floor to see the Hopewell Rocks at low tide, we will then return to kayak in 20 or so feet of water where we were walking just a few hours before. Hope you can come along and see what we see.