Welcome to Canada: Fundy National Park, Big Tides, and Lincoln’s Birthday

After working our way up the coast through Maine and Acadia National Park, our Canadian Coastal Quest officially crossed the border into Canada. If the first part of this trip was about American history, rocky coastlines, lobster rolls, and national park views, this next chapter would bring us into New Brunswick for giant tides, deep green forests, Indigenous cultural sharing, and one very important birthday.

We had already kicked off the journey in The Quest Begins, rolling from Maryland through Philadelphia, New York Harbor, and Newport. We stopped in Maine for Maine and Acadia National Park. Now, passports were ready, Stella’s rabies paperwork was in the folder, and Dad was doing that classic border-crossing thing where you suddenly become very aware of every snack, receipt, and random object in the truck.

Suddenly, everything shifted: miles became kilometers, Fahrenheit became Celsius, and U.S. dollars became Canadian dollars. We were officially in Canada.

Crossing Into Canada at St. Stephen, New Brunswick

The border crossing was quiet, calm, and wonderfully uneventful. Passports were checked. The standard questions about alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and firearms were answered. Stella’s paperwork was ready if needed. And just like that, we rolled into the quiet town of St. Stephen in the province of New Brunswick.

There is something exciting about crossing an international border by car. It feels like the same road trip, but also not the same road trip at all. The road signs change. The speed limits are in kilometres. Gas is sold by the litre. French starts showing up beside English. And suddenly everyone in the car wants to say “Oh, Canada!” at least once.

We pointed the Sequoia toward Fundy National Park and watched the landscape open up into long, wild stretches of highway lined with spruce, fir, maple, and endless green.

Oh, Canada indeed.

First Impressions of Fundy National Park

Fundy National Park sits on the coast of New Brunswick near the village of Alma. The park is famous for the Bay of Fundy, home to the highest tides in the world. In the park, the difference between high and low tide can reach 12 metres or more, which means you can literally walk on the ocean floor at low tide and then come back later to find the whole place covered in water.

That is not just a beach day. That is a science lesson with mud.

Our first order of business was to check in at the visitor center, get our bearings, and take in the view. Fundy has that wonderful Parks Canada feel: clean, organized, friendly, and built around the idea that nature is both beautiful and something worth protecting.

We also checked out Wolfe Lake and perched ourselves up high for a view of the Bay of Fundy. After days of lobster shacks and Maine granite, the scenery shifted into something deeper and greener. The forests felt thick. The air felt cool. And the bay looked massive, quiet, and mysterious.

Headquarters Campground: The Perfect Base Camp

We set up our trusty steed at Headquarters Campground, which turned out to be a fantastic base camp for exploring Fundy. The location is hard to beat. From the campground, we were within walking distance of the visitor center, the beach, the pool, several hikes, and the town of Alma.

That matters on a family road trip. Anytime you can park the camper and let people move around without loading everyone back into the truck, it feels like a small parenting victory.

The campground had a peaceful, tucked-in feeling, but still kept us close to the action. The boys could stretch their legs. Stella could get walks. Dad could stare at maps and pretend the next day’s plan was more organized than it actually was.

Alma Beach and the Magic of the Tides

The tides at Alma Beach are the kind of thing you can explain to kids, but they do not really believe it until they see it.

At low tide, the water retreats far out into the bay and reveals a wide, spongy, muddy underlayment of sand and tidal flats. The boys played in the rocks and sand while Stella ran wild and free on the beach. It was the kind of beach that feels less like a swimming beach and more like a giant natural experiment.

You can stick a piece of driftwood into the mud, walk away for a little while, and come back to find the water creeping toward it. Wait long enough, and that stick is underwater. The tide does not rush in all at once. It advances quietly and steadily, like the bay is taking back the land inch by inch.

For the boys, this meant mud, rocks, sticks, and endless investigation. For Stella, it meant freedom. For Dad, it meant repeating “don’t go too far” while also being completely fascinated.

Caribou Plain Trail: Into the Canadian Wilderness

Our first big hike was the Caribou Plain Trail. This was the moment when Fundy started to feel less like a coastal stop and more like true Canadian wilderness.

The trail dives into a rich forest of red spruce, birch, balsam fir, moss, and lichen. Nearly everything on the forest floor seemed covered in green. Canada dogwood and wood sorrel pushed up through the understory, and the whole forest had that cool, damp, evergreen smell that makes you feel like you have stepped into another climate zone.

Then the forest changed. The trail moved into bog and marsh habitat, with rhodora, Labrador tea, stunted spruce, and boardwalk sections that kept us just above the wet ground. The boys moved fast. Stella pulled hard. Dad tried to appreciate the plant communities while also keeping everyone from launching themselves into the bog.

This is the kind of hike that reminds you how different ecosystems can sit right beside each other. One minute you are in thick evergreen forest. The next, you are walking through a bog landscape that feels wide open, strange, and ancient.

A Practical Detour to Sussex

Every grand family road trip includes a not-so-grand but absolutely necessary supply run. For us, that meant heading toward Sussex to get Canadian dollars from an ATM, fill up the Sequoia, and replace a few pieces of gear at the local Walmart.

Gas in Canada takes a minute for American brains to process. The sign said CAD $1.62 per litre, which sounds either cheap or expensive depending on how much mental math you feel like doing in a gas station parking lot. Once you convert litres to gallons, Canadian dollars to U.S. dollars, and factor in credit card conversion fees and taxes, it worked out to roughly the mid-$4 range per gallon.

That was only a little higher than what we had seen in Maine and still nowhere close to the legendary California road trip gas prices that haunt Dad’s travel budgeting dreams.

Canada was officially affordable enough to keep driving.

Welcoming the Salmon: A Solstice Ceremony at Alma Beach

One of the most meaningful experiences of the trip happened back at Alma Beach, where a group of about 70 people gathered near the place where the Salmon River meets the Bay of Fundy.

We joined a salmon welcoming ceremony with cultural sharing from Indigenous Mi’gmaq community members. Fundy National Park sits on the unceded territory of the Mi’gmaq people, and this gathering gave us a chance to slow down, listen, and participate respectfully in something rooted in gratitude, land, water, and community.

The date made it even more powerful. June 21, 2026 was the summer solstice, Father’s Day, National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, the welcoming of the salmon, and Lincoln’s 10th birthday.

That is a lot for one day to hold.

The ceremony began with a cleansing using sage. We listened, learned, and joined in songs of welcome and happiness for the day. We were reminded of the importance of giving thanks to the Creator, caring for the earth, and recognizing that the land and water provide what people need to live.

At the end of the ceremony, tobacco was shared with everyone. We were asked to place our intentions into the tobacco, which was then collected and sent downstream into the Salmon River.

Afterward, people gathered in conversation. We ate fire-roasted lusknikn, a Mi’gmaq-style bread, and washed it down with red spruce tea. It was simple, warm, generous, and unforgettable.

At the end of the ceremony, Dad was feeling truly plugged into the family trip. Two weeks and 2,000 miles in is about the point where you take a deep breath and realize you have fully unplugged from your regular life. The work brain gets quieter. The road trip brain takes over. The family finds its rhythm. And suddenly you are not just moving from place to place anymore.

You are in it.

The Fundy Pool With an Even Better View

Back at Fundy National Park, Cassy and the boys went for a dip in the heated saltwater pool. I had already been impressed by the pool view at Bar Harbor Campground, but Fundy may have raised the bar.

This pool comes with dramatic views of the Bay of Fundy, which means you can swim in warm saltwater while looking out at one of the most famous tidal landscapes in the world. That is a pretty strong campground amenity.

While Cassy and the boys swam, Dad and Stella headed out for a run on the Coastal Trail. This was one of those rare moments where everyone got exactly what they wanted. The boys got pool time. Cassy got a break. Stella got miles. Dad got a trail run and a view.

No one complained. That alone made it memorable.

S’mores, Campfire, and Lincoln’s 10th Birthday

June 21 was also Lincoln’s 10th birthday, and because his birthday always falls during our summer trips, we try hard to make the day feel special.

Road trip birthdays are different from home birthdays. There is no regular party setup, no usual routine, and no guarantee that you can find exactly what you need. But there is also something pretty great about turning 10 in a national park in Canada, after a day of giant tides, forest hikes, cultural sharing, and campground pool time.

Lincoln wanted s’mores, so Dad made that happen.

Lincoln wanted unlimited tablet time, so Dad made that happen too.

Sometimes being a good road trip dad means planning a meaningful cultural experience and a scenic hike. Sometimes it means handing over the marshmallows and relaxing the screen-time rules because your kid is 10, happy, tired, and sitting by a campfire in New Brunswick.

We ended the day with s’mores by the fire, the camper tucked into Headquarters Campground, and the Bay of Fundy just down the hill.

Fundy Finds Our Road Trip Rhythm

Fundy National Park was exactly what we needed at this point in the trip. It gave us big nature without feeling rushed. The tides gave the boys something to watch and test. The forest trails gave Stella room to move. The campground gave us easy access to town, beach, pool, and hikes. And the salmon ceremony gave us a deeper connection to the place we were visiting.

That is the magic of a long family road trip. Somewhere around the second week, the trip stops feeling like a list of destinations and starts feeling like a temporary way of life.

Wake up. Make coffee. Walk the dog. Check the tide chart. Find the trail. Feed the kids. Move the camper. Make the fire. Watch the map change.

Fundy was our welcome to Canada, and it was a good one.

Next up on our Canadian Coastal Quest: more Atlantic Canada, more coastline, and more reasons to be glad we packed the passports.