Reversing Falls-a weird phenomenon

Day 6
There is a weird phenomenon called the Reversing Falls that occurs in St. John.  The St. John River runs through a narrow gorge before emptying into the Bay of Fundy.  As the tide rises, it pushes the water through this gorge from the bay to the river, and causes the water to reverse direction and flow upstream.  Then, when the tides go down, the water reverses and flows out the normal way.    Because of the the tremendous rise and fall of the tides the onrushing water from the rising tides creates tidal bore rapids and whirlpools as the water is tumbling through and changing direction.  You can watch this happen before your eyes…a fascinating, but weird phenomenon. At high tide, the tidal waters are about 14 ft higher than the normal river level.  The tides rise and fall about  every 12 1/2 hours.  The water is about 200-300 ft deep at the spot we watched, so you wouldn’t want to get caught in a vortex!  It was amazing to see the intensity of the churning water caused by the forces of nature and watch the water switch gears.  We went to the falls this morning at low tide and saw the water rushing out. In the photos you can see the water line on shore that illustrates the dramatic difference in the water level between the tides. 
Then, we went back at high tide, and saw the waters flowing in the opposite direction, but almost still compared to this morning.  We sat and watched for a long time, and it was like watching a pot of boiling water.  You could see ripples begin to develop, and then watch whirlpools begin to form as the tide rose to its high mark.  The water pushed and pulled and then the river began to shift to reverse.  What an amazing sight!
Here’s a video that Jim took this morning.  https://youtu.be/Mg4gxO9-ZNU



We were able to catch mass at Holy Trinity church this morning …just a mile or so from the campground. It was a small church and there were only about 25-30 people there.  The priest reminded me of my brother (except for the holiness part!) 
It’s a rainy dreary day today, so a good day to catch up on reading and cleaning.  Spot got a Canadian moose today and that will keep him quite busy for awhile.

And, Happy Fathers Day to all the great dads out there, and especially to the daddies of grandkids Ben jammin’ and Sweet T!  Happy Summer Solstice Too!