The Rocks Provincial Park, Provincial park in Albert County, Canada
The Rocks Provincial Park is a provincial park in Albert County, New Brunswick, where sea stacks of red-brown conglomerate and sandstone rise from the shore of the Bay of Fundy at Hopewell Cape. The stacks stand 12–21 metres (40–70 ft) tall, with bases eroded faster than their tops, and a thin string with yellow "NO CLIMBING" signs crosses a shelf-like rock near the gravel and sand.
The rock formations began to form over 300 million years ago when sediments from rivers of the Caledonia Mountains collected at the base of the mountains and hardened over time into rock. The provincial park was established in 1958 to protect this geological legacy and allow visitors to access it.
The Mi'kmaq refer to these formations through an old story in which whales turned people into stone pillars. This account remains part of local memory and gives the rock formations their own place in how people here understand the shore.
The formations can be viewed from ground level for about three hours before and after low tide. A full tidal cycle is worth planning for, since the high tide can reach 16 metres. Visitors are advised to stay for a full cycle to see the change.
The Bay of Fundy tides expose and cover the base of the rock pillars twice daily, with water levels changing by as much as 14 meters (46 feet). This regular rise and fall allows visitors to experience the same location from completely different perspectives within a few hours.
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