The Formation of “Flower Pot” Rocks!

                                 

     

      On the last day of our week long tour of the Maritime Provinces, Kathy Zinn, our guide, took us to a vista point overlooking the Bay of Fundy. We walked past a weather-beaten old lighthouse with light aglow, ready to warn ships of the dangerous currents and shoals just off the point. She explained that this was actually the third lighthouse at St. Martins. Two previous lighthouses, positioned further out on the point, had collapsed and washed away as the sandstone underneath was eroded by the power of the elements.   

      As we were returning to the Tidal Watch Inn, our home base, Kathy stopped at a place with a good view of the lighthouse and the bluffs where we had been standing a few minutes earlier. An isolated piece of rocky land topped with grass and trees was just below that spot, connected only by a sandstone arch. At high tide, water rushes through the arch. Eventually it will collapse, leaving the “sea stack” or “flowerpot rock” just off the edge of the cliff.  She waited while many of the folks took pictures of the interesting formation with the natural bridge.

      The next morning the group of about twenty people, all from the U.S. disbursed to various places. Al and I planned to rent a car, drive northward to Prince Edward Island, cross over to Halifax, turn the car in at the train station and then take the Via Rail from Halifax to Toronto before flying home. Two of Al’s “bucket list” wishes would then be fulfilled: seeing the reversing falls and giant tides at the Bay of Fundy; and riding on the Canadian version of Amtrak!

       Kathy and her husband Rudy, who were also the owners of the Tidal Watch Inn, recommended that we drive into the Fundy National Park, about three hours north of the Saint John airport where we rented the car. “You don’t want to miss the Hopewell Rocks,” Rudy said emphatically. These were the most impressive of the flowerpot rocks, found along the tip of the northwestern branch of the bay.

       It was well worth the drive, with the fall colors of the trees glowing in the morning sunlight. Al kept stopping along the way to get the perfect picture, especially as we entered the national park. Very spectacular!

     At the Hopewell Rocks, the tide was out, so Al and I descended many stairs to the ocean floor where we were dwarfed by several flowerpot rocks, resembling giant sculpted heads. These were caused by the erosion of sandstone layers, leaving harder conglomerate rock at the base. Eventually the weight of the stack of rocks will collapse the base, causing them to topple over. Twice a day at high tide, which can reach nearly fifty feet, the flowerpots become isolated islands with evergreens growing on the top and clinging to the sides, while the ocean’s waves churn and crash below them.

     The work of erosion over long periods of time was easy to observe, impressing on me the admonition of Jesus that we need to build our lives upon a strong foundation so that when storms come and waters rise, we will not be destroyed. And what is that strong foundation? It is the one who claimed to be “the way, the truth and the life,” Jesus Christ. Are you building your house on this foundation?

      “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built…” Luke 6:46-48 NIV