The connector road between Alma and the West Gate rolls through hilly, tree-lined forest, occasionally offering tantalizing views of the world’s highest tides. It’s a lovely drive in itself, but the Fundy Trail Parkway only officially kicks in when you reach the gates of Fundy Trail Provincial Park, requiring a modest entrance fee. It’s well worth it: ocean roads don’t usually have 21 well-signed pullovers to access sweeping cliffside viewpoints easily. Refreshingly, there are no kiosks selling overpriced food or souvenirs along the way, keeping the experience authentically natural and laced with discovery. Plenty of picnic benches invite visitors to spend time appreciating the world’s highest tides and the sweeping views of cliffs, beaches, and Nova Scotia across the bay.

It used to take four hours to hike to Walton Glen Gorge, “the Grand Canyon of the New Brunswick,”  a 300-metre wide, 500-million-year-old canyon with a 150-metre drop and cascading waterfall. It’s now an easy 20-minute walk from a parkway parking lot to a wooden observation deck, suitable for kids and active grandparents (my mom and eight-year-old joined me for the walk). Experienced hikers will want to look into the challenging 2.4-kilometre-long Eye of the Needle Trail that descends steeply to the bottom of the canyon. From the top, we decided to christen the place Walton Glen Gorge-ous.