Adventures on Campobello Island in New Brunswick Canada

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March 9, 2009

Near Lubec, Maine (USA) in New Brunswick Canada is Campobello Island:

Roosevelt Campobello International Park

FDRs cottage campobello islandNow US folks know about our National park system, but hey Roosevelt Campobello is an International park. It is Canadian soil with some cool amounts of US heritage right at the heart of it.

Yes, the park is a partnership with Canada and the US, and it was in that spirit that my visit to Campobello began, as a very cute dual citizen tour-guide greeted us at the visitors center. She talked about the history and the partnership of the place and walked us around the grounds.

The grounds featured dahlias, an icehouse and other random buildings and then we went to Roosevelt’s cottage to get a 34 room peekaboo into the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Yes, lovely Campobello Island was a very cool hang-out-spot and summer home for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his family. They were drawn to Campobello for its outdoor recreation offerings and its Maritime culture.fdrs view of the Bay of Fundy

A nature walk down by the Bay of Fundy is in order at the park as well.

The international park offers a real history on the life of FDR.

Moving on from FDR’s place,

I went on up to the lovely lighthouse at Quoddy Head Harbor (East)

Thinking Big at East Quoddy Head Lighthouse: (Head Harbor Light)east quoddy head lighthouse campobello island

Its easy to think big after a trip to one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world. Yes, that’s the one at East Quoddy Head New Brunswick Canada, and a proper trip to this lovely place is not done by just a drive out to the lovely point to gawk at it from afar, Nope!

  • go there at low-tide to make your trek (note that you have a little more than an hour before pumpkin time)
  • wear some good sturdy shoes.
  • You will clamber over big jagged rocks,
  • walk on a nice sandbar
  • climb a 20ft high rock which has a steel ladder bolted to it,
  • and clamber up and down a good deal more.

Then you really arrive at the lighthouse. While there don’t forget to go to the very point of the lighthouse rock and do some quality whale-watching for a bit (after checking out the lighthouse of course). Its fun to gronk at the whales (gronk!).

But don’t turn into a pumpkin! you need to be out of there before the tides start to come in. As this lighthouse is on the Bay of Fundy… and well… the Bay of Fundy is Fun, as the Bay of Fundy features the magic of 30-foot tides. So after your short visit, clamber back the way you came, go to the nearby point, and get your picnic and relax. Then you will watch something akin to magical Brigadoon vanishing. Yes, all of those big boulders, cliffs, sandbars and rocks that you just got personal with will vanish beneath the tides. Watching this Fun on Fundy can help you change the scale of how you think about things. People who get distracted too long and turn into a pumpkin will likely be camping at the lighthouse.

additional reference for Campobello International Park can be found at: fdr.net

Dale Norris

www.travelfables.com

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2 comments

  1. rrrick08

    We visited Campobello this past summer and really enjoyed it. Felt like we new FDR personally when we left. Bay of Fundy is great too. Sea caves, tides, beaches, beautiful rock ledges, we had a great time and found some nice RV parks along the way too.

  2. Rick Kirkpatrick

    Re: Campobello Island.

    You missed the free ferries that go from Campobello island to near Back Bay, N.B. via Deer Island. Great way to travel. Very neat rides.