Still, this is a premier tourist attraction for wheelchairs and they have done many things to make it as accessible as possible. They even have a shuttle that takes you to the main lookout area so you won’t have to go so far in the wheelchair. There is a nice visitors center at the top with a couple of lookouts nearby. Based on our experience there, I have taken the map of the park and mocked it up a bit for your reference:
The Dramatic Tide and Tidal Bore
I am including some high tide – low tide comparison photos of the Lovers Arch and the accessible lookout below that area just to give you an idea of the contrast. On the third photo, the two small specks in the middle are people, just to give you an idea of how much water moves in and out of this area:
We did go all the way to the bottom where a ramp leads to the beach area. Be warned that it is not a sandy beach at low tide – it is rocky and tough to get around there as you can see from the inset I included in the photo of the ramp that follows. Still, you can get down to a small area at the bottom of the ramp and overlook the beach at low tide. At high tide, they actually had it closed off so you could not go all the way down.
Another interesting thing that we did that is wheelchair friendly is to see the tidal bore come up the Petitcodiac River right in Moncton. Twice daily, the tide rolls upstream and there are some decent areas you can get a wheelchair to in order to see it. Here is the video of it I posted on my YouTube channel:
New Brunswick Travel Advice from a Local Acadian
As we waited to see the tidal bore, we talked to an Acadian couple who was also there and they were interesting to talk to – especially since before this trip I had no idea who the Acadians even were. I learned that though the Acadians were scattered to various parts of the world centuries ago, they now have periodic reunions where they gather from all over and we just happened to be in the Maritimes when one of these get-togethers was in process.
As we spoke, I mentioned that we had plans to go to Parlee Beach – he thought it the nicest one in New Brunswick. He further assured us that the water would be warm and even comfortable enough to go swimming in. With that encouragement, we added Parlee Beach to our places-to-visit list before heading to Prince Edward Island.
With that last stop added, you can see that our time in New Brunswick was spent in a rather small area – I have included a map here that has the places we went during our stay in Moncton and everything was 45 minutes away, or less, so travel time was minimal here.
The Beaches
On our last afternoon in New Brunswick, we headed to Shediac and Parlee Beach and it did not disappoint. There was paved parking and sidewalks leading up to the beach, so the access was good. Since this was such a last-minute stop for us with absolutely no planning, Leslie and I figured we would have to muscle Jamie and her wheelchair down to where the sand was wet and harder – sand is the most impossible stuff to get through! We were pleasantly surprised, however, as a life guard, seeing our struggle, chased us down to point out that they had several beach chairs – Whew!! We opted for just a basic upright beach wheelchair, but noticed they also had a reclined one that would allow you to go all the way into the water. Yeah, Canada – gold star for such amenities at a beach!
You can see someone is all smiles as we get closer to the ocean and even dip our toes in.
The next morning before driving to Prince Edward Island, we headed north for a short visit to La Dune de Bouctouche and the Irving Eco Center. The grounds are nice and as I mentioned previously, it has a lengthy boardwalk offering a scenic walk with the wheelchair. We did not check to see if there were beach wheelchairs available here, but honestly, the boardwalk they had was a nice way to go as you can see from their website and the photo below:
We loved our New Brunswick visit and hated to leave it behind, but were looking forward to the final leg of our trip, Prince Edward Island.