Blue Rocks
On June 4th, the day after we visited Peggy’s Cove and had our first reckoning with the Nova Scotia coast, came another important coastal encounter at a place I’d likewise never heard of called Blue Rocks. There I found upended and eroded strata akin to those from 2017 on the other side of Canada in British Columbia’s Yoho National Park.
Here’s a better look at some of the sharp upended rocks and the patterns in them:
And here’s an even closer look:
That last view has entered the realm of abstraction, so here are three more abstractions from Blue Rocks:
The rock in the next-to-the-last image has a shape reminiscent of Vermont’s, don’t you think?
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Such a sharp contrast to the rocks at Peggy’s Cove.
Gallivanta
July 13, 2018 at 6:28 AM
That’s an acute analysis of the situation.
Steve Schwartzman
July 13, 2018 at 7:55 AM
Rock patterns ROCK! I love seeing the layers that surely have a story to tell. 🙂
bayphotosbydonna
July 13, 2018 at 7:31 AM
You read my mind. I’d thought about saying something along the lines of “these rocks rock.” The good thing, no matter how you say it, is that they do.
Steve Schwartzman
July 13, 2018 at 7:56 AM
🙂
bayphotosbydonna
July 15, 2018 at 6:31 AM
I love the geology there.
Sherry Felix
July 13, 2018 at 8:57 AM
Have you gotten to visit that area? If I still lived in New York, I’d go back to Nova Scotia every now and then.
Steve Schwartzman
July 13, 2018 at 9:00 AM
I’ve been to Grand Manan and Mt Desert Island. Lots of similarities.
Sherry Felix
July 13, 2018 at 9:33 AM
Yes, we spent two nights on Mount Desert Island, so I know what you mean about similarities. I’d not heard of Grand Manan till you mentioned it. Now I want to visit it, too.
Steve Schwartzman
July 13, 2018 at 9:42 AM
There is a great place to stay on Grand Manan Island – The Marathon Inn. Good food too.
Sherry Felix
July 13, 2018 at 12:13 PM
If we ever make another marathon visit to Atlantic Canada, we’ll keep the Marathon Inn in mind.
Steve Schwartzman
July 13, 2018 at 12:31 PM
The stone in Yoho National Park is probably eroded by glaciers in a similar manner. On the west coast it is easy to see how far south the glaciers came because stone to the south is so different. There are some sorts of exposed igneous stone in California, but it looks very different.
tonytomeo
July 14, 2018 at 8:36 PM
Yoho and Nova Scotia are the only two places I recall seeing sharp, upended rocks like what’s shown here. Nowhere have I seen a geological explanation for those formations. Your idea of glaciers is plausible, but glaciers came down as far as the north shore of Long Island on the east coast, yet I don’t believe I ever saw rocks like these further north in places like New York, Connecticut, or Massachusetts.
Steve Schwartzman
July 14, 2018 at 10:07 PM
Oh, I was not considering the sharp upended orientation of the stone, just that it is exposed igneous rock like can be seen in the Northwest. There is some exposed granite here, but it is mixed with sedimentary stone and sandy beaches that were never scoured away by glaciers. That is how the East Coast looks to me, with more exposed stone and rocky beaches north of New York, and sandier beaches to the south.
tonytomeo
July 15, 2018 at 9:39 AM
I grew up close to the boundary line on Long Island, with pebbly, rocky beaches on the north shore of Long Island and sandy, swimmable beaches on the south shore of Long Island.
Steve Schwartzman
July 15, 2018 at 10:31 AM
Fascinating. I did not know that there were sandy beaches on the south side of Long Island, although I have heard of the Sand Barrens of New Jersey.
tonytomeo
July 15, 2018 at 10:46 AM
As a child I spent many an afternoon on the beaches at (from west to east) Far Rockaway, Long Beach, and Jones Beach, all of which were only about half an hour from home. Farther east is Fire Island, which stretches for about 30 miles. Even farther east are the beaches of the Hamptons, where the wealthy hang out. All in all, going east from Coney Island in Brooklyn, you’ve got sandy beaches on and off for about 100 miles.
Steve Schwartzman
July 15, 2018 at 12:18 PM
That is a big island!
tonytomeo
July 15, 2018 at 4:38 PM
Right, not for nothing is it called Long Island.
Steve Schwartzman
July 15, 2018 at 5:10 PM
If you’d asked me to draw the state of Vermont, I don’t think I could have, although I did have a vague notion that it’s tucked next to New Hampshire. I do know that it has Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and a yearly event called The Strolling of the Heifers.
The second photo reminds me of a sweater my mother once knit for me, using variegated yarn of the same colors. I like the way the blue and brown repeat in different patterns, albeit in different shades. The X isn’t so subtle, here. I’d say it marked just the right spot for taking some striking photos.
I may know more about Grand Manan than any place I’ve never been. For several years, a Weather Underground blogger who went by the name of Grandmanan posted daily about his town: the weather, the hockey team, lobster season, town squabbles, and local history. He posted a lot of photos, too, and it looks like an equally beautiful place.
shoreacres
July 15, 2018 at 7:14 PM
Vermont and New Hampshire roughly balance each other: going from south to north, Vermont widens while New Hampshire narrows.
If I’d had to show just one of these pictures of Blue Rocks, I’d have shown the second one (the one that reminds you of the sweater). The first photograph is to set the scene, and the third is just to show details, while the second one conveys a real feeling for the place.
Strange that you should know so much about Grand Manan, which I’d never even heard of. That’s your maritime background coming to the fore again.
Steve Schwartzman
July 15, 2018 at 7:26 PM
Such interesting patterns and colours … I bet those rocks are super sharp!
Julie@frogpondfarm
July 17, 2018 at 1:11 AM
I had to be careful walking on them. I carried my camera but not my heavy camera bag, which could have thrown me off balance.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2018 at 7:12 AM
[…] June 4th, after Blue Rocks had only two hours earlier finished providing my second sustained encounter with Nova […]
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