It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. It was 9:30 and already the sun was warm. We ate breakfast at the Hopewell Rocks Motel, packed the car and drove down the access road to the Hopewell Rocks Park.

Once we were through the gate we stayed left on the Cape Rocks Trail and passed the playground. We had to promise the kids we would come back to the playground but for now we had to hurry. We had to make it down to the beach so we could walk on the ocean floor before the tide came in at 11AM. We made it to the lookout at 10AM and pushed our way through the crowd to get down the stairs to the beach.

When we got to the beach the kids all spread out to explore. We waited until we could get a picture under Lover’s Arch without anyone else in the picture. It took a few minutes since there were several other groups trying to do the same thing. The kids then headed down the beach to explore while I stayed back and setup my tripod for a time lapse video of the people and the tide. My son stayed close by to see how long it would take for the rock he was on to be surrounded by water. I offered to take several photos of couples under the arch and checked my camera at intervals to make sure everything was working.

After about half an hour everyone came back down the beach. They decided to leave me behind to finish the time lapse as they made their way up the crowded stairs. After another 15 minutes I noticed a park employee make his way down the beach to clear it before the tide came in too far. I was hoping the beach would be cleared of people to give an ending to the video. What I didn’t realize is that I set up lower than them and the tide was coming in fast (as always). I waited until all three legs of my tripod were under water before I called it quits. I grabbed the tripod and camera and made my own way up the stairs. I found everyone at the ice cream store near the top of the stairs.

We made our way back to the main interpretive center and let the kids play on the playground before we continued. After they were done playing we walked down to the Diamond Rock Lookout and had a debate about why it was called diamond rock. We then decided to grab lunch at the restaurant before we explored the trail to Demoiselle Beach.

Once we were finished eating we walked down the slow decline that makes the trail to Demoiselle Beach. There were several lookouts along the trail that looked out over the trees and the hills in the distance. We could easily see Shepody Mountain since it was such a clear day. There was a sharp switch back about mid way down the trail. At the turn there was another lookout and interpretive signs about Livingstone Hills in the distance. When we reached the beach the kids started throwing rocks in the water while I took pictures of the beach with the hills in the distance. Eventually we decided to walk down to where the beach ended in rocky cliffs.

Once we got near the cliffs we noticed a large number of rocks balanced on each other in the corner where the beach meets the cliffs. Some of the balancing rocks were quite high and quite elaborate. The kids decided to get in on the action and made several small piles of balancing rocks of their own.

Once I took pictures of each of the kids with all of their balancing rock piles we made our way up the beach and back up the trail to the interpretive center. The kids enjoyed washing their feet in the foot washer even though they were no longer dirty. We then explored the visitor center and gift shop before we got in our cars to leave.

After a short drive we stopped for ice cream at a small little shack on the side of the road selling ice cream called K Bay Ice Cream. After watching the donkey in the field and feeding a baby goat and cat that the owner brought over we continued on to Mary’s Point. It was getting late and the girl at Mary’s Point interpretive center told us that the birds on the beach had mostly been scared away by a resident Peregrine Falcon. We decided that the kids had enough fun for one day so we decided to continue home with plans to return another day.