Grand Falls and Hays Falls

We recently spent a wonderful fall day chasing waterfalls in southwestern New Brunswick. We started out in Grand Falls, NB and then toured through Meductic, NB on our way home to Fredericton.

In Grand Falls, we started out our day with a visit to the local Farmer's Market, where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of homemade bread toasted with butter and jam, ham, eggs, homemade hash browns and coffee - mine was only 4 dollars! (one slice of bread, one egg). My husband's was 6 dollars with 2 slices of bread, 2 eggs and 2 sausages. Delicious and a great deal. The market is small and adorable with many great eats on hand, but also hand knitted hats and mitts, warm coats and boots, wooden shelves and signs and much more. My favourite part was the live entertainment: a man stood above us, on the mostly empty second floor, and played good oldies on his guitar like My Cheatin' Heart. One couple went up and danced, despite the frigid temperatures and early hour (much to my delight, of course).

After filling up at the Market, we headed out to look at the Falls, which are situated directly in the middle of town (and right across from the Market, as a matter of fact).  During the summer, you can hike down to the Falls from this central point, as well as zipline across them, or rappel down the rocks. We didn't do any of that, but we did drive across town to the campground near the tennis courts and high school, park our car and walk the trail along the river. It is a pretty, easy to find and navigate trail that winds along the river, with various lookout points along the way. The entire walk only took us about 30 minutes so it is definitely not something to seek out from afar, but if you happen to be in Grand Falls, it is a great addition to your day!

The view from one of the lookout points along our walking trail.

After leaving the trail, we started on our drive home but stopped after about an hour to check out the Maliseet Trail near Woodstock, NB (Meductic, NB).  This is a gorgeous trail, found easily off the highway (Route 2, the old TCH) because it is clearly (and hilariously, if you check out the picture above) marked.  The Maliseet Trail is a beautiful, easy walking trail (we passed one couple navigating a 3 wheeled stroller over the trail) that leads to Hays Falls, the tallest Falls in New Brunswick at 60 feet.

The trail is well marked along the way with blue metal blazes with white diagonal bars. The hike contains 3 forks - the first one takes you down a somewhat steep descent to the bottom of the Falls, the second one will take you down an easier hiked descent to the bottom of the falls and the third will take you to the top of the Falls.  There are wooden benches along the route and gorgeous wooden picnic tables at the end. The total hike is only about 2 km.  

We took the first fork in the path and ended up at the bottom of the Falls, seeing this majestic site! It was so beautiful! The roar of the Falls covers every other sound in the forest.

We hung out at the bottom of the Falls for awhile, just taking it all in. I found this awesome tree to sit in and look at the Falls.

We eventually climbed up the rocky, grassy face of the mountain to the top of the Falls (not recommended, because it was dangerous and a little scary... when we did get to the top, we noticed a fence all around the top, notifying "DANGER" that we had to climb over) and were able to get the great view of the Falls from the top down. What a beautiful place.  We hiked back out the main trail and headed home after a great day exploring waterfalls.