Views from the Fullers River Bridge

After leaving Victoria Bridge, I turned towards Upper Grand Mira and then took the MacEachern Road to bring me back to the Grand Mira–Gabarus Road, which I followed to its end in Gabarus Lake. There wasn’t enough time left in the day to explore the lakes south of Upper Grand Mira, where I suspect there might have been some fine fall colours. From Gabarus Lake, I followed the Fourchu Road across the Richmond County line, where it changes name to the St Peter’s–Fourchu Road, through Fourchu, and on to the bridge over the Fullers River a short distance west of Fourchu. The weather was improving by the time I got there, so I decided to stop for some photos, a selection of which appears on this page.

Although the bridge is known as the Fullers River Bridge, the topographical map labels the water to the north of the bridge as the MacKenzies River and labels as Fullers River the water to the south, leaving the status of that flowing under the bridge undefined; Since they flow directly from under the bridge, I think the waters seen at the far left of photo #1 are part of the MacKenzies River, joined by the Fullers River, seen at the right and centre of the photo in the middle distance, south of the nearest point seen at the left. Listed among the birding sites of Richmond County and marked by a “Seabird Nesting Island” sign at the side of the road, this area is a large estuary with the bountiful wild life one would expect. Much of the area on both sides of the road is mud flats, which are exposed when the tide is low; silt has allowed the formation of numerous marshy islands, whose grasses here have their reddish fall colouring. The trees here are uniformly evergreens with no hardwoods visible anywhere.

Photo #2 is a telephoto view of a portion of the area seen in the wider-angled photo #1. It looks across the beautiful marsh grasses to Fullers Gut, where the Fullers River empties into the bay of the Atlantic known as Framboise Cove. The eastern end of Morrisons Beach, a fine sand beach that lines the shores of Framboise Cove, is at the right of the photo, below and on the far side of the line of evergreens on the dunes that rise above the beach (barely visible in this compressed version).

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Photo #3, another telephoto view, looks to the right (west) of photo #2. The land seen here has the appearance of an island, though, in fact, it is attached to the narrow strip of land formed of beach and dunes (seen on either side), south of Fullers River; it is clearly not a mud flat, which would not support such a fine stand of evergreens, and must be elevated enough that the waters of the estuary do not reach it. Again, nary a sign of a hardwood. The sky is actually showing some blue over the Atlantic, though the prevailing grey above is reflected on the calm waters of Fullers River.

Photo #4 looks on the other side of the road at the MacKenzies River area north of the bridge. These waters are again full of mud flats and marsh grass islands, very hospitable to the birds that nest there. Lots of spruce bark beetle damage is evident here, but again no hardwoods are visible.