Caroline Sea Caves, Baxter's Harbour, NS

Winter is beautiful in Nova Scotia. Come check out some amazing sea caves at Caroline Beach and the amazing ice formations. See below for more details.

Distance from Halifax, Nova Scotia: approx. 116km
Total travel time: 1h 30min drive from downtown Halifax
Total hiking time: 1 hour
Fitness level: Intermediate

The Caroline Sea Caves is approx. an hour and 30 min drive from downtown Halifax and is located in Baxter’s Harbour. You can find a different set of directions to the sea caves on trailpeak.com – (www.trailpeak.com/trails/Arches-and-Caves-near-Wolfville-NS-10795). Since I have been here before I used a different route, via the trail entrance named Bigelow Cove Rd on the elbow where Black Hole Road and Old Baxter Mill Road meet, just east of Baxter’s Harbour. All detailed directions can be found in the description of this video below.
Travelling from Halifax on the 101 take exit 11, at the end of the ramp turn right onto NS -358. Continue straight for approx. 9 km until you come to NS 221W on your left. Take this left and drive 2.6km at which point you will continue straight onto Black Hill road. This road eventually becomes a dirt road and you pass over Gospel Woods Road. Continue driving Black Hill Road until you can see water and the road makes a sharp bend to your left which takes you onto Old Baxter Mill Road. Park just down the road leaving clear visibility for your vehicle.

To get to Caroline beach you will follow the trail which sits almost at this elbow where Black Hole Road and Old Baxter Mill Road meet. There is an arrow sign right at the start of the trail. It is important to note that you must go at low tide, tide charts can be checked at tidecharts.com and entering Baxter’s harbour in the search by field.

Following the trail is not overly difficult. It takes approx. 30 minutes to get from your car to the sea caves. The trail will pass over a brook, which was frozen when we were there and therefore easy to cross. Right in this area just to your left there was a beautiful spot where the brook passed beneath a rock wall and just the way the snow had fallen, and the sun shone made for a beautiful scene.

If you follow this brook on the right side you will come to Haunted falls, which we quickly visited but did not venture down into the ravine via the ropes on this day. There are many other falls in this area including Baxter Falls, Porcupine Falls, Coby Irving Brook Falls and Black Hole Book Falls just to name a few. The link to this waterfall map is here https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/vie...

To get to the beach cross the brook and continue following the Bigelow Cove Rd trail. This road rises in elevation so there are some parts which require a bit of a climb, but overall, the path is easy to walk and therefore not too strenuous. You can see the beach from the trail itself before you start to descend.
Once you reach the beach are you will walk to the right along the side of the brackish water until you reach the beach itself. The caves are to the left on the beach and located at the following GPS Coordinates.
1. N 45.236746°, W 64.486571°
2. N 45.236459°, W 64.489403°
3. N 45.237124°, W 64.490089°

The first sea cave was the most amazing with the best ice formations. The icicles were quite large so we tried to be very careful moving around them to prevent them from falling on us. The second and third sea caves were less interesting while we were there but still worth seeing.

In addition to the sea caves there is a monument also on the beach. sitting up on the side of the cliff. On December 17, 1831 the new Digby Packet Schooner Caroline left Digby from Saint John with a cargo of sheep, cattle and apples. The schooner Caroline was soon ravaged by a winter storm. Three days later the dismasted vessel drifted ashore on the beach with five frozen bodies on board. The remaining passengers and crew were never found. Those five bodies were buried near the beach at Baxter’s Harbour. Now, this monument marks the location of where the Caroline came to shore near Baxter’s Harbour.

Reminders: It is important to practice responsible outdoor recreation and Leave No Trace. More information about these principles can be found here: https://www.leavenotrace.ca/home.

Equipment: If you are interested to know more about the equipment I used for this hike and for the video see below.
Sony Alpha a6000 Mirrorless Digital Camera with 16-50mm Plus 55-210mm Power Zoom Lenses - https://amzn.to/362fuM6
Sony Fe 50mm F1.8 (SEL50F18F), Black - https://amzn.to/3jXrq6G
iPhone 8 Plus - https://amzn.to/329YCC0

The music I use in my videos: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referra...