Swept twice daily by the world's highest tides, the Bay of Fundy is home to a host of only-here experiences for adventurous travellers willing to venture off the beaten path.

Racing tides and time, I left before dawn. In order to reach Ministers Island, a tidal island at the southern tip of New Brunswick, I planned to walk across a slender strip of seafloor that's exposed only at low tide – an ephemeral path, passable for just a few hours each day. When the North Atlantic sweeps back, which it does with surprising force in Canada's Bay of Fundy, that trail disappears beneath 6m of frigid seawater.

Driving along the coast, I passed through dense forests and still-sleeping towns. Ministers Island was my first stop on a three-day journey through a dramatic landscape shaped by the world's highest tides; it was still early, but I kept a close eye on the clock.

Before I spotted the sea, I smelled its saline tang, then I saw my path: fresh from the ocean, flanked by waves, salt water puddled amid its barnacled rocks. A woman in knee-high rubber boots dug in the sand for soft-shelled clams. I waved hello and began to walk the 1km-long sand-and-gravel strip, my shoes squelching faintly on the seafloor.

If getting to Ministers Island is a journey worth travelling for, it's also a destination in its own right. The 200-hectare island was the summer retreat of self-made railway magnate Sir William Van Horne who helped drive the Canadian Pacific Railway across the continent in 1885, physically unifying the new nation and opening up its vast wilderness to tourism.

Hints of that history linger like easter eggs amid the estate's elegant cottage, bathhouse and barn. Van Horne buried a train car to serve as a water tank for cottage residents and guests that included royalty and dignitaries. The acetylene gas lighting that once illuminated the house was the same used on Canadian Pacific railcars – cutting-edge technology in the late 19th Century.

"I think the whole cottage looks a bit like a train," said Susan Goertzen, the island's longtime tour manager, tilting her head as we gazed at the building from its elm-dotted lawn. I could see it, sort of. Yet the Van Horne family used the island, above all, to escape the bustle of their Montreal home – savouring a tranquillity that still reigns on the island's 20km of walking trails. The ocean served to buffer the family from the outside world.

"When the tides came in, it was total privacy," said Goertzen. "Around here, we still live by the tides."

That's life at the edge of the Bay of Fundy, which boasts the highest tidal range on Earth and is considered one of North America's natural wonders alongside places like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite National Park. Twice a day every day, roughly 160 billion tonnes of water – more than all of the world's freshwater rivers combined – rush into this inlet dividing the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. This torrent causes the tides to raise and lower as much as 12m (the global average is about 1m), setting the pace of daily life for locals, providing rich feeding grounds for wildlife and creating a series of only-here experiences for adventurous........

© BBC