July 13 – PEI National Park

It was a bright sunny day with hardly a cloud and not a hint of wind. We decided to go to the Greenwich section of PEI National Park and hike to the Greenwich Dunes.

We went straight across the island to the north coast and I do mean straight.

There are huge churches everywhere.

Then you drive along the north shore of St. Peter’s Bay to get to the park at the end of a peninsula.

We first stopped at the visitor’s center. This is definitely the lesser used section of the park. They have a huge building with all kinds of displays. It was 10:30 and there was one other couple. We drove on to the trailhead parking lot and there were about 7 cars. Most of the time there was not another person in sight.

The trail was lined with lots of wild flowers, mainly wild roses.

The first kilometer is across an old farmer’s field.

We had to ask someone to take our picture when we realized we had the same clothes on.

The view across the bay with all the buoys holding up the lines of cultivated mussels.

You take a quick trip through a very buggy forest.

and exit to this amazing floating boardwalk across a marsh.

It took a short while for Jennie to get used to the movement of the floating sections.

The giant sand dunes in the distance.

Then up and over.

The view back.

Out to our private beach. Later we saw some people come back from far up at the end.

 

As we walked up the beach there was a slot were you could climb back over for a look at a set of parabolic dunes. The curved line of sand moves like a wave across the land. It was a lot more impressive in person.

 

We sat on these logs and had lunch. The sand was really hot so we just buried our feet but the air temperature was very comfortable.

We walked a long way up the beach. It was hard to measure distance.

The water is very shallow for a long way out so it was very warm. I could have easily gotten in but I didn’t relish the thought of walking back in wet clothes. I guess I have to put a bathing suit in the pack.

Heading back, some people had invaded our beach.

We picked up our shoes. I left mine by the stairs and Jennie’s were just in the middle of the sand.

I can’t help showing more pictures of this boardwalk.

Back through the forest. Bug net back into action.

So many flowers walking back across the field but without any wind it was very hot.

We originally thought about driving to some other places but after all the sun and the walking in the water we just decided to head home. In total we walked about 7 km.