North Rustico

During our cat sitting weekend I mentioned we had gone to Fishheads in North Rustico. When sitting on their deck this is your view.

I debated about including this beach. But since it is separate from the main beach I thought I would. You can decide if it’s a beach.

It’s a very small beach area. You often see vehicles parked on the sand. But they have to be careful and not remain when the tide is coming in. I’ve heard stories of people coming back and finding their vehicles in water. Oops. That’s not so nice to find.

Another beach we found just as you enter the North Rustico National Park entrance is called:

North Rustico Beach – Rolling’s Pond Outflow

This is a sweet spot and lots of people were enjoying the beach. Love the flowing brook, plus the added bonus is you can walk down to the North Rustico National Park Beach if you’re so inclined.

Here:

• Paved parking lot

• Wooden stairs to beach

• No washrooms

• Unsupervised beach

• Beautiful white sand beach

Driving from here towards Cavendish National Park Beach you’ll find:

Doyle’s Beach

This is a small beach but some people seem to love these smaller, less popular spots.

Here:

• Paved off road parking, enough for four vehicles (and three were taken when we arrived)

• No washrooms

• Unsupervised beach

• A rough path to the beach

• Lovely white beach

• Kayakers, swimmers, and kids on the beach

Tomorrow I’ll share more beaches we found on our way to Cavendish.

Cheers

Up and around the northern tip of PEI.

North Cape Beach

There is so much to see at North Cape plus the addd bonus of a beach. Red cliffs are at the very top of the Cape but down a bit there is a beach.

Lots of people were on the cliffs and the shore, but sadly we didn’t see any seals.😢

https://northcape.ca/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Cape_(Prince_Edward_Island)

This area offers so many amazing things. Everywhere you looked there were Inukshuks. Traditionally, they were used by the Inuit in the north as directional markers. An Inukshuk in the shape of a person signifies safety, hope and friendship. These stone sculptures were also important for navigation, as a point of reference, as a marker for hunting grounds, or to denote a food cache. (This is what I read online.)

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/inuksuk-inukshuk

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuksuk

https://www.weegates.com/inukshukcorp/InukshukStory.htm

Long reef stretching approximately 2 km offshore that is the longest natural rock reef in North America where people can walk during low tide.

https://northcape.ca/longest-natural-rock-reef-in-north-america/

A natural phenomenon occurs here – the meeting of the Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Here:

• Large parking lot

• Washrooms

• Unsupervised beach

• Gift shop

https://northcape.ca/north-cape-gift-shop/

• Restaurant

https://northcape.ca/wind-and-reef-restaurant/

• Wind Energy Interpretative Centre

https://northcape.ca/north-cape-wind-energy-interpretive-centre/

https://weican.ca/

• Black Marsh Nature Trail

https://northcape.ca/black-marsh-nature-trail-2/

https://www.tourismpei.com/search/OperatorDetails/op_id/5196/

Sea Cow Pond Beach

We were driving by and saw this harbour and thought there must be a beach but we couldn’t find a sign to tell us what it was. Thankfully we met a young couple just leaving who told us its name.

Love this photo. Ready to roll.

Another beautiful beach.

Here:

• Paved parking

• No washrooms

• Unsupervised beach

• Beautiful white sandy beach

Myrick Shore (Ladybug Beach)

We were super excited to get to this beach. It’s a wonderful beach but there’s also another reason we were excited.

This beach has had a great deal of attention due to the lady bug lady’s reputation for leaving lady bug painted rocks on the beach.

http://www.peicanada.com/west_prince_graphic/article_bb24129c-9255-11e7-a736-574bd60e9acd.html

https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/community/ladybug-lady-mysterious-stone-artist-gaining-quite-a-following-214933/

Boo 😢Hoo 😢 No rocks for us. I was so disappointed. We even went down to the beach next to the harbour but none there either.

We did find this. The photo do not even come close to showing how large this was. Enormous!

Oh well. Hopefully someone was luckier than we were.

Here:

• Paved parking lot

• Washrooms

• Unsupervised beach

• Nice small quiet sandy beach

• Swings, slide, picnic tables

• Gift shop

• Canteen

Off to visit Rustico and Cavendish next.

But we’re not finished with the western part of PEI. We’ll be back.

Cheers

A continuation of our cat sitting Rustico, PEI weekend.

I love visiting North Rustico. They have a terrific boardwalk and much more. A couple of activities are deep sea fishing and kayaking.

Here you can see Blue Mussel Cafe

https://bluemusselcafe.com/

and On The Dock Eatery.

https://m.facebook.com/onthedockeatery/

I’ve eaten at Blue Mussel Cafe. It’s extremely popular but has long waits. I’m hoping to try On The Dock Eatery this summer.

A few years ago we went to yoga in the park every week all summer. We’d go for a walk on their lovely boardwalk, eat a little picnic in the park, watch the osprey nest, and then do our yoga class. I enjoyed it immensely. It was so nice. But- if you’re doing yoga on the ground you do get bugs on you so after the first class I remembered to put on insect repellent. That was a huge improvement. I’m not a bug enthusiast. 🦟🕷

So this weekend we took our usual drive down to the boardwalk area. There’s a new spot Fishhead Company Store. It’s quite unique and lovely to sit outside and enjoy a beach view. This photo is of the back where you sit on the deck. There’s no where inside to eat. It’s next to a cute gift shop Seagulls Nest Gift Shop.

https://m.facebook.com/Fishead-Company-Store-1942573955800025/?__tn__=%2Cg#_=_

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-fishirts-replica-lighthouse-1.4771534

Richard had a coffee and an oatmeal cookie. I had a chai latte and a gluten free cinnamon roll. Very good. The ladies are super friendly.

From here we walked over to the beach.

North Rustico National Park Beach

I love this beach. It’s not as busy as others but still has beautiful white sand and it’s lovely to walk.

I have to say though that this beach has me totally confused. First I’m not sure what to call it. It’s listed differently on various maps. Some say North Rustico National Park Beach while others say North Rustico Beach. Or is it both? Does one end and then the other begin? I have no idea.

You can walk to it several ways: crossing the road down past Fishheads (that’s the way we’ve always gone in the past plus there’s a lovely little beach area that you pass through to get to the pathway to the main beach), from partway down the boardwalk and crossing the street to a continuation of boardwalk, or driving through the National Park entry and then turning right and continuing down the dirt road and parking in the dirt parking lot. Sooooooo – the first two ways you don’t have to pay the park entrance fee and the last way you pay. It boggles my mind.

As we were walking onto the beach this guy was painting. How cool.

This a beautiful white sand beach. We’ve walked it many times. Others were also enjoying it. Beautiful.

Where do you think these stair lead?

We found out.

They lead to the washrooms, changing rooms, and the parking lot.

Where are the washroom signs?

There are none.

Does that seem appropriate or helpful?

Now I do admit that if you drive here by the National Park entrance then you’d park in the lot and see the buildings, or if you walk to the beach from mid boardwalk you’d see them. But if you walk to the beach from the end of Harbourview Dr. which is how we saw most people walking to the beach, you wouldn’t. At least that’s the way I see it.

We had seen on the news that there were dolphins here a few days ago. But not this day. Too bad. I’d have loved to have seen that.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-rustico-beach-mammal-swimming-waves-water-1.5239095

Here:

• Parking at the Harbour, or on the road, or a dirt parking lot depending on how you are going to the beach

• Supervised beach

• Washrooms but not indicated

• Changing rooms but not indicated

• Beautiful white sandy beach

We visited more beaches while there. Keep watching.

Cheers.

This past weekend we were cat sitting Diva and Maestro, my daughter’s and son-in-law’s Tonkinese cats.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkinese_cat

We got to stay in their beautiful PEI home in Rustico and enjoy a mini-vacation. We walked on the North Rustico boardwalk, sat reading while enjoying our tea in their sun room, and ate out a lot. Yum. We ate well.

I’d recommend all three of these restaurants.

Friday’s dinner was at The Mill in New Glasgow

https://www.themillinnewglasgow.com

Richard highly recommends the Belle River Crab Cakes and the Lamb and Feta Meatballs.

Saturday’s dinner was at PEI Preserve Company in New Glasgow

https://preservecompany.com/pages/restaurant-menu

The nachos were delicious as were our desserts: Bailey’s Chocolate Cheesecake (mine) and Vanilla Ice Cream Crepes (Richard’s).

Sunday’s breakfast was at By the Bay Family Restaurant in North Rustico

http://www.bythebayfamilyrestaurant.com

Traditional PEI eatery with homestyle breakfasts. Ours were delicious and filling.

A short distance from where we were staying is a beach!

Barachois Beach

Cute little yellow metal stairs.

This is probably the longest walk to a beach that we’ve had so far this summer.

It was made even longer due to the fact that we had to walk/run through Mosquito City. And we weren’t the only ones. Everyone heading to and from the beach was running or power walking, as well as complaining about those dreaded insects. I have never had sooooo many mosquitoes on my legs at one time. Yuck. I was not impressed. I won’t be going back here any time soon.

The beach itself was outstanding. And thank goodness no mosquitoes there. We enjoyed a leisurely 4K walk.

It’s interesting that there are all kinds of signs regarding piping plovers and that all dogs must be on a leash.

Sadly people do not obey.

Here:

• Dirt road

• Side of road dirt parking

• Metal stairs to the beach

• Looooong walk to beach through mosquito city

• Beautiful long white beach

Skinner’s Pond Beach

These western PEI Beaches continue to amaze me. I hope some of these photos are inspiring you to explore these beaches.

This beach is on Stompin Tom Road in Skinners Pond. What do you think?

http://northcapedrive.com/explore/skinners-pond/

Across from the beach is the Stompin’ Tom Centre and Homestead.

http://stompintomcentre.com/

https://welcomepei.com/feature/stompin-tom-centre/

What a wonderful tribute to this man, Stompin’ Tom Connors.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stompin’_Tom_Connors

When I taught elementary school music my students loved his songs and the stories they told. To me, he was a Canadian folklorist. Once when the students were doing projects on Canadian musicians a group wrote him and he sent CD’s, posters, and his book. What a kind and generous gesture to these young people.

Here:

• Paved road

• Several areas to park

• Multiple entrances to get onto the beach

• No washrooms

• Unsupervised beach

• A lovely sandy beach

• Lots of people enjoying the beach and picnicking

• Right by the Harbour

• Beautiful white caps

• Views of the North Cape windmills

Nail Pond Beach

This beach is located on Nail Pond Shore Road.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_Pond,_Prince_Edward_Island

This is such a great beach. I loved it, but I sure hope it doesn’t get spoiled by vehicles on the beach. I was so disappointed to see this.

Again I was surprised that only a few people were here. Such a lovely beach but only enjoyed by a few.

Here:

• Dirt road

• Parking on road (but apparently some park on the beach)

• No washrooms

• Unsupervised beach

• View of North Cape windmills

• Beautiful red sandy beach

Off to North Cape. Chat about it tomorrow.

Cheers.

People, you need to explore the beaches in western PEI.

There are so many wonderful beaches there. I have been one who has been remiss in visiting these beaches. Not any more. They are lovely.

Whites Cove Road Beach

What an incredible find. And yes I created this name as it’s at the end of Whites Cove Road. Does anyone know it’s proper name?

This such a beautiful beach at the end of a red dirt road.

We chatted to a couple from Ontario who are originally from PEI. They’ve been coming here each summer for quite a few years and said that over the last few years the number of people who are using the beach has increased. No wonder. It’s so nice. Maybe a dozen people there when we were. Lots of driftwood here for crafty people.

We took a lovely walk and I found brown, green, and white seaglass. Sweet.

Here:

• Wide old pavement/dirt road

• Small parking area at the top of the road then a walk down the road to the beach

• No washrooms

• Unsupervised beach

• Beautiful beach

• Brook running down to the beach

Factory Road Beach

What a lovely beach that’s being well enjoyed.

Here:

• Dirt road

• Two parking areas, one above on the cliff and one at beach level

• No washrooms

• Unsupervised beach

• Red sandy beach

Harbour Road Beach Miminegash

How fabulous is this beach!

This is located right at Miminegash Harbour.

I found this online and am including it to show you the harbour.

How beautiful! There were a few people on the beach. I’m surprised there weren’t more. It was a hot sunny day and it’s a lovely beach. The only downfall was there were some horseflies.

Here:

• paved road

• lots of parking

• no washrooms

• unsupervised beach

• beautiful red/white sand

Come back tomorrow for the beaches at Skinners Pond and Nail Pond.

Cheers

How we found this hidden gem.

We stopped at the Mount Pleasant Tourist Information Centre to look through their materials.

https://www.tourismpei.com/search/OperatorDetails/name/WestPrinceVisitorInformationCentre/op_id/5395/

https://www.tourismpei.com/pei-visitor-information

Of course I took that opportunity to visit their washroom and Richard used the time to chat with an employee. She was very friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. Not only did she show him the usual beaches but also a beach that’s not on the map; a beach the locals call:

Ben’s Shore

This is such a hidden gem that I’m not going to advertise its location. I’m sure those who live around there will appreciate that. If you’re interested in seeing it stop by the tourist information centre and I’m sure they’ll share.

Now I have to admit it’s not an easy drive to get down to the beach.

In the beginning it was a slightly rough dirt road.

Once we got about halfway down it was so rough I refused to take my sweet little white Jetta (Glinda the GLI) any further. (an SUV might have been better) Richard got out and walked while I, ever so slowly, reversed my car back up the road as there was no room to turn around. Thank goodness for my backup camera. I tell you my car was beeping like crazy. I don’t like backing up in the best of circumstances so this was very tricky for me. But I succeeded.

Looking at the photos you can see it was well worth the trip. What an amazing beach.

High cliffs to the right

and to the left there’s a babbling brook running out into the beach.

Simply stunning!

Could have stayed here all afternoon.

Here:

* dirt road

* dirt parking and down at the bottom there was room for vehicles to turn around

* red sand beach

* no washrooms

* unsupervised beach

* very private beautiful beach

I hope you enjoyed seeing this beach as much as we did.

Cheers.

Higgins Wharf Road Beach

My made up name again. Oh my. I wish I knew all the real names. It was lovely to see the boats and the lobster traps, I’m assuming in preparation for this week.

Here:

* paved road with small amount of parking

* no washrooms

* unsupervised beach

* small red sand beach area, not the greatest

* lots of seaweed

Both of the following are near Cedar Dunes Provincial Park.

https://www.tourismpei.com/provincial-park/cedar-dunes

West Point Beach (at the wharf)

https://westpointharmony.ca/marina

I put this down separately as there’s a beach here as well as at my next one.

I loved the little storage or bait houses (not sure what to call them). They were so cute with their names on each door.

Here:

* paved parking

* restaurant

* unsupervised beach

West Point Beach (at the lighthouse)

We could tell this is a popular beach as there were lots of people on the beach or enjoying the view, although our photos don’t show the people. Lol.

https://welcomepei.com/beaches/west-point-beach/

There have been major changes here to the sea wall since the last time we were here in the summer of 2016. That fall there was serious damage.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-west-point-lighthouse-needs-help-erosion-carole-livingstone-1.3881716

The West Point Lighthouse is a popular tourist attraction and is the tallest lighthouse on PEI at 67′ 8″ in height.

https://westpointlighthouse.ca/

https://westpointharmony.ca/inn_and_museum

https://www.peilighthousesociety.ca/lighthouse.php?id=51

We stopped here for a while, sat on a bench overlooking the water, and enjoyed tea with our lunch.

It seems this is the only way down to the beach and it’s so wonderful to see they have water wheels.

Here:

* lots of pavement parking

* washrooms

* supervised beach

* water wheels available

* wooden benches and chairs overlooking the water

* picnic shelter

MacDonald Shore Beach

Yes. You guessed it. I didn’t know the name so I named it after the road. This is a red dirt road with a nice private beach at the end.

There were a few people enjoying it. But by the tracks I think vehicles had been down here too.

Here:

* dirt road

* small amount of dirt parking

* no washrooms

* unsupervised beach

* red sand beach

Oooo. Keep watching. I’ve got an amazing hidden gem coming in tomorrow’s post.

Cheers

Past the halfway mark. Yay!

Yesterday I said I’d be posting a Hidden Gem today. In hindsight we decided it didn’t quite fit that category. But there will be some to come in the future.

Maximeville Shore Road Beach

My apologies to those who know the proper names for the beaches.

Where there are no beach signs I’ve taken the liberty of naming the beaches for my own points of reference.

This beach is in Maximeville and it’s on Shore Road so that’s how I named it.

If you read my last blog post you might remember that I mentioned that this beach doesn’t seem to be located where it’s indicated in the North Cape Coastal Drive guide. Now that could be our fault as we don’t know the area but it’s listed as #9 between #5 Cape Egmont and #6 Cape Egmont but we found it after #6. But who knows? Maybe we went down the wrong Shore Road. But if we did we were glad.

To get there you walk down a grassy hill but be careful, it’s difficult to get down. There were a few people walking on the beach but for the most part a very quiet, private beach; good for some wonderful rest and relaxation time.

Here:

• dirt road
• small amount of dirt parking
• no washrooms
• unsupervised beach
• red sandy and rocky beach

We’ve found so many beaches down roads previously unknown to us and here’s another one. Again I have no idea what it’s called so I’m calling it:

Cimetiere Road Beach

A lot of sea weed

If you’ve been following my blog you know we love to drive down roads just to see what’s at the end. What was interesting here is there’s an old cemetery along this road.

As you can tell from the photos it doesn’t appear to be a great beach as there’s a lot of seaweed. I have no idea if it’s always like this or just today.

Here:

* dirt road

* no washrooms

* unsupervised beach

But

Across the road from Cimetiere Rd is a Memorial Park. The sign says “In honour of our Acadian and Canadian soldiers“. It honours WW1 and WW2 Acadian and other Canadian soldiers.  The park is built on the spot of a former church, and has several memorials, as well as benches in a park-like setting.

Rocky Point Road St. Chrystome Beach

Once again I give a name to a beach. Forgive me those who know it’s real name.

Down another red dirt road.

There were several ways to walk down over the dunes to get to this very private beach.

It looked like there was some sort of old wooden structure at the end of the spit.

Here:

* dirt parking

* no washrooms

* unsupervised beach

* red sand and rocky beach

See you tomorrow.

All the way from Linkletter Provincial Park Beach to Myrick Shore Beach on Sunday. What a day! We experienced 20 PEI beaches. All week I’ll be sharing them with you.

But first

The eastern part of PEI has this brochure about their beaches.

It even has an app.

https://www.pointseastcoastaldrive.com/index.php?/50-beaches/index.php

When we toured eastern PEI all of these 50 beaches were acknowledged with road signs displaying a beach umbrella. Fairly easy to find beaches, especially for tourists.

No similar signs up west. In fact, beaches had no signs that we could see.

How are tourists expected to find these beautiful western PEI beaches?

We did, but mainly by taking chances and searching down roads that we were hoping had beaches. And we were on a mission.

We did have the North Cape Coastal Drive book with beaches located on it but didn’t find it always completely accurate. Maybe it was us, I don’t know. It did help us because if not for the book we’d never have known about some of these beaches as we saw no road signs indicating beaches. I’m posting it so you can see where some of the beaches we visited are approximately located.

It was perplexing to us that # 5 and #6 were both Cape Egmont and that on the map they were separated by #9 Maximeville. That’s not what we found. Anyone know the answer?

The book also has this map in it but as you can see there aren’t that many beaches marked on it.

We experienced so many amazing beaches up west. If tourists knew about them and could find them what a boost it would be to western PEI.

Linkletter Provincial Park Beach

https://www.tourismpei.com/provincial-park/linkletter

https://www.tourismpei.com/search/OperatorDetails/name/LinkletterProvincialPark/op_id/2198/

As you can see we found a lot of seaweed here. Not the greatest beach. Might be better at low tide.

I remember taking my kids here when they were young. It’s so close to Summerside that it was easy on a hot day to scoot out here and let them cool off. Plus there’s a lot of green space for kids to run around.

Ah the memories.

Here:

• grass parking
• washroom? unsure. We didn’t see them in the beach area but saw a building over at the campground so they’re probably there.
• unsupervised beach
• playground
• picnic tables
• day park 9-9
• campground there

Union Corner Provincial Park Beach

https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/point-interest/union-corner-provincial-park

https://www.tourismpei.com/provincial-park/union-corner

Red sand, very rocky beach

Nice metal stairs to the beach.

Lots of green space here too.

Here:

• lots of grass parking
• washrooms were portages potties
• changing rooms ( very clean)
• unsupervised beach
• picnic tables
• swings
• camping near by

We saw this sign posted there.

Check out their web site.

https://www.ibacanada.ca/site.jsp?siteID=PE011

Campground Road Beach 

To get to this beach you turn down Campground Road (dirt road) which is right beside Moonlight Campground. Have no idea it’s official name so I just made up a name for it. On the North Cape Coastal map it’s #5 Cape Egmont.

Here’s the campground’s web site.

https://www.moonlightcamping.ca/index.html

And their Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moonlight-Campground/409318232523045

Here:

• dirt road and took a bit of maneuvering to turn around to get back out
• no parking
• no washrooms
• unsupervised beach
• red sand beach with rocks

Cape Egmont Wharf Beach

On the North Cape Coastal map this is called #6 Cape Egmont. But since I wanted to differentiate it from the other Cape Egmont on the map I’m calling it Cape Egmont Wharf Beach. Another made up name. Again there were no directions telling us there was a wharf or even a beach down here.

It was great though during this trip to see so many working harbours.

Here you could go down to small beach areas on either side of the wharf area.

Here:

• paved road
• no specified parking areas but lots of room to park
• no washrooms
• unsupervised beach
• red sand beach

One side of the wharf. See the Cape Egmont Lighthouse in the distance.

The other side

Lots of driftwood.

That’s it for today.

Check back tomorrow.