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.

This was the day for traveling down red dirt roads.

Have a listen to Margie Carmichael’s song “Red Dirt Road”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l5OWPEhT1Q&feature=share

Ponds Road Beach

Ponds Road is initially paved but it does become a red dirt road. Three families were there enjoying themselves. Seems like a nice quiet beach to take young children as it would be easy to watch them. And you’d have to as it’s unsupervised.

https://pointseastcoastaldrive.com/things-to-do/entry/ponds-road-beach

Here:

* dirt parking

* no washrooms

* unsupervised beach

Simon’s Beach

Stewart Point Road, where you’ll find Simon’s Beach, is another paved road that becomes a red dirt road.

https://www.pointseastcoastaldrive.com/things-to-do/entry/simons-beach

This is a lovely private beach although a bit of seaweed today. I enjoyed it here as did a few others.

Here:

* a little dirt road parking

* no washrooms

* unsupervised beach

MacLeod Road Beach

https://www.pointseastcoastaldrive.com/things-to-do/entry/macleod-road-beach

To get here you have to travel down a long red dirt road that gets quite rough towards the end. You park on the grass and then have to walk through the grass towards a Canadian flag to get to the beach. Glad they had the flag to show us where to go.

It’s a very nice quiet beach that I would have really enjoyed and stayed longer if it hadn’t been for the hordes of mosquitoes. I got soooo many bites. I itched all night.

Here:

* grass parking

* no washrooms

* unsupervised beach

That’s the end of our eastern beaches for a while.

Next week takes us to western PEI and it’s beautiful beaches.

Cheers

More PEI Provincial Park beaches.

Discovery: not all Provincial Parks are equal.

Word of the day: Mosquitoes

Pinette Provincial Park and Beach

What a disappointment.

https://wand-beachww.pointseastcoastaldrive.com/things-to-do/entry/pinette-provincial-park-

The saving grace was what we saw just before the park. We were quite taken with this.

First of all, when you enter the park there’s no sign to tell you how to get to the beach. We entered and drove to the end of the entrance road where we found no designated parking-just a circular road.

And

we couldn’t find a way to get to the beach.

The washrooms were here but when I opened the ladies door the floor was covered with ants. 😮 I screamed and immediately closed the door. Richard had been in the men’s and said there were no ants there. Well he was right. There were no ants, but pretty disgusting washrooms.

As we were driving out of the park we saw, across the big playground, stairs to the beach. I guess you’re supposed to know this, park beside the road, and walk through the playground to the beach. Weird.

As you can see it’s not what I would consider a great beach.

Here:

* no designated parking

* primitive washrooms

* unsupervised beach

* playground

* picnic tables

For me, this was the best part. I saw several of these beauties.

This one was munching on parts of a huge mushroom.

Wood Islands Provincial Park and Beach

https://www.pointseastcoastaldrive.com/things-to-do/entry/wood-island-provincial-park-and-beach

Here we found a huge park area but the beach wasn’t the greatest. There were little buildings to create a miniature fishing shanty village for visitors to explore plus an enormous green space to enjoy. A wonderful aspect here is its location. It’s right beside the Wood Islands Ferry terminal so if you time your visit correctly you can see a ferry arriving or leaving.

For lots of you I’m sure that would be very interesting, but having been born on PEI and travelled on the ferries more times than I can count, it doesn’t hold the same mystique. I spent most of my ferry rides leaning over the side trying not to throw up. 🤭 Pleasant right?

Here:

* grass parking

* washrooms

* unsupervised beach

* lighthouse

* swings

* small buildings

* picnic tables

Here’s some fun pictures.

Northumberland Provincial Park Beach

https://www.pointseastcoastaldrive.com/things-to-do/entry/northumberland-provincial-park-beach

This was a lovely park/beach plus there’s a campground here too.

Here:

* lots of paved parking

* washrooms

* supervised beach

* metal stairs to the beach

* picnic tables

* playground

* campground

So today I showed you three PEI Provincial Park beaches we recently visited. You can see they are not all kept to the same standard.

I’m sure someone out there knows why.

But not me.

Yesterday we headed off to Charlottetown to do a few errands and have coffee/tea at Starbucks so we decided to include some beaches to complete our day.

Off we went across the Hillsborough River Bridge.

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

Turning onto Stratford Road we began looking for what we thought would be our first beach of the day, Tea Hill Beach.

What a pleasant surprise to find one before that.

Keppoch Road Beach

It was wonderful to see quite a few people enjoying the beach: kids playing on the sandbars while others were in beach chairs soaking in the sun, sand, and water. Great place to be on a hot day.

https://www.pointseastcoastaldrive.com/things-to-do/entry/kinlock-beach

Strange thing about beaches.

In this booklet https://www.pointseastcoastaldrive.com/ they call this the Keppoch Road Beach but the link for it says Kinlock Beach. Maybe that’s because it’s at the end of Kinlock Road. Interesting.

Here

* lots gravel parking

* no washrooms

* unsupervised beach

This beach borders on wetlands. I’m not a “birder” but I’m sure others enjoy this.

Not far down the road we found our next beach.

Tea Hill Park and Beach

This is a lovely huge park and again we found people relishing their beach walks while others were sitting in the park.

We chatted with a woman originally from PEI who moved away and was now back living on PEI. This was a nostalgic visit for her. She used to go to this beach a lot when she previously lived here. She told us we should really see this beach at low tide as it goes out quite a ways and seems like you can walk forever.

https://www.pointseastcoastaldrive.com/things-to-do/entry/tea-hill-park-and-beach

Here:

* lots of paved parking

* washrooms

* picnic tables

* unsupervised beach

* very nice children’s playground

* volleyball court

* cricket pitch

Richard schooled me on a few cricket facts.

If you want more info on the PEI Cricket Association here’s their Facebook page. https://m.facebook.com/PEI-Cricket-Association-375538377835/

I think someone was amazed by the crab shells. Maybe they had never before seen them.

I found them laid out on a picnic table.

Over the next few days I’ll share the other beaches we saw.

Next week we’re very excited to turn our eyes to Western PEI to discover their fabulous beaches.

We’re having such fun with our summer beach adventures and hoping they’re inspiring you to create an adventure too – if not on PEI then around your own home.

Cheers.