Beach Island Tramps

Here are some places where you can take a longish walk on a PEI beach.  Some are probably well known to you, others not so much.  A walk on a sandy beach is a piece of cake, but you may encounter seaweed, gravel, cobbles, rocks, boulders and slabs, all of which can be very slippy and more or less challenging.  Flip-flops are OK for a short walk on the sand but for anything more, be prepared with good stout footwear.   

Keep an eye on the tides.  On the north shore, the typical tidal range is 3 feet or so.  Big wide north shore beaches almost always have some sand exposed, even at high tide.  But on the south shore the typical tidal range is 6 ft and it can be as much as 9 feet.  A south shore beach may have wide expanses of sand exposed at low tide but you can easily be squeezed up against the cliff with nowhere to go at high tide.  For a comfortable and safe beach walk, try to set out about 2 hours before low tide. 

    http://www.waterlevels.gc.ca/eng/find/zone/4 

Public access to the shore is usually very limited on PEI.  For example, in the 14 kilometers from Argyle Shore Provincial Park to Hennebury Road in Rice Point there only 3 other public access points, Inman Park, Cottage Road and the old Rice Point wharf (Afton Community Park).  There is also a great deal of PEI shoreline that is inaccessible due to cliffs, estuaries and marsh lands.    

308 Greenwich to Short Point

This challenging 20.9 km route from the farthest west point at Greenwich to Short Point combines routes 302 through 307.  Of course if you want to walk the whole route you will need to add a few kilometers for the approach marches at either end.  It includes a lot of sandy beaches, a few creek crossings and a few rocky headlands that can be scrambled over and around.  This route is not for the faint hearted.  For an overview of the complete route click the link below. 

It seems like a long haul from Malpeque to Alberton with no beaches to walk on but that is not the case.  Hog Island, Conway Sand Hills, and Cascumpec Sand Hills comprise 35 km of beaches and dunes that enclose Malpeque Bay and guard the northeast facing shore of PEI.  These wild barrier islands with their beautiful and seldom trod beaches are only accessible by boat and consequently have been omitted from this compilation.