Basin Head Provincial Park

Prince Edward Island Provincial Park With The Singing Sands Beach; The Adjacent Basin Head Lagoon Is A Federal Marine Protected Area Designated In 2005 For A Unique Strain Of Irish Moss · Souris, Prince Edward Island

The sand at Basin Head squeaks. Walk on it dry and it lets out a short, clean, almost musical note under each step, which is why Islanders have called it the Singing Sands for as long as anyone can remember and why children run up and down the beach to make it do it again. The physics is unglamorous - the grains are unusually high in silica, rounded and closely matched in size, so they slide against one another cleanly - and it stops entirely when the sand is wet or dirty. Behind the beach sits something rarer. The Basin Head lagoon was made a Marine Protected Area in 2005 to protect a strain of Irish moss that grows here in a giant free-floating form found nowhere else on earth, and which has been in steep decline. A channel runs out of the lagoon under a small bridge, and jumping off it into the current is the local rite of passage.

Basin Head, east of Souris, Points East Coastal Drive, Souris, Prince Edward Island, Canada

The beach is open through daylight hours and the shoreline is accessible year round, but FACILITIES ARE SEASONAL - the canteen, supervised swimming, washrooms and the Basin Head Fisheries Museum operate roughly late June to early September, with the museum keeping its own daytime hours and a modest admission. PEI provincial park day-use charges are low and parking may be charged in peak summer. THE SAND ONLY SQUEAKS WHEN DRY AND CLEAN, so a wet day removes the main attraction. Lifeguard cover, where provided, is July and August only and does not extend to the tidal run.

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