Greenwich Dunes
Greenwich Section Of Prince Edward Island National Park, Protecting A Rare Parabolic Dune System And Counter Ridge Formations, With Evidence Of 10,000 Years Of Human Occupation · St. Peters Bay, Prince Edward Island
At the eastern end of St. Peters Bay, Prince Edward Island National Park protects something geologists travel to see and most visitors walk across without realising: a parabolic dune system, U-shaped and migrating slowly inland, burying the forest ahead of it and uncovering what it buried centuries ago behind. There are very few good examples anywhere in North America. Between the dunes lie low counter-ridges, faint parallel ribs in the sand that record each stage of the advance, and they are rarer still. The way in is a trail of about four and a half kilometres that ends in the thing everyone photographs - a floating boardwalk laid across Bowley Pond, sitting on the water rather than above it, that brings you out onto the dunes and then onto a long, pale, almost empty beach. Ten thousand years of human occupation have been found in the ground here.
Greenwich, PEI National Park, St. Peters Bay, St. Peters Bay, Prince Edward Island, Canada
SEASONAL SERVICES. Trails are generally walkable through the warmer months and the GREENWICH INTERPRETATION CENTRE plus full facilities operate roughly late June to early October, typically around 9:00-17:00 - outside that window the centre closes even where the trail remains open, so confirm before a special trip. PARKS CANADA ADMISSION APPLIES and a Discovery Pass covers it; parking is included. THE TRAIL IS ABOUT 4.5km RETURN and crosses deep soft sand near the beach. SECTIONS CLOSE FOR PIPING PLOVER NESTING each summer, with dates posted on site. No lifeguard, no water on the trail.