Prince Edward Island National Park

Prince Edward Island National Park: Red Cliffs, Golden Dunes, and Anne’s Island

Along the north shore of Prince Edward Island, where the land meets the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Prince Edward Island National Park protects one of the prettiest stretches of coast in eastern Canada. This is a place of vivid contrasts, rust-red sandstone cliffs dropping into blue-green water, broad pale beaches backed by rolling grassy dunes, and quiet woods and wetlands just behind. Stretching some 60 kilometres along the island’s shoulder, the park packs an astonishing amount of scenery into a narrow ribbon of coastline. It is also storybook country in the most literal sense, the landscape that inspired one of the most beloved novels ever written.

Prince Edward Island National Park is red cliffs, golden dunes, and gentle green farmland, the real-life setting that inspired Anne of Green Gables.

The famous red comes from the island’s iron-rich sandstone, and along this coast it is everywhere. The cliffs glow a deep terracotta in the low light of morning and evening, and even the beaches carry a warm reddish tint at the waterline where the stone breaks down into sand. Set against the cool blues of the gulf and the greens of the dune grass, it is a genuinely striking palette, unlike almost anywhere else in the country. Watching the sun light up those cliffs is one of the simple, unforgettable pleasures of a visit here.

A Coast of Red and Gold

The beaches are the heart of the park. Long, wide, and gently sloping, they are ideal for swimming in the warm gulf waters of high summer or for a windswept walk in the shoulder seasons when the crowds thin out. Behind them rise grass-crowned sand dunes, constantly shaped and reshaped by the wind, holding the fragile line between land and sea.

This is a living, moving coastline, and the park works hard to protect it, since the same winter storms that sculpt the dunes also cause serious erosion along the shore. Boardwalks and marked paths guide visitors over the most delicate stretches so the dune grass can keep doing its job of holding everything together. It is a landscape that feels both timeless and fragile at once, which makes wandering it all the more special.

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The Greenwich Dunes and the Floating Boardwalk

The park’s most unusual feature waits at its eastern end, in the Greenwich section added in 1998. Here, a rare system of parabolic sand dunes migrates slowly inland, and the only way to reach the beach is across one of the most memorable trails anywhere in the national park system.

A long floating boardwalk zigzags directly across a pond and wetland, riding right on the surface of the water and gently bobbing underfoot as ducks paddle alongside. It is a delightful, slightly surreal walk, and it delivers you into the heart of the shifting dunes before the final push to a wild, often empty beach. The whole Greenwich experience feels like stepping into a different, more elemental version of the island.

Anne of Green Gables Country

For countless visitors, this park is a pilgrimage. Within its boundaries sits Green Gables, the 19th-century farmhouse that inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery to write Anne of Green Gables, one of the best-loved novels in the world. Montgomery grew up nearby in Cavendish, and the gentle farmland, red lanes, and wooded brooks of the surrounding countryside are unmistakably the world of her books.

Wandering the trails around Green Gables, past the tidy farm buildings and through the woods Montgomery called the “Haunted Wood” and “Lover’s Lane,” it is easy to see how this quiet corner of the island sparked such an enduring story. Even if you have never read the books, the setting is charming, and the mix of literary history and natural beauty gives the park a warmth that few coastal parks can match.

Wildlife and Quiet Trails

Beyond the beaches, the park protects a surprising variety of habitats and the creatures that depend on them. The protected shoreline is critical nesting habitat for the piping plover, a small, endangered shorebird, and the park has been recognized as an Important Bird Area for its role in keeping the species going.

Step back from the shore and the park changes character entirely. Inland, quiet woodland trails wind through spruce and hardwood forest, alive with red squirrels, songbirds, and the occasional fox slipping through the undergrowth. These shady paths are a welcome contrast to the open, breezy beaches, and they are especially lovely in autumn, when the leaves turn gold and the summer crowds have long gone home. It is an easy place to trade sand for shade whenever you need a break from the sun, and the sheer variety of habitats packed so close together is a big part of what makes the park so rewarding to explore slowly and on foot.

Closer to the water, short paths thread through the low dune shrubland and out to the sand, linking the parking areas and campgrounds to the beach. These little connector trails are half the fun, ducking through wind-sculpted bayberry and wild rose before spilling out onto the open shore. They make it easy to swap the busy main beach for a quiet walk in the greenery whenever you like, or to find your own secluded stretch of sand away from the crowds. Wandering them, you really feel how the park stitches forest, dune, and beach into one continuous, ever-shifting landscape.

Know Before You Go

The signature hike here is the trail out to the Greenwich beach, and it is genuinely one of the best. Here is the route and the essentials.

The Greenwich Dunes Trail runs a little under 3 miles out to the beach and back, mostly flat, with the floating boardwalk as its unforgettable centerpiece. The park was established in 1937 and stretches along PEI’s north shore near Cavendish, an easy drive from Charlottetown. Summer is peak season for swimming and warm water, but the shoulder months bring quieter beaches, softer light on the red cliffs, and beautiful fall color in the woods. Respect the posted closures around piping plover nesting areas in early summer, stay on the boardwalks to protect the dunes, and bring layers, since the gulf breeze can turn a warm day cool in a hurry.

Prince Edward Island National Park is a rare place that manages to be scenic, storied, and gentle all at once. Red cliffs and golden dunes, a floating boardwalk over the water, and the green countryside that gave the world Anne of Green Gables all sit within a short drive of one another, waiting on Canada’s smallest province.