The Northern Sea shore

Tags

Beaches, Canada., Parks, PEI, Seashore

I live in Charlottetown and the Capital faces the Hillsborough River and further afield the Straits of Northumberland and the Mainland of Canada, all visible from the city. So today I went down hwy 15 to the PEI National Park which has some of the beaches on the North side of the Island, such as Dalvay, Covehead, Brackley Beach, Stanhope. From Charlottetown to the PEI National Park it is about 25 minutes by car. The beaches are clean, well kept, with people here and there, some stretches you are on your own. The road of the park is newly paved and a new bridge has been installed at Covehead. Parking in the park is in designated areas only and is free, there is also a bicycle trail and lots of paths. Nature conservation is the name of the game, so no dogs and people are asked to keep to the paths and not walk on the dunes which are fragile. Some weeks ago I got a Family Season pass to enter the National Park so you save money. On the way back home I decided to follow the road and exited the Park at the other end, then on Hwy 6 to Tracadie and turning right unto Hwy 2 back into the City. This was helpful to my understanding of road directions, I took Hwy 2 a few days ago to go to Mount Stewart and recognized the name of places. Hwy 2 becomes St-Peter’s Road to Longworth and then I am home down Prince Street. Coming into the City by St-Peter’s Road I past Jewell a well known Ice Cream, fresh fruit, vegetable, bake goods and garden centre.

Here are some photos of today’s excursion.

The beach at Stanhope, pines in the background, dunes, a few people here and there.

At some points, there is a line of dead pine trees, grey and dried up, immediately behind them are beautiful pines forming a thick curtain against the sea wind.

A broken and washed up lobster trap on the beach

there is also some drift wood washed up on the beach, the sea water and wind has polished the wood giving it the look of stone.

Dalvay by the Sea on Dalvay Lake. The beach and the seashore are just to the right. This former private home built in 1895 is now an exclusive hotel, it is quite beautiful inside, as a protected building it has kept much of its former grandeur. This so called summer cottage was used by the MacDonald family. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had a canoe race on this lake in 2011 during their visit to the Island.

Aerial view of the area

The house was built in 1895 by Alexander MacDonald, a wealthy businessman and one-time president of Standard Oil Company with John D. Rockefeller. He named the house “Dalvay By The Sea” after his boyhood home in Scotland.