West Mabou Beach Provincial Park

Length: 2.5-3 km
Duration: 1h
Difficulty: 1
Cell Phone Service: No

Bio

The West Mabou Beach Provincial Park offers a family-friendly trail system with magnificent coastal views and the only public beach in the Mabou area.

The Western Coastal Trail runs from behind the parking lots near the beach along the bluffs, adjacent to, and overlooking the beach. This is the most popular trail. The trail runs through a small section of twisted spruce before it opens up into an old pasture field, providing wonderful views the whole way. You can either follow the trail down to the south end of the beach and walk back on the sand, or you may choose to walk back to the parking lot or road through a series of inland paths and loops. Any one of these loops is about 2 km of easy, family-friendly trails with some benches along the way. Karst topography or sinkholes are a common but interesting geological feature along the trails here.

The other network of trails that make up the West Mabou Beach Provincial Park can be accessed from the road that turns off just as the pavement ends, about one km from the beach entrance. You can park at the end of this road or drive in about .5 km to access the Whale Cove Trail. There are a few options once on this trail. You can take the first right (Lighthouse Trail), which takes you through some woods before you get to Sam’s Cove. The trail follows the edge of the shoreline back to Whale Cove and the end of the Whale Cove Trail. If, at this point, you continue back up to your car you have walked about 2.5 km with a maximum grade of about 40 meters. The other option is to take a left at Lighthouse Trail junction, eventually crossing a small footbridge, turn right towards the water on the Old Ferry Road.

Trail eventually finding your way back to the Whale Cove Trail. Hikers should note that these trails can be wet at times. This loop is also about 2.5km.

This trail and the habitat for at least 18 rare and endangered species of birds is in danger of being destroyed for golf course development. Please visit www.savewestmaboubeach.com for more information and to support.