Haunted Wood Trail
Gallery
Quick Facts
| Difficulty | easy |
| Trail Type | mixed |
| Distance | 1.2 km return |
| Estimated Time | 30 mins |
| Surface Type | gravel |
| Elevation Change | 17 meters |
| Features | history, interpretive signs |
| Trail Markers | signs |
| Scenery Rating | historic |
| Maintenance Rating | well maintained |
| Cell Reception | strong |
| Dog Friendly | on a leash |
| Fees | yes |
Store
Description
The Haunted Wood trail starts on the front lawn of the Green Gables house. It travels through a mixed forest with some pure stands of balsam fir. There are bridges and benches and a few long shallow stair cases. There are also lots of interpretive signs (see From the Sign sections below).
If you continue to the end of the Haunted Wood Trail you will come out to Route 13. If you cross the highway you can access the L.M. Montgomery Cavendish National Monument Trail that shows the basement, which is all that's left of the house where L.M. Montgomery lived, and what's left of her grandparents homestead where she spent a lot of her time growing up.
The L.M. Montgomery Trail is outside of Prince Edward Island National Park so you will need a combination pass or will need to go to the bookstore onsite to buy an additional pass.
Map
Directions
From the junction of route 13 and route 6, turn west onto Cavendish Road (route 6) towards Cavendish. Drive west on Cavendish Road for 300 meters and turn left into the parking lot for Prince Edward Island National Park - Green Gables. Park in the parking lot and buy a pass at the visitor centre. If you plan past the Haunted Wood Trail to the L.M. Montgomery Cavendish National Monument on the other side of route 13 you will need to buy a combination pass.
Behind the visitor centre go through the barn and before getting to the Green Gables house keep left. You will find a trail that crosses the front lawn of the house and goes down a set of wide stairs before entering the woods.
If you have gotten this far then you have bought a pass so make sure you explore the historic barn and house.
From the Sign
Haunted Woods Trail
The Haunted Wood interpretive trail follows an easy 1.1 km (0.7 mile) loop through the grove L.M. Montgomery knew as the "Haunted Wood". Montgomery imagined these woods to be full of mystery, especially after dark, and lent the Haunted Wood to Anne and the other characters of Avonlea in Anne of Green Gables. The interpretive signs tell a story of Montgomery's early beginnings as a writer growing up in Cavendish. It takes approximately 30 minutes to walk this trail. The trail surface is smooth gravel with wooden bridges, some steep slopes and steps. Benches and rest stops are found along the way
Please respect trees and their surroundings. Writing on trees, carving into them or peeling their bark can damage or kill them. Please leave plants in the forest where both wildlife and others may benefit from their growing there.
From the Sign
The community life and countryside of late nineteenth-century Cavendish inspired L.M. Montgomery's description of the village of Avonlea in Anne of Green Gables.
From the Sign
Everything was invested with a kind of fairy grace and charm, emanating from my own fancy.
L.M. Montgomery worked a special magic on her quiet Cavendish surroundings. Use your own imagination to discover how real-life people, places and events inspired the enchanting world of Anne.
- The Alpine Path
From the Sign
In her early childhood, L.M. Montgomery had many spirited conversations with imaginary friends. She said they ...were 'real folk' to my imagination. Montgomery created new imaginary friends for Anne, but she also borrowed one from her own childhood fancy - Katie Maurice, who was really just Montgomery's own reflection in the window of her grandmother's china cabinet.
- The Alpine Path
From the Sign
L.M. Montgomery, like her character Anne, gave favourite haunts special names like Lover's Lane, Haunted Wood and Dryad's Bubble. Montgomery's twenty novels and many short stories and poems work a special magic on places by describing them. Some descriptions are based on real-life places; others were just the fruits of her vivid imagination.
From the Sign
The one-room school that Montgomery attended stood nearby in a grove,...a place with winding paths and treasure-trove of ferns and mosses and wood-flowers. Cavendish School inspired Montgomery's descriptions of the school Anne attended in Avonlea. If you wish you may follow the path to the site where the school once stood.
- The Alpine Path
From the Sign
Look and listen carefully ...In ferny dells with brooks slipping through them..., L.M. Montgomery could almost believe in fairies. You always just miss them... but their laughter floats back to you in a sudden whisper of the wind and the puckish rustle of the aspen. Anne shared her creator's love of nature and romantic imagination.
- The Island's Lady of Stories
From the Sign
The woods below L.M. Montgomery's elderly cousins' home inspired her descriptions of the hollow below Green Gables, where ...the brook ran and where scores of birches grew, upspringing airily out of an undergrowth of woodsy things generally. Many of the places Montgomery described so lovingly are now preserved and protected for future generations in Prince Edward Island National Park.
- Anne of Green Gables
Other trails in this section of the park
- Balsam Hollow Trail
- Cavendish Beach and Dunes
- Cavendish Grove Trail
- Clarks Lane Trail
- Dunelands Trail
- Graham's Lane Trail
- Gulf Shore Way West Trail
- Homestead Trail
- North Rustico Beach
External Links
Trail Last Hiked: June 30, 2015.
Page Last Updated: April 7, 2020.