Haunted Wood Trail

Haunted Wood Trail is a 0.9-kilometre (0.56-mile) loop beginning at Green Gables Heritage Place in Cavendish. It stays in the spruce woodland behind the front lawn and returns to the same site; allow about 30 minutes, or longer if you stop at the interpretive signs. The surface is mostly hard-packed gravel, but this is not a flat stroll: Parks Canada describes the route as easy, with several hills, and the first section drops down steep stairs toward a wooden bridge. Its appeal is the setting and story rather than a summit or wide view.

Start beyond the front lawn and take the opening stair descent slowly. The trail then settles into packed gravel through mixed spruce and balsam-fir woods. Expect rolling ground, exposed roots, wooden bridges, benches, and some longer shallow stairs. The route bends through the wooded interior before looping back toward the Green Gables side. There is no confirmed lookout or open endpoint, and no single dramatic payoff; the interest comes in changing woodland, the bridges, and the feeling that you are walking through a real place behind a familiar literary scene. If the stairs are a deal-breaker, the flat hard-packed paths around Green Gables are an easier alternative, but they are not this trail.

This grove inspired the Haunted Wood in Anne of Green Gables. Parks Canada says young Maud Montgomery and her friends made up spooky stories about the spruce grove, and interpretive signs connect the walk to her childhood surroundings and imagination. The trail passes near Cavendish Cemetery, where Montgomery is buried, and points toward the former Cavendish School site associated with Avonlea's school in the novel. It also connects toward the separate Site of L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish Home. That continuation is not part of the 0.9-kilometre Green Gables loop: it is a separate property with separate admission or a combo pass. Treat the cemetery and home as nearby story stops, not as reasons to stretch this route into the longer 1.6- or 2-kilometre versions found elsewhere.

Park at Green Gables Heritage Place, 8619 Route 6. The parking lot is free, with accessible spaces near the Visitor Information Centre, but the trail lies inside the heritage site and requires its entry admission. Public washrooms are at the Visitor Information Centre and barnyard; the on-site café and gift shop are at Green Gables rather than on the loop itself. Dogs are allowed on Prince Edward Island National Park trails when leashed. The route is not wheelchair accessible because of the stairs and hills. PEI National Park trails are not maintained from early autumn until Victoria Day, so footing and the level of service can change outside the main season; Parks Canada says there is no emergency response on those trails in that period. For most visitors, this is a short, story-rich walk to pair with the Green Gables visit, not a standalone hike to build a day around.