Great Wass Island Preserve | 8.17.17 | Maine | 44.4707° N, -67.5824° W
Great Wass Island Preserve is located in Beals, Maine and is run by the Nature Conservancy, so cool! There are two trails in the Preserve, each connecting to form a giant loop that's 4.5 miles. The parking lot isn't hard to find and has plenty of spots. Everyone starts their hike from the same place and after a bit of hiking the trail splits. You can go left to the Mud Hole Trail, or go right to the Little Cape Point Trail. Here's a map of the preserve to give you a little picture.
We chose to start on Mud Hole trail to Little Cape and do the large loop. The trail starts in the woods and eventually shoots you out onto the rocks.
The trail is through dense woods, rocks, and sections of boardwalk. The trail variety is really, really, amazing. The way the trail cuts through nature was my favorite part.
This was my first time being in the woods of Maine. It was incredible how dense the woods here are and how green everything was. Hence all the pictures!
Not long after this view, the trail ends and you're now out on the rocks. Heads up: your pace will slow down. The rocks are flat; Then all of a sudden you're on all fours crawling up them, a ton of fun though! When the trail meets the rocks, the wood line will be marked by lobster buoys.
As your walking keep your eye on the shoreline! There's tons of fun stuff in the trees. We found endless lobster buoys, traps, and fisherman's gear.
There came a point where the clouds were creeping in and you could smell the rain in the air. We had been hiking for a while and thought we were almost done. We picked up the pace but finally stopped to figure out how far we were. Turns out we we're only 1/3 of the way done!
We kept on trucking and finally when we were close we had to climb onto this point and to get down you had to use a rope tied to a tree. This hike was so cool.
As soon as we ducked back into the woods the sky opened and the rain started falling. Lucky for us we were actually almost done with the hike this time!
This was one of the most stunning hikes I've ever done. Hopefully these pictures do it justice, and if not you'll have to go see it for yourself! If you enjoyed this post and like to support keeping places like this wild consider donating to The Nature Conservancy here. The Nature Conservancy runs Great Wass Island Preserve. Thanks in advance friends!
After your hike treat yourself! Beals Maine is home to the #1 lobster roll and it definitely doesn't disappoint (PS they also have ice-cream). The name of the place is Bayview Takeout, they don't have a website but here's the address: 20 Shore Rd, Beals, ME 04611.