Wonder Land Trail

I grew up in western Washington state.  One of the premier hikes in Washington is the 93 mile long Wonderland trail which circles Mt. Rainier.  Despite hiking quite a bit in Mt. Rainier National Park, I have never hiked more than a few miles of the Wonderland trail near Longmire.  Today I hiked the entire Wonder Land trail.  The one in Acadia National Park, not the one at Mt. Rainier.

The Wonder Land trail starts about 2 miles by road from my house and is a 1.3 mile round trip to the beach from route 102A.  The trail follows the track of an old road out a small peninsula to the beach.  The trail is very easy and generally about six feet wide.  I starts off in spruce forest and rises about 30 feet over the first four tenths of a mile.  The grade is so gradual that you don’t notice it until you look back.

A typical view of the first part of the trail.  It is still early Spring here so none of the deciduous underbrush has leafed out yet.

At about the 0.4 mile point the trail opens up as you reach a series of granite pavements (large flat areas of smooth granite) and the character of the trail changes.

Just before the first granite pavement.

Once you reach the granite pavements the vegetation changes from spruce forest with deciduous underbrush to a more open feel with a few scrub pine growing through cracks in the granite.

Scrub pine trees about 8-10 feet high growing in cracks in the granite.

After you pass three of four stretches of granite pavement, the trail starts to drop and goes back into spruce forest until you reach the beach.  The trail makes a small loop with a number of beach access points at the end of the peninsula.  The first beach access point takes you to a rocky beach on the west side of the peninsula.

 

The beach at the first access point looking SE toward the end of the Peninsula.

The loop part of the trail is quite dramatic because the trees have grown over the trail so you walk through a tunnel in the forest.

The beginning of the loop at the end of the trail.

On the other side of the loop the tide leaves some large tide pools when the tide is out.  Today I arrived about an hour after low tide and the tide pools were filled with gulls looking for food in the shallow water.

Tide pools on the east side of the Wonder Land peninsula.

Unfortunately, the tide pools have muddy bottoms and aren’t much fun to explore.

Before this area was part of Acadia National Park, the Wonder Land peninsula had several houses on it.  Unfortunately for history buffs, all traces of those old houses have been removed.  Nevertheless, the trail is a pleasant nature walk.