Day hikers can walk through some of the largest jack pine stands in coastal Maine and see harbor seals hanging out on granite ledges at Great Wass Island Preserve.
There are just two trails at the preserve, and they can be conveniently combined into a single hike, the Little Cape Point and Mud Hole Trail Loop. It runs 4.5 mile total.
To reach the trailhead, from Ellsworth, Maine, take U.S. Hwy. 1 east. Turn right/southeast on Maine State Route 187. In West Jonesport, go right/south on Bridge Street, which becomes Bayview Drive. After crossing the bridge to Great Wass Island, go right/southeast onto Black Duck Cove Road. Upon reaching the preserve, turn left/east to a gravel parking area. The preserve is about 69 miles from Acadia National Park.
Little Cape Point Trail heads east from the lot. At 0.1 miles, you’ll reach a fork in the trail. Go right/southeast to stay on the Little Cape Point Trail.
The next two miles of the hike heads through a forest of jack pine, spruce, and fir forest carpeted in thick moss. There are many exposed roots on the path, so watch your step.
The forest soon gives way to a bog. Glaciers at the end of the last ice age some 10,000 years ago left depressions here that have slowly filled with accumulating layers of sphagnum moss. This created an acidic bog habitat where carnivorous plants and various stunted shrubs thrive.
A bridge allows you to walk through the bog without getting wet. Don’t step off the bridge onto the sphagnum moss. Though it looks solid, you’ll quickly sink in it.
The trail soon reaches pink cliffs and a rocky shoreline, which offers impressive views of Eastern Bay and its many islands – Water, Mistake, Knight, and Steele Harbor. Great Wass stretches farther into the Atlantic than any other part of local mainland, at the point where the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy waters meet.
Harbor seals often can be seen on the island’s granite ledges, especially along Cape Cove. Sometimes whales surface in the bay, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean, so be sure to bring binoculars.
Seabirds also abound here. Watch for common loons, common eiders and during winter three different species of scoters. Bald eagles, ospreys and common ravens nest on Great Wass and the neighboring islands.
This rocky stretch also boasts a number of subarctic plants. The flora here marks the southern limit of their ranges, and they are some of Maine’s rarest plants.
Head north along the shoreline, and you’ll seamlessly pick up the Mud Hole Trail. The trail is named after the cove it parallels.
Once the rocky shoreline gives way, you’ll walk through about 1.5 miles of spruce and fir forest. Among the trees, you’re certain to see a number of Maine’s northern forest birds. Boreal chickadees, Lincoln’s sparrows, palm warblers, spruce grouse, yellow-bellied flycatchers all abound. So also are many of Maine’s coniferous–loving woodland warblers, including the bay-breasted, Blackburnian, blackpoll and Canada species.
The loop circles back into the island’s interior at about 3.9 miles into the hike.
Upon reaching the stem trail, go right/west onto it back to your vehicle. The trees here, around the parking lot, and near the road tend to be deciduous (i.e. they have leaves rather than needles), so you’ll find a different set of warblers – American redstart, black-throated green, northern parula – who all prefer hardwoods.
The trail is best hiked June through October and at low tide; during high tide, stretches of the shoreline portion of the trail can disappear. Dogs aren’t allowed in the preserve.
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