SHIP HARBOR TO WONDERLAND - ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

SHIP HARBOR TO WONDERLAND

Ship Harbor is located along route 102 A in Seawall, though just beyond the Ship Harbor parking lot is the Bass Harbor town line.  After following the trail into the woods a ways you come to an intersection, turn right and it will take you to about the only place along the trail where you can get right up close to the water, a great spot for kids to toss rocks into the calm waters of the harbor.  The trail follows the harbor but there are cliffs preventing you from reaching the water.  The trail turns at the end with wide open views of the ocean, here the water is rougher and much deeper, the trail than runs in through deep woods, the entire trail forming a figure eight.  Most of the minor paths, not marked, on the woods side end at dead ends but the minor paths that lead in the direction of the water usually offer up some nice views.

SHIP HARBOR
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

Just below the parking lot, through the brush, is a nice area of mud flats where locals go clamming, even though it is illegal to clam there.  On countless late after noons I have seen people clamming there, locals reach the mud flats by way of following the side of a brook which comes out at the mud flats.  I am not sure the Park Service was aware that clamming takes place there but they will be aware of it now.
An unmarked path just inside the tree line where the brook empties into the harbor, follows the edge of the harbor along the opposite side of the water from the nature trail, that is part of the old Bass Harbor Lighthouse trail, back in the day that path made its way all the way to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse Trail, for which I have done a blog on.
There is a hidden trail in the woods where the Ship Harbor trail comes out by the ocean which leads to the Wonderland Trail, though it is not easy to find.

SHIP HARBOR
Acadia National Park

SHIP HARBOR AND CLAM FLATS
Acadia National Park

Now the Wonderland Trail, for me anyways, is the better of the two trails, and I will explain why.  The trail is actually an old fire road, which is in rough shape in a few areas, so if your pushing a stroller, be prepared to pick it up and carry if past a few areas.  The road does not twist and turn, but rather makes a fairly straight path to a beach area, made up mostly of crushed sea shells.  If you use your fingers to sift through the sands you will find pieces of polished sea glass.  If you make your way along the shore to the right you will find some nice tide pools at low tide with sea life, such as star fish, crabs and baby shrimp to name a few.Continue right and you soon come to a nice cove where you can some times find washed up lobster traps, lobster buoys and drift wood.
Back at the path by the beach, here the path makes a sharp left and soon comes to an intersection, where the path forms a large loop.

SHIP HARBOR TO WONDERLAND
Acadia National Park

Follow shoreline at low tide, or along edge of woods at high tide, to reach entrance to granite mining areas.

So as you follow the main path at the loop, go right and it follows not too far from the edge of the ocean, along the way you will find several places with worn paths leading to the waters edge, one such path leads to a high granite area overlooking a second cove, along any of these areas you will most likely come across driftwood and an old wooden boat oar or two.  As the main path makes its way away from that quiet cove, and before it turns sharp left, look for another path which runs through some brush and tree's, coming out at a small sand beach, this beach would be lovely if it wasn't always strewn with dead seaweed.  Across on the far side of the cove is an open area of granite, and further up from the water are a number of locations where granite was once mined.

Not too far from Wonderland is a path through a large field that takes you out to the open ocean and a small sand beach with sand dunes, this is one of my favorite places to go on a hot summer day.  As the tourist season kicks into high gear you will see more and more people along the shore there.  A favorite hike of many in the area is to begin where the Ship Harbor Nature Trail comes out by the mouth of ship Harbor.  From there follow the rocky shore to the left until you reach Wonderland, and continue to follow the shore until you reach the Seawall Picnic Area.  There are many so called "Easter Eggs" to be found all along the shore further back in the woods, abandoned granite mining sites, remains of a wrecked vessel, sections of an old pier that washed ashore.  One day as we walked that route we came upon an area where a good number of bones from a large sea animal had washed ashore, and once we came upon the largest star fish I had ever seen, some one had removed it from the water and placed it further back on a high flat rock to die and dry out.  Not sure if it survived but we returned it to the water.

SEAWALLS SMALL SAND BEACH
Acadia National Park