Yesterday, we headed east for our family adventure to check out Wye Island. We planned to do two small hikes here plus a picnic lunch. Once we arrived at the park entrance we quickly discovered the park road was not well marked. There were several unmarked turns as well as areas marked as parking lots that didn’t correspond to the online map and didn’t seem to access trails.
Fortunately, the lot for the first trail we wanted, the Schoolhouse Woods Nature Walk, was marked. Right away, the kids were in awe of the magnificent old tree in the parking lot. It was huge! We discovered more of these beauties once we started down the trail. We also discovered that Friday’s rain had turned major sections of the trail into mud wallows. I ended up carrying Pebble around the worst of it. There was also a small stream to ford. Stormy made it over ok and I airlifted Pebble. Hubby got a very wet foot helping Rainbow! If you try this trail definitely wear boots or old shoes and also load up on the bug spray! The mosquitoes here are hungry!
Like I said earlier, the main road was poorly marked. Apparently, the trails are the same way! We found poles with blue tops that meant we were on the right trail…until we came to a 4 way intersection. We had no idea where to go!
We took a gamble and continued straight. We hoped after looking at the map that we would come out near Grapevine Cove. No such luck! We found another intersection with no markers. I ended up using google maps to get our bearings. After making a right turn, we ended up finding Grapevine Cove. We also ended up doing an unmarked loop trail. Definitely, know how to read and follow maps!
After we finished this unmarked loop, we started back to the car following the logic that if we are doing a loop, keep making lefts. This came in handy as we discovered more unmarked intersections! We had fun, but definitely prefer a marked trail! Pebble’s favorite thing about the trail was stomping through puddles, not mud puddles, but regular old puddles! Rainbow and Stormy loved looking for frogs, they were everywhere!
Once back in the car, we drove down the road to the next parking lot, and ate our picnic lunch. Then we checked out a 275 year old holly tree.
Our last trail of the day was the Ferry Point Trail. This trail led to the Wye River. Up till this point, we had seen very few people. Now we discovered why… This trail was the best one of the park and there were a ton of people here! Fortunately, the trail was wide enough for social distancing. The trees that surrounded this trail were amazing! Stormy and Rainbow both tried swinging on vines! We also saw a cute baby turtle!
The end of this trail was a beautiful beach and our girls had a blast playing in the water! When it was time to leave, Stormy had a meltdown. Too much fun in the sun! Will we come back? Not sure… While we love the second trail, the lack of trail markings plus distance from home are a turnoff. Only time will tell! Happy trails!
