Harraseeket and White Pines Trail Loop

Located between Casco Bay and the Harraseeket River, Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park is a five minute drive from the center of Freeport, Maine's shopping district. It's marshes and open fields provide a tranquil transformation back to nature. In 1969, this area of more than 200 acres was given to the State by Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence M.C. Smith of Freeport. The park contains varied ecosystems, including climax white pine and hemlock forests, a salt marsh estuary, and the rocky shorelines on Casco Bay and the Harraseeket River. The park's signature residents are the ospreys who nest on nearby Googins Island. An interpretive panel on the trail explains the life cycle of this magestic, graceful bird which summers on the island and makes its annual trek to South America each fall. Visitors who participate in a nature walk with the Park Naturalist can view the baby birds on their nest through a high-powered lenses and learn that these birds mate for life. The popular Casco Bay Trail carries visitors along Maine's legendary coast to a point where the surrounding islands of Eagle, Cousins and others are described on an interpretive panel. After a discovering the trails, visitors can enjoy picnics under a canopy of oak trees or a group barbecue is possible at the park's new shelter area. Loon conservation license plates paid for the construction of this new facility and groups may rent the shelter for a day. Also a great place to kayak from nearby Recompence Shore Campground at Wolfe's Neck Farm.