Augusta Nature Education Center

The 179-acre Augusta Nature Education Center offers a well-signed trail network. The mostly wooded area is conveniently close to downtown, and has lots of access points. Each entry point has a kiosk supplied with maps. There’s a brook that cuts through the center, with a cute, tiny waterfall!, and you can traipse along many, many trails.

The highlights include Quarry Pond, close to South Belfast Ave, in the upper northeast corner of the property, which has ledges around the edge that can serve as warming seats on a sunny day, and Whitney Brook, which runs through the middle of the land. There’s also a small, pretty meadow just west of Quarry Pond, with a bench. Kids might enjoy crossing a rough brook bridge made of two big stones, and a set of rough stone steps that run down to the stream. Deadman’s Cave, marked in my map, is just a small opening in a talus field (as far as I could tell!).  

There are both wider, easier trails and narrower footpaths. In the map above, I marked the flat, easy Whitney Brook Trail is in brown. The perimeter trail — marked in red on the official trail map — is also wide and easy. Parts of the trail system are hilly.

The land is owned and cared for by the Augusta Nature Club, which originated in the early 20th century, around 1919. The club worked for decades to establish a nature sanctuary, succeeding in the 1970s, with help from local organizations and nature lovers.

Directions: The trail system is bordered to the north by South Belfast Ave, or Route 105, and to the south by Cony Street Extension. On the west side is the Hodgkins Middle School and on the east side is the Vocational Technical Center and Cony high school. There are many access points with parking, although for people not familiar with the area, parking at Cony High School is probably easiest (on weekends). The map below explains that you can park at all entrances, except for #8, on South Belfast Ave., and that winter parking is only available at entrances 2, 9, 10, 11, and 13.