QUICK TRAIL FACTS
- Preserve Size: ~640 acres
- Trail Mileage: 2.2 miles in network
- Pets: no
- Difficulty: easy to moderate
- Sights: Squirrel Lighthouse, Bald Head with views
This walk is lovely and fairly popular, and if you do it all, both spurs, it is roughly 4.4 miles there and back again. But you can make a shorter walk—.7 miles one way—by going to the historical Squirrel Lighthouse. The longer walk takes you to the open ledges of Bald Head, with views of Back River.
From the parking lot, you will wander down to the marsh, walking through a tunnel of sumac trees to a small bridge. After the bridge, you’ll come to an intersection where the trail splits two, leading to the two different and delightful destinations: the U.S. Coast Gaurd’s Squirrel Point Lighthouse, in about .3 miles, and the high point of Bald Head in 1.5 miles. Both are easy but rooty. It’s a bit of a small climb at the end to reach the open ledge of Bald Head, your final destination. This preserve is a 296-acre bald eagle nesting ground.
All told, there is about 640 acres of land conserved here by Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and The Nature Conservancy.
In a visit to this preserve in the winter of 2016, the trails were blazed and easy to follow. The Nature Conservancy has also put up a trail map across the marsh when you enter Bald Head Preserve. It might be a bit wet when you cross the estuary onto the preserve, so wear good shoes.
Squirrel Point Light is one of four original lighthouses along the Kennebec River, which was one of Maine’s most important commercial waterways, used like a highway back when roads were scarce. The lighthouse was built around 1898, about 15 years after the founding of Bath Iron Works up the river. (The other lighthouses were Perkins Island, the Kennebec River Range Lights and Doubling Point Light.) Read more here.
Important note about dogs: The Squirrel Point trail on IFW land does allow dogs, but The Nature Conservancy’s Bald Head Preserve does not.
Directions: Take a right on Bald Head Road from Route 127. Head all the way to the end of the road; there will be a small parking lot at the trailhead. There is no kiosk, but the trail is well marked.
