QUICK TRAIL FACTS
- Preserve Size: 328 acres
- Trail Mileage: ~1.6 miles in network
- Pets: yes
- Difficulty: easy
- Sights: Royal River, marsh, mindfulness walk
The Royal River Conservation Trust’s Intervale Preserve is a large tract of land, about 328 acres, with a couple of developed walking trails. (Intervale refers to a “river valley between hills.”)
At 568 Intervale Road, you can do a 0.5-mile walk that is flat and easy with one bog bridge and which brings you through fern glades and large hardwood trees to a point with a bench overlooking the marshy area.
A bit farther north, you can explore more trails near the Lower Village. We parked along the roadside and walked in on the access path directly across Church Street. Two boulders mark the path and block vehicles. There is another access path just south of the Village Market.
If you walk down either of these snowmobile paths, you will soon reach the preserve kiosk at a four-way intersection, and the beginning of the mindfulness walk! Several panels have been placed along the small meadow trails urging walkers to move, smell, taste, touch, and listen with a bit more awareness. There is also a shaded bench and a platform with the cardinal directions on it (maybe to ponder one’s place in the world?). The loop trail itself was a bit wet and very buggy in late July. At one point, it briefly follows a sylvan stream.
Directions: From the intersection of Intervale Road & Cobbs Bridge Road in New Gloucester Village, follow Route 231 one mile and look for a blue sign on a kiosk on the left, just after crossing the first set of railroad tracks. There is a big sandy pullover with ample parking.
A note to say that on April 23, 2026, we were walking the Warbler Trail when our mini-poodle was attacked by a German Shepherd that was running loose, its owner many feet back from it. It ignored its owner’s commands to stop. Our dog is okay but was terrified, and my husband lost his eyeglasses in the scuffle. The owner felt bad, but needless to say we are wary of visiting the site again. I understand the desire to have areas where dogs can be off-leash, but there can be a danger. I shudder to think of what may have happened if it had charged a child.
I am so sorry to hear that you had that experience. I have had that happen twice with my dogs, but on different trails, and I do exactly what it sounds like your husband did, which is to jump into the middle of the fray! Dog owners, and I am one of them, really need to know their dogs before they let them off-leash. This is important for protecting wildlife as well as other dogs and people.