West Side Trail, Yarmouth

The accessible 2.5-mile trail on the west side of Route 1 is marked in orange.

This is a long, wonderful trail, popular with walkers and mountain bikers, which stretches several miles across Yarmouth, linking the Casco Bay with the Royal River estuary. “West Side Trail connects neighborhoods, office parks, preserves, and public beaches, and is expanding and improving each year, according to the trail organizers.

South-east segments (in blue): If you start at the trailhead on the Yarmouth’s West Side Trail that is close to the Route 295 (and the office building for Tyler Technologies) and walk east, toward the ocean, you can walk in one direction for about three miles before hitting Gilman Road and the bridge to Cousins Island. Then you can continue over the bridge all the way to the power station on the island, a little under two miles. This trail seemingly was designed with mountain bikers and walkers, and some of the trails are winding and narrow. At steep hills, the trail has been cut into switchbacks. The path is well-marked with maps posted along the route.

The first part of the trail (near Tyler Technologies) begins at the large parking lot, and for the first 20-30 minutes you can hear the highway. But then it gets more quiet, with a lovely remote feeling, and you wander along in the woods more or less parallel to the power lines (which you can also walk/ride along). There are occasional views of the sea as you walk toward the ocean. At times, the trail takes you under the electricity lines, but these portions are brief and the sunlight feels good. The trail connects with the Fels-Grove preserve. Beware of bike riders! Sometimes they come around corners quickly. 

North-west segments (in orange): Heading west from Route 295, leaving from the park-and-ride parking lot, you can commence on a 2-mile long well-built accessible trail that stretches almost all the way to Maxfield Brook and the train tracks, all of it along the power line corridor. It is wide and flat, alternating between boardwalk and packed gravel. From the park-and-ride, you’ll have to cross two roads within the first 0.4 miles, but then you hit a long, uninterrupted stretch that is quiet and peaceful (you will also pass a power grid). Once you cross Hillside Avenue, you’ll then reach a stretch of trail that includes two short loops. This section is about 1.1 miles in total, and is one of the most pleasant I’ve ever seen along a power line. The wide path winds in and out of copses that dot the middle of the corridor. There are benches placed in shady corners. The trail system connects with some blazed, non-accessible neighborhood paths around Applecrest Drive and Hickory Lane.

Directions: Parking is available at a large parking lot on Tyler Drive (formerly Cole Haan Driver) off Route 1, near Route 295’s exit 15, as well as from the Fels-Groves Farm Preserve on Gilman Road. To access the wheelchair-accessible western segment of the trail, you can park at a satellite parking lot near Frank H. Harrison Middle School. It’s about 0.3 miles to the trailhead along a sidewalk on a fairly quiet road. You can also pick up the accessible power-line trail at the park-and-ride parking lot near exit 15, as well as at off-road parking areas on Hillside Street and Portland Street.