QUICK TRAIL FACTS
- Preserve Size: ~300 acres
- Trail Mileage: 1.4 miles in network
- Pets: yes
- Difficulty: easy
- Sights: Goosefare Brook, Branch Brook, marsh
Wildwood Trail, and the 0.5-mile trail attached to it—Branch Brook Loop—offer a fabulous nature walk to those who live in the nearby neighborhoods. For those coming from farther afield, there’s a small parking lot at the kiosk with space for about two or three cars.
Wildwood Trail follows an old woods road, so is straight-ish, wide, and flat as it brings you into the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. The adjacent Branch Loop is a bit wilder, taking you through a mature pine forest and to the edges of the protected marshland, which was overhung with a moody fog when I visited recently.
From end to end—Egret Cove Lane to Ocean Greens Drive—Wildwood Trail is about 0.9 miles. Branch Loop is about a half mile.
Directions: Take Wildwood Drive to the little loop at its end. Parking is where Abby Lane meets Egret Cove Lane (these two roads make up the little loop). There’s room for two to three vehicles.
