The Trails and Gardens in the Woods at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden

July 17, 2016

Besides the heavily planted gardens, there are several trails that lead through mostly natural woods, with views of the bay and interspersed with a few gardens, garden art, benches, and a gazebo.

It was on the trail leading from the planted gardens into the wood trails, that I finally met up with Christina. She said to be sure to visit the Fairy Village and to enjoy the trail along the shore of Huckleberry Cove and Back River. I took her advice and went down to where I had to turn left to visit the Vayo Meditation Garden. I wished I had had more time to just sit and enjoy it – it was composed of lots of boulders and benches made of rock and looked out through the trees to the Cove. To top it off, kayakers were paddling past. It was very quiet there and only one other couple were quietly enjoying each other and the garden.

I enjoyed the surprise of this big  ball in the woods

Bench in the Mediation Garden

A wider view of the garden

A lovely pond in a boulder overlooking the bay

A view around the curving trail through the Mediation Garden

Such calm - note the couple enjoying the almost solitude

The trail along the bay

A pine cone sculpture

This guy looked like he was tending the rental kayaks from a paddle board

Gazebo

From there I continued along the shore trail and soon came to the Fairy Garden. This is an interactive site for children and families. They collect pieces of wood and build little structures. The dad in one family seemed to be having the best time of all.

View from the trail to part of the stone fence

A family having fun building a fairy house

I enjoyed the rest of the lower set of trails before my time ran out and I had to head back. I didn't get to see the rhododendron garden. But did take time to enjoy the stone fences I came across and to read the information on them. Settlers in New England had to clear the land of rocks before they could farm it so they built rock fences. By 1870, they had built 240,000 miles of stone fences, the distance the earth is from the moon. It took a total of about three billion hours to build them. They were mostly used for boundaries between farms and to fence in fields to hold sheep and cows. Sheep used to be grazed on these lands – the soil is too thin to grow crops.

The trail came close to the stone fence and had and interpretative sign there

Soon I was back at the visitor center and within a few minutes, Christina met me and we headed off for one more adventure – this time to visit the lighthouse whose image graces the Maine quarter. And we also visited the aquarium and the town while waiting for rains to end and the sun to come out. More on this day later. We left the refuge at 5:30 and got back on 9:30. It was a very fun day.