Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

Tom and I recently took a walk through Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.


For more information, visit this website. 

The Great Swamp is an almost 8,000-acre wilderness area and refuge for many species of birds.  From the Wildlife Observation Center, you can take a boardwalk trail over the swamp out to observation/photo blinds to unobtrusively observe the nature and wildlife.

Then we ventured to another area of the refuge to walk some nature trails through the swamp.  The trails were definitely not what I expected - at best, they were very narrow, trodden paths; at worst, the paths were almost completely overgrown with barely a suggestion as to where we should head.  At least this area is very flat; it would have been pretty treacherous to climb up or down in these conditions.

I'm so glad I wore long pants the day we went.  At times, it felt like we were forging our own path and Tom said he couldn't even see me sometimes because the overgrowth was so tall.  My clothes were covered in leaves and any bare skin was scratched up by the time we were done.  Here are two pictures that show how crazy the trails were:

The trail runs right down the middle

We took the Orange Trail and on the way back veered off onto the Green Trail, which offered some relief.  The Green Trail conditions felt more familiar: more forest and wider trails, with some nice views out into the swamp meadows.

Despite the tough trail conditions, the Great Swamp was beautiful and peaceful - so much greenery and many different types of trees.