Wells Reserve at Laudholm — Attraction in Wells

I'm hesitant to write a review of this place because I really don't want more people to know about it. There's already like 40 reviews and I'm about as far away from a "social media influencer" as is humanely (or really, any form of mammal) possible, so here goes.

This gets five stars as our go-to Maine beach at this point. You can park here for $5 per person and take a short hike to what is a mostly deserted and otherwise impossible-to-get-to Laudholm beach. The beach is amazing. We went there on the hottest day of the year (and close to the hottest day in history) and there were barely any people. If you like the ocean but hate crowds this is the way to go.

This is a strongly tidal beach, so just make sure to look at the tides. At low tide there is quite a bit of sand. At high tide it is all or mostly rocks. We came right after low tide and had fun watching the beach disappear. Our girls would build a sand castle, the tide would come up, we'd build a wall to protect it, and then it would get washed away. They absolutely loved that.

The ocean is cold in Maine. There was a good 20 degree drop in temperature from the top of the rocks to the ocean. Again, we went on the hottest day of the year and that was exactly what we wanted. Even then, some people were in wet suits.

Now, nothing is perfect. The (hopefully) real reason that the beach is empty is that it's a 0.6 mile walk from the parking lot, through a bug-heavy trail. BRING INSECT REPELLENT. We forgot and three of the four of us regretted that decision (our youngest seems to magically ward away insects). There aren't any beach-side facilities, either. If you have to go to the bathroom it's 0.6 miles each way.

The actual trust is nice, too. There are trails through the marsh and a good deal of shore birds. If I were up in the autumn or spring, I would probably bring my long white lenses. There are a ton of swallows and I've seen an Osprey or two. Only the beach is enough to warrant the drive from the Boston area, though. There are better birding spots...

Informational, beautiful, and fun! I stopped by with my husband and enjoyed a lovely walk through the many easy-to-traverse trails. The trails cover different areas within the reserve, and have interesting placards explaining fun tidbits of information about the kinds of tress and wildlife, as well as the cycles and ecology of the forest. It would make for a lovely trip for those with children, as the paths are easy to traverse, long enough to enjoy but not so long as to be tiring, and the information posted is phrased in a way to make it easy to understand for any age audience. The trails were for the large part flat and wide enough to be disability friendly, and the parking area was big enough to accommodate a decently sized crowd or a van with mobility assist lifts. Some advice however- be sure to wear some bug spray if you’ll be coming in the dead of summer, as there are simply tons of mosquitoes by...

I don't think I am going to add much more to what has been said. The trails through the woods we walked were nice and had boardwalks along almost all of them. The trail to the beach was a little over half of a mile. There is a lot of beach to walk and the river mouth was a great place to hang out and wade through the water. If you walk the other way along the beach you could reach the town pretty easily.

The people there were extremely nice and helpful at both the parking lot and in the visitor center.

The parking is $6 and they do accept credit cards. There are bathrooms in the barn building, but not...