The 2.6-mile Gordons Pond Trail — for bicycling, walking, and running — is in Cape Henlopen State Park, between Lewes and Rehoboth, Delaware, along the perimeter at times of the 900-acre Gordons Pond, a salt lagoon. Paved mainly with loose but level crushed stone and extending from the parking lot at Cape Henlopen State Park beach ($5 parking fee in-state, $10 fee out-of-state plates, no fee for people biking or walking in without a car) to the 1.6-mile Walking Dune Trail near Herring Point, the trail also features an elegant, wavy elevated boardwalk. Gordons Pond Trail is the newest part (dedicated June 2014) of a 15-mile regional trail system connecting the two towns, along with the 5-mile Junction & Breakwater Trail that takes you through housing developments, fields that will soon be housing developments, and some woods. Within the 5,193-acre Cape Henlopen State Park are beaches, surf-fishing areas and a fishing pier, a Seaside Nature Center, a campground, disc golf facilities, historic Fort Miles, and other trails including a 2-mile Pinelands Nature Trail, some spur trails, and a lookout tower.
We biked most of these other trails during three days late July last year and three days in mid-June this year, as well as through Lewes last July. We also walked part of the Gordons Pond Trail with my sister on our last day at the beach this year, an overcast, cool, threatening-rain day.
Photos are from late July 2017 and mid-June 2018.
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TRAILS AND VIEWS
Entrance from parking lot at Cape Henlopen State Park in Rehoboth Beach:
The beach at Cape Henlopen SP parking lot, around 11 a.m. on an overcast day this June:
Trail and views near Gordons Pond:
18 June 201826 July 2017rental bike, 18 June 201820 June 2018
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These two were taken a few days apart:
18 June 201822 June 2018
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18 June 201820 June 201820 June 201828 July 201726 July 201726 July 201720 June 2018
Beach Guard Towers:
sign about the towers on the beach: they were the “eyes for the guns” at nearby Fort Miles in World War II18 June 201822 June 201826 July 201728 July 2017
Boardwalk:
26 July 2017friend on boardwalk, 20 June 2018dunes from boardwalk, 26 July 2017
Herring Point terminus:
trail sign near Herring Point, 26 July 2017bike fix-it station (one of three along trail) at Herring Park, 26 July 2017
Sidetrails: Walking Dune Trail, Salt Marsh Spur, other trails, plus side trips to Fort Miles, fishing pier, climbable observation tower
Near Campground:
Walking Dune trail:
sign, 28 July 2017spouse on Walking Dune Trail, 21 June 2018Walking Dune Trail, 21 June 2018Walking Dune Trail, 26 July 2018
Salt Marsh spur trail:
Salt Marsh Spur trail, 26 July 2017Salt Marsh Spur trail, 26 July 2017sign about Delaware’s changing shoreline, along the Salt Marsh Spur, 26 July 2018view of salt marsh, 26 July 2017
(climbable) Observation Tower:
sign at the observation tower, 26 July 2017start of the stairs up the climbable observation tower, 26 July 2017vultures on observation tower, 28 July 2017view of the Cape May-Lewes ferry and a guard tower from the observation tower, 26 July 2017
Fort Miles:
view of the military barracks at Fort Miles from the observation tower, 26 July 2017sign at Fort Miles, 28 July 2017ocean view from Fort Miles, 20 June 2018
Lighthouse View Bait & Tackle Store and fishing pier:
Lighthouse View Bait & Tackle Store at the fishing pier, 28 July 2017
gull at pier, 28 July 2017tern, fishing pier, 28 July 2017laughing gull on a light at the fishing pier, 26 July 2017lighthouse view from fishing pier, 28 July 2017
Trails & Views along Junction & Breakwater Trail (all in July 2017):
In Lewes (all July 2017):
East of Maui shop on highway into townbike trail sign for the ferryCape May-Lewes ferry buildingthe ferry itself
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PLANTS
Panicum sp. (probably P. amarum var. amarulum – Dune panic grass), 28 July 2017some kind of centaurea (maybe C. stoebe), 26 July 2017thistle bud, 22 June 2018hibiscus (rose-mallow) blooming, 26 July 2017hibiscus (rose-mallow) buds, 26 July 2017white hibiscus (rose-mallow), 26 July 2017pink hibiscus (rose-mallow) with black-form swallowtail butterfly, 26 July 2017pokeweed shrub, 28 July 2017closer view of pokeweed, 28 July 2017sassafras tree leaves, 26 July 2017mullein blooming, 21 June 2018yarrow and milkweed, 21 June 2018milkweed flowering with small butterfly, 21 June 2018pink morning glory, 20 June 2018yellow prickly pear flowers, 20 June 2018prickly pear cactus and pine sapling, 28 July 2017Virginia creeper vine in cedar tree, 30 July 2017foxtail millet (Setaria sp.), 26 July 2017
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ANIMALS (besides gull, terns shown above):
Birds:
greater yellow legs, 26 July 2017snowy egret with yellow foot showing, 30 July 2017snowy egret, 20 June 2018sanderling, 26 July 2017great blue heron in grasses, 28 July 2017
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Green Heron:
22 June 201820 June 201828 July 201726 July 2017
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great egret, 26 July 2017great egret fishing, 26 July 2017skimmers (at a distance), 20 June 2018
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Willet:
20 June 201820 June 201820 June 2018 — see the movement in the water?20 June 201820 June 2018 — apparently willets are known for hanging out in trees during breeding season20 June 201822 June 2018 — stripes under wings are definitive
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breeding common tern, 26 July 2017laughing gulls, snowy egrets, sandpipers, 26 July 2017red-winged blackbird, 20 June 2018blue grosbeak, 22 June 2018
Insects:
black-form swallowtail, 26 July 2017monarch butterfly on milkweed, 22 June 2018brown woolly caterpillar, 22 June 2018milkweed bug, 21 June 2018
Non-Birds and Non-Insects:
toad, 30 July 2017rat snake, 22 July 2018another view of the rat snake, 22 July 2018crab in the mud, 21 June 2018slug, 22 June 2018deer along bike trail, 26 July 2017deer with antlers along Walking Dune Trail, 26 July 2017with my sister on Gordons Pond Trail observation platform, 22 June 2018
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“… nature photographs downright bore me for some reason or other. I think: ‘Oh, yes. Look at that sand dune. What of it?'” — Walker Evans (photographer during the Great Depression)
