Wonder Lake State Park

May 14, 2007
Hike distance about 5 miles as marked on the map.

Note: This park is a work in progress and the description below was accurate of of May 14, 2007. If you notice changes at the park or have additional information that fits into this report please let me know. JmG

I remember the first time I visited Wonder Lake State Park. The land hadn't been transferred to the state yet and as I hiked on the main road through the park, always afraid of being caught, I ran into two women. Almost at the same moment we each said to each other, "Am I/we in trouble?" I believed they were members of the Montgomery and Cushman clan and they considered I was the caretaker for the property.

Access to the park in those early days was a problem. Originally you went up a right-of-way from Luddingtonville Road just above the Park and Ride that of relitively recent vintage has been turned into a driveway with a house on it making it uncertain to the casual eye if this was a legal access. But after years of questions and agitation from those who wanted easier access to the park the State has created a parking area just south of the Senior Home on Luddingtonville road. This is where our hike starts.

State workers have been busy blazing a trail through the park that connects to the myriad of old carriage and riding trails that wander all over this place. The topography is tricky, especially in the northeast section and the western section is filled with false summits and hanging valleys, making bushwhacking and getting around all the more adventurous. Trails that appear to head off in one direction often wind around and lead you away from where you want to be going. A compass will most definitely come in handy!

A yellow blazed trail begins at the parking area and winds its way up the hillside, never too steeply, and then swings to the north hugging a contour of Bare Hill. It passes through a white pine forest with its soft footing and sweet smells but the roar of the Highway (I84) is omnipresent. It then swings to the north passing around a northern arm of the mountain where it comes near a field that is worth the short bushwhack in to see.

At this point an unmarked road runs off to the right and climbs Bare Hill. There is no view from the top of the mountain and so the name refers to a time when there was. Bare Hill is no longer bare! However, a short bushwhack down the east side of the ridge from the summit will bring you to an open area where nice views can be had looking towards the southeast.

Continue following the yellow trail as it winds behind Bare Hill for another few hundred yards and at a junction of old roads and a stone wall the blazes suddenly end. The road to the right is slight and overgrown so it was forwards for us.

The road now seems more like a watercourse than a trail. It is deeply rutted with severe erosion and evidence of the numerous ATV'ers and mountain bikers that frequent the facility in what appears to be large numbers. Empty water bottles and beer cans, old beer bottles and the like are scattered all over these lands especially on the west side of the park. Many of the trails show the tell-tale signs of wheeled vehicles, thrust out corners and deep eroded sections.

Following this downhill for about 1/3 mile you come to another intersection, this one profuse with violets, and a choice to make. We chose to head right (south) and so followed this trail which winds up a ridge and through a pretty nice open forest. The trail skirts a ridgeline on your right with tantalizing openings - though we continued on the trail this time around. (Next time we're in we'll explore more and update this page.) It then begins to drop off the ridge and after a while the lake begins to peek through the forest, down and to your left.

The trail passes other intersections and we always opted for the lane most taken which in most cases was to continue onwards.

Finally the trail winds its way down the ridge to the bottom of Wonder Lake and then improves as it heads south away from the lake and begins to climb a short hill. Following, it eventually brought us to the powerline cut that pretty much defines the east-side border of the property.

Turning back to the left and heading north and east on the powerline cut, this section of the walk is a refreshing change from the forest before. It's undulating hills and openness invite birds not seen in the forest, especially the edge species who appreciate both forest and open fields. We headed up the powerline cut until we found a side-road that took us up a little bit but then began to bend around to the south - a direction we did not want to go. However, right at this point we could see the lake again through the trees and so bushwhacked the 750' or so to the lake's shore and found ourselves at the dam. Several boats are tied up here as well as evidence of what must have been one hell of a party a night or two previous as the ash in the fire pit was fresh and a dozen or so bottles floated top-up in the lake.

There's a road here that led us to the main north-south road through the park and once we hit that we turned left and headed northward.

This road was once well maintained and vehicles could certainly still traverse it. It skirts a ridge on its right with a drop down to the lake on the left which has now disappeared from view as we move away and above it. At the top of the road there's the ruins of what looks to have been a small stone building and a cleared area behind it into which freshly played ATV tracks follow. The road now drops slowly off the ridge and a few hundred yards further along reaches the top of Wonder Lake. Here you also have choices: One is to follow the road through and to the second, smaller lake in the park. The other choice is to turn left here and go down to the edge of the lake itself. There, we crossed over an old dam and found a trail that ran parallel to the lake where we stopped for some lunch.

After lunch and after taking a good look at the topographic map of the park we decided to head south a bit until we came across a stone wall that appeared, according to the map, to make a bee-line to the west and hence back where we wanted to go, figuring we'd hit one of the trails we came in on. But, just at the point where the stone wall meets the trail we found a road that went steeply up and into a copse of white pines and topped out on a north-south running trail.

Believing this was one of the roads we walked in on we turned to the right (north) and followed this for a while until we realized it wasn't taking us where we wanted to go! At a point where this trail met a watercourse, and realizing there was precious little of the road left on the other side we decided to take a compass bearing and head due west and back towards Luddingtonville road.

The forest is open, for the most part, so staying on course was pretty easy. And, after a 1000' or so of bushwhacking we came out at the foot of the trail that looked like a watercourse from the beginning of the hike. We then followed this hoping it was and verification came pretty quick - as we stepped over the Bud Light can we had seen on the way in.

At the top of this section we again found trail markers and thinking we had missed them on the way in and somehow got lost, we realized that, as mentioned at the top of this report, they end right there.

In another 20 minutes we were back at the jeep.

As noted, Wonder Lake State Park is undergoing a transition from a private estate to a State Park and with that will come many changes. You can help by sending along information from your hikes and explorations in the park. All will be welcomed.