The Mud Pond Trail is on the Pondicherry Division of the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge and is universally accessible. The trail was constructed by the Youth Conservation Corps, US Fish and Wildlife Service staff and volunteers from the Friends of Pondicherry over a five summer period. The trail has a 900 foot long raised boardwalk with rest stops that offer extraordinary views of a boreal forest and wetland communities.
Visitors walk through a forest community uncommon to the Connecticut River Valley to a beautiful pond and fen deep within the refuge. Benches allow visitors to sit and observe the wildlife, plant communities, and scenery. Mud Pond is home to three carnivorous plants and unusual wildlife for this part of New England, including Arctic Jutta butterfly, black-backed woodpecker, gray jay, boreal chickadee, yellow-bellied flycatcher, and palm warbler. Moose, black bear, and snowshoe hare are sometimes seen along the trail.
The trailhead was built on a restored log landing and some of the trail follows old logging roads that are being restored. The boardwalk portion is in older forests that have not been harvested for over a century. The trail takes visitors, including those in strollers and wheelchairs on a unique raised boardwalk providing an experience, found nowhere else in New Hampshire. The trail is located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire where opportunities for wheelchair accessible trails in this mountainous region are limited. The trail is used by local residents, visitors staying at nearby resorts, school groups families with children in strollers, and people confined wheelchairs.
The future plan for the trail is to provide interpretive panels and online resources to help visitors understand the ecology and history of this area.
