Visiting Trap Pond

I found Trap Pond to be a wonderful secret in southern Delaware. I had seen some occasional photos years before online about the place, and ever since I really wanted to visit. Photography can be a tricky thing though, it’s quite possible to have a boring tiny pond and photograph it in such a way that it falsely appears to be some vast wilderness. This was my fear of Trap Pond actually, and when I first came I have to admit I was naively disappointed. I started off on the Island Trail, which took me through a gantlet of trees and mosquitoes without any satisfying views.

I might not have given the Island Trail a fair chance, but I did hike a reasonable length of it crossing some small bridges and coming across a few swampy areas. This photo shows one of the Cypress trees that are visible from the trail. These are the most northern Cypress trees in North America.

The only real way to visit Trap Pond is to get out in the water. You have a few options here, but my friend and I ended up renting a kayak. I can’t remember the last time I got in a kayak, but this was definitely a fun time. From the launch point, Trap Pond looks like any other pond you’d see in the east coast, but once you get out you’ll start to see a few cypress trees like these guys above, and eventually if you go out far enough you’ll even find yourself paddling between them!

There’s also a bit of wildlife you can see here. I saw several species of birds from herons to orioles. I didn’t see any bull frogs but I could definitely hear them. One thing you can’t miss are all the red bellied turtles. I saw at least half a dozen of them, and some were more shy than others. This couple above didn’t have much tolerance for my presence, but about 30 minutes later I spotted another turtle who seemed to take pleasure in being photographed.

By far the best experience was some unexpected “water trails” we found on the outskirts of the pond. These trails took us through what felt like a maze of tiny channels that directed us with the use of these yellow signs. No other kayakers were around here, so we had the entire place to ourselves. Apparently you can take these channels from Trap Pond to Raccoon Pond, but since we didn’t discover them until late in the day we didn’t have the time.

Here’s a photo of one of the first channels we took on where there was a straight ahead view. Sometimes there were so many turns that it looked like you were approaching a dead end like in the photo below. Instead you’d just get up close to the shore and see another yellow sign directing you which way to continue.

When it was close to our time being up, my friend and I reluctantly headed back out of the maze towards the main pond. Like always, it took less than half the time to get back out than it did as our journey in. This was a half day mini adventure, but it’s most definitely probably one of the best kayaking trips I’ve ever done, and if you’re in the area I’d highly recommend it!