Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge — Coskata Pond & Woods

Based on a foundation of gravel, rock and clay, Coskata is the reason Nantucket Harbor exists. All around the wooded area of Coskata, which likely translates in the Algonquian Native American language that the Wampanoag Indians spoke to “at the broad woods”, are post-glacial deposits moved northward by littoral drift from Nantucket’s east shore over the last 2,000 to 3,000 years, eventually forming Great Point and later, Coatue.
Growing in the Woods are white and black oaks comprising a “mature maritime oak woods forest”, Scattered throughout this forest are lesser amounts of Eastern red cedar, sassafras, black tupelo and red maple. A clay/sand coastal bank fronts the Woods toward the Head of the Harbor to the southwest and the tidal Costaka Pond on the north side of the woods is fringed with salt marsh cord grass and protected from the ocean by a barrier beach. To the northwest are the Glades, a salt marsh with ridges of beach vegetation on some of the oldest dunes on Nantucket.
Island explorers love this part of the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge because with a pair of binoculars, a search of the skies, the pond and salt marsh reveals an abundance of shorebird species including great egrets, great blue herons, American oystercatchers, willets, gulls and two active osprey nesting poles. You can dig soft-shell clams living in the sand and mud of the pond and fly fish for striped bass at the mouth of and inside the pond. And you can explore the pond in a kayak, beaching it on the east end for an ocean swim or paddling out into the Head of the Harbor to check out an active oyster farm.

Hiking information & fees.
This hike requires a bit more time and money commitment on your part. We begin at our regular downtown pickup location at the Handlebar Café and transport you out to the Wauwinet Gatehouse. From the gatehouse after an optional bathroom break, we begin the walk out to Coskata Pond.
Because of the extra transportation time to and from Wauwinet, the duration of this hike is around three-and-a-half hours to four hours.
Be aware that getting out to the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge is not always possible because of protected nesting shorebirds April through the end of August, and high tides and surf that erode and flood beaches forcing the Trustees of Reservations to temporarily close the refuge. If it looks like a closure might happen, we’ll stay in touch leading up to your hike day to let you know if the hike is happening. If it isn’t, we’ll work with you to reschedule or give you a full refund.
The Coatue-Coskata Hike costs $80 for adults and $30 for children under 13. Nantucket Walkabout offers a 20-discount for members of the Trustees of Reservations and a 20-percent military discount to active and retired military personnel, and their spouses. Hikers can take only one of these two discounts per person per hike.
When booking your hike, please enter the promo code, MILITARYDISCOUNT or TTOR20 when prompted to do so. If claiming the military discount and you’re booking a hike with non-military hikers, please book for yourself or, yourself and your spouse in a separate booking from your friends and family. Also, please present your military ID card or Trustees membership card to our guide at the time of pick up. Check the Hike Calendar to see when we are hiking the Coatue-Coskata trail and to book it. To arrange for a private hike on this route, call or email us for our rates and to discuss your hiking needs.

Before you go.
As we’ll be walking about 5.5 miles round trip in sand, which can be moderately strenuous depending on your physical fitness, we ask that you know your physical capacity and plan accordingly. Toward that end, wear a good pair of walking shoes or hiking boots. Depending on the weather, have with you a wide-brim hat and light jacket. Bring water and whatever you food you need. You may also want to bring a camera, walking stick, sunglasses and binoculars.
For the sun, apply sunblock to your skin when it’s dry before you leave to meet our van and bring sunblock with you. Because we’ll be walking near salt marsh areas where there are likely to be saltwater mosquitoes and greenhead flies in the air, and through brushy, wooded areas where there are deer ticks, which carry Lyme Disease, Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis and other diseases, wear and bring bug spray (with DEET) if possible.
Lastly, as facilities on the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge are limited to portable toilets at the Wauwinet Gatehouse, in the dunes between the east beach and Coskata Pond and at the Great Point Lighthouse, please use the bathroom before you meet our van. There are bathrooms in the WAVE Greenhound bus station across the Handlebar Café, our pickup spot.

Logging your steps and counting the miles.
If you’re counting your steps with a fitness/activity tracker, this hike offers around 11,000 steps and is 5.5 miles in length.

Discover the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge at your own pace.
Once you’ve been out on the hike Nantucket Walkabout offers on the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge, you’ll have a better sense of how to get out there on your own to explore it on foot at your leisure. Using the refuge map you got from us, plan a hike on your own.

Continuing your island discovery!
We encourage you to explore Nantucket on your own! There are more than 15,000 acres open for exploration on land owned by the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, the Nantucket Islands Land Bank, the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, The Trustees of Reservations and The ’Sconset Trust. After your hike with Nantucket Walkabout, ask your guide for a package of maps from most of these conservation organizations.