When you plan a late summer walk through William Minot Forest, you might expect a quiet stroll along peaceful, bucolic forested trails.  Instead, on Saturday, this hiker was enthralled by a visual assault of colorful and bizarre mushrooms in dazzling shapes and hues.  It was more like taking a walk with Alice through Wonderland than hiking through a quiet Wareham forest.

William Minot Forest is a 205-acre wildlife sanctuary that has been owned and maintained by the Town of Wareham since 1951.  It has 24 marked, crisscrossing trails.  And on this late summer day, at the beginning of the Labor Day weekend, every trail seemed covered or surrounded by mushrooms of every shape and color.

The photo galleries show only a small portion of the hundreds of delightful, vibrant, and sometimes ghoulish shapes and colors of mushrooms.  When you look closely, it is easy to see why cartoon animators continue to use mushrooms as their subjects.

William Minot Forest is open to the public year-round.  Parking is available at the Minot Forest Elementary School.  Information and a map of the forest can be found at the Town of Wareham website.  The Minot Forest brochure is attached below.

But to see the mushrooms in full bloom, you may have to hurry.