Wolf spiders, Pardosa lapidicina Emerton 1885, occupy cobble beaches along the tide line about Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA, and move back and forth on the beaches with the tides. I compared the orientation and movement in the low intertidal of three groups with normal access to the entire intertidal zone and a group from the high intertidal prevented from using the low intertidal by a barrier of dense salt-marsh cordgrass Spartina alterniflora. They included a group captured in the high intertidal (High), one captured in the low intertidal (Low), one from the low intertidal but not captured (Observed), and one captured behind cordgrass (Cordgrass). The High group moved farther and more unidirectionally than the others, and the Cordgrass group exhibited the most variable orientation of the manipulated spiders. All groups exhibited a roughly southwesterly orientation from the release site. The Low and Observed groups moved shorter distances than the others, and High individuals appeared more strongly inclined to leave the low intertidal than individuals initially positioned there (Low, Observed). Thus, experience likely played a role in the orientation and movement of the spiders.