Date visited: 2/20/2021

This is another cool Connecticut State Park, located in the towns of East Haddam and Lyme. Most of the park is in East Haddam, but the castle itself is located in Lyme. There are some hiking trails here too, but we didn't explore all of them.

Date visited: 7/27/2021

This nature preserve is Lyme Land Conservation Trust property. It consists of a loop trail, that's a little less than a mile and a half long, and lots of stone walls. I mean, lots of stone walls. There is also a pond with a lookout that we stopped at for a break. The first three quarters of the loop was a gradual downhill descend, meaning the last quarter of the trail was straight up!

Date visited: 5/27/2022

I wish I came here on a nicer day. It was cool, gloomy and damp, but the nature preserve was great! We hiked a very pleasant two mile loop that included portions of the Park Road Trail, Heritage Trail, Red Trail and Yellow Trail. The only down side, other than the weather, was that there was one water crossing early on where the dogs got wet and muddy. So the dogs have dirty paws in many of the pictures.

More Images

Date visited: 3/30/2023

There are actually two different nature preserves that border each other here. The Pleasant Valley and the Jewett Preserve. They share the same parking lot and main path, before the Jewett Preserve splits off to the west, while the Pleasant Valley Preserve is to the north and east. We hiked a two mile loop trail that was part of the Pleasant Valley Preserve. It was a mixture of woods and open meadows. It was a nice walk. The Eightmile River can be accessed here, as well as a smaller stream. It was an unusually cold day, but there are places along the trail where I'm sure the dogs could take a dip in the river when the weather is warmer.

More Images

Date visited: 2/20/2021

We stopped for a short walk here. We pretty much just walked down an access road for about half a mile and turned around. There didn't seem to be alot here.