This 62 acre state park on the coast in East Haven Connecticut has a small access car park for 6 cars and is best visited at low tide. Its a haven for wildlife and birdlife with meandering paths with rocky outcrops and lookouts across the salt marshes and tidal estuary.
Full in Depth Guide
This small state park on the coast near East Haven only has about 2 miles of trails and is a superb place to visit with children because there isn’t too far they can go.
The car park is relatively small ( we reckon would only fit 6 cars) so you will most likely need to arrive early on a weekend or park a few roads away and walk in. The park itself has a number of really nice spots to sit and have lunch or a picnic as well as some well marked trails that meander round the estuary area with views of the coast and shoreline and also the salt marshes behind.
The ‘Cave’
The trail itself has a useful numbering system and we tried to follow the numbers in order. In the first 1-10 you get two or three elevated areas looking out over the coast and at number 14 is a very small cave formed from two rocks falling on top of each other.
The Hollow Tree
At the marking for number 22 you will see a tree that is alive but almost completely hollow.
The Mosquito Ditches
When you are near the marker for 21 you will be able to see the salt marsh estuary with strange looking straight lines carved into the mud. These are mosquito ditches that were created around the time of the civil war to reduce the amount of mosquitos in the area.
Parking
Parking is at Route 142 in East Haven off Short Beach Road
Maps
A quality PDF Map can be found by clicking here .
My GPX files for our visit can be found here.
Verdict
This 62 acre state park on the coast in East Haven Connecticut has a small access car park for 6 cars and is best visited at low tide. Its a haven for wildlife and birdlife with meandering paths with rocky outcrops and lookouts across the salt marshes and tidal estuary.
