Topsmead State Forest, 20240525
This posting includes:
Our current afternoon walk
A ‘perimeter trail’ map that I posted on AllTrails
25 May 2024Topsmead State Forest consists of more than 600 acres of land in eastern Litchfield, Connecticut. Most of the forest area consists of a hill rising to an elevation of 1,230 feet. From the parking area on Chase Road, trails branch out through the forest holdings, a combination of open and wooded areas.
Near the center of the forest, and near the top of the hill, stands the former estate house of Edith Morton Chase. It is a large two-story structure, with stucco half-timbered walls in the Tudor Revival style. A central section is flanked by cross-gabled wings, with large westward projection that houses a great living room with a tall ceiling. The interior is decorated in 1920s style, and retains original fixtures and finishes. The area around the house is informally landscaped, continued the practice of Edith Morton Chase, for whom it was built.
For recreational uses, the forest is open daily until sunset. In the warmer months the state sometimes offers tours of the estate house, which is otherwise closed to public access. The trails on the property support hiking and horse riding. Hunting is permitted, in season with the appropriate permits, in the forest area north of Route 118.
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Wikipedia, Topsmead State Forest (www.wikipedia.com accessed 25 May 2024) Last edited on 4 February 2024, at 21:40 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and we were either going to walk to the local Carvel or Dairy Queen for an iced cream, but Coley suggested a nicer walk at Topsmead. Since we had been there before, we chose the easy route along the Songbird Trail [pink in my map below] and continuing down and back along the Red Trail.
All Trails and Roads shown
The welcome Center has been greatly improved specifically with regard to the informational signage. It may be possible to see the difference from a picture in the ‘prior visit’ collage imagery at the bottom.
Welcome Center
Southerly Walk Along the Songbird Trail
The “Four Corners”
About a third of the total distance ‘away’ from the center, there is a junction of gravel roads. Another third further and the path we chose took cuts over onto the western side of the stone wall, somewhat obscured on the right. The trail from that point on mainly consisted of a mowed paths along the edge of the tree-line around the field.
The grass was rather high, naturally. Apparently they cut it for hay bailer later in the season, but I’m not sure when it is done. Some of the ‘prior visit’ picture show it in process in July but other picture taken in August still show it untouched.
AllTrails
I used the AllTrails website to create a ‘perimeter loop’ of the grounds at Topsmead. That map is shown below. We did not walk this entire path; we walked only from the parking lot up to the Welcome Center and then southward to follow the portion of the Songbird Trail that connects with the Red Trail. This route took us along the main fields, the [now inactive] Connecticut DEEP Letterbox #31 shown in a picture above, and the wildlife viewing stand, before returning.
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