Eagle Landing State Park
16 acres in Haddam, CT
Parking: Large lot near 14 Little Meadow Rd, Haddam, CT
Park Map Trails: 0.2 miles Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
This state park is a public recreation area on the Connecticut River which offers boating, fishing, and boat trips through Connecticut River Expeditions or Lady Katherine Cruises (which redirects to the Essex Steam Train and doesn’t appear to have operated in 2022). As the name suggests, eagle viewing can be common here. The property is adjacent to the Clark Creek Wildlife Area and very close to a parcel of the Cockaponset State Forest.
Honestly this park is a bit dilapidated. There are three big dirt parking lots, some shuttered buildings, and four rough old docks. Paved paths connect the docks and there is a nice open grassy space with picnic tables and a small gazebo. Views are great across the river of the East Haddam Swing Bridge and the Goodspeed Opera house.
Its value in preserving open space along the river is priceless, but in it’s 20 year span as a state park it has remained exactly that – open space – and sometimes that’s all you need.
Boating
This section of the Connecticut River is wide and slow and will be affected by the tides.
Paddling upstream is about 3.3 miles to Haddam Meadows State Park.
Paddling downstream is Chapman Pond (a Connecticut River camping area) at just over a mile and Gillette Castle State Park is only 2.6 miles away.
History:
I believe that many sources online confuse the Clark Creek WMA explained below with Eagle Landing State Park, though both seem to have been purchased around the same time. All the state’s site says is, “In the early 2000s, the work to acquire the pieces that make up today’s 16 acre park began.”
The adjacent Clark Creek WMA (the subject of Marteka’s article below) has a controversial history. The 17-acre parcel was acquired around the same time as Eagle Landing in 2003 for $1.35 million. In 2009, developers from the Riverhouse at Goodspeed Station, who own the abutting land, proposed swapping the 17-acre parcel for an 87-acre parcel not too far away adjacent to existing Cockaponset State Forest land. Jodi Rell rejected that 2009 deal and it was revived again in 2011 actually being approved by then Governor Malloy. It was the subject of debate and legal battles until the developers decided to abandon it in April of 2012 and the unanimously approved H.B. No. 6672 formally closed the land swap protecting the Clark Creek Wildlife Area from development.
Links:
Peter Marteka – Enjoy Clark Creek Area in Haddam Before We Lose It (2009)
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Last updated January 19th, 2023
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