Lewis Farm Bird Sanctuary

Lewis Farm Bird Sanctuary

Audubon Property

89 acres in Suffield, CT

Parking: Small lot near 1015 Hill Street, Suffield, CT

Trail Map         Trails: 3 miles      Rating: ★★☆☆☆

The Lewis Bird Sanctuary starts on near the summit of the Hastings Hill Historic District.  Views across the road to the east are quite nice however The trails quickly descend 150′ in the wrong direction on the other side.  From the hill the property quickly turns into a bit of a swampy area as the former farm roads head down to cross a seasonal stream.

The trail opens into a small clearing with a second trailhead kiosk with a hand painted trail map.  From this clearing you can access the short blue and green trail loops.  One leads south down a corridor of pines to a view of farm fields and a stately house. before looping back in one or the other direction.

Past the trailhead you will cross Muddy Brook which was running swift on my January 2023 visit from recent rains.  The bridge is an interesting curved design and crosses to a pair of benches sponsored by/memorialized to Audubon patrons.  Across this brook is a second set of looping trails.  The best traveled is the main white trail which soon joins the outer red loop.  The backside of the red loop gets awkwardly close to private property off Spruce Street but other than that is a very woodsy remote feeling loop.

The other inner cross trails seem to be less traveled but all provide different looping options though there doesn’t seem to be a destination reasons for the different trails.  I think an average hike here would be 1.5-2 miles before working back uphill to the parking area.

History:

The white trail is named the Alex Bergstom Trail in memory of E. Alexander Bergstrom, president of the Hartford Audubon from 1953-55.

Lewis Farm formerly grew tobacco likely at least through early 1900s.

Links:

• CTMQ – HAS: Lewis Farm (2017)

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Last updated January 30th, 2023