Walking, Running, Hiking and Biking

• Masons Island · Mystic, CT. Start at the front door. Very little traffic, and lovely running and cycling.
• St. Edmund's Retreat, Enders Island · Mystic, CT. An island just off ours, about an hour for the round-trip walk. Beautiful gardens in summer, extraordinary ocean views, a Rosary Walk and Way of the Cross, and a tiny chapel out on the rocks that floods on a really high tide; people leave prayers in it that are sometimes washed out to sea. The church holds a relic of St. Edmund of Canterbury. Please note their own rules: it is a place of retreat and prayer, not a public park; park in the northeastern lot only, not on the causeway; and anyone under eighteen must be with a parent or guardian.
• Barn Island Wildlife Management Area · Stonington, CT, about fifteen minutes. Set your GPS to Palmer Neck Road, Stonington, not to Pawcatuck, which will take you somewhere else. More than a thousand acres of salt and freshwater marsh, hardwood forest and field, with moderate trails good for hiking and dog walking. It is also an active hunting area, so wear blaze orange in autumn and winter.
• Bluff Point State Park · Depot Road, Groton, CT, about eighteen minutes. A peninsula out into Long Island Sound; the main loop is roughly three and a half miles. The main trail floods on high tides and there is a marsh-restoration project underway, so expect some boardwalk works. Out-of-state cars pay to park; see the practical notes.
• Noank Village · CT. One of my favourite walks, through a charming town next to Mystic, with ocean views. Amelia Earhart married George Putnam here in 1931, in a secret ceremony at his mother's house, which is still a private home, so please admire it from the road if you find it at all.
• Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center · Mystic, CT. More than ten miles of trails, free and open dawn to dusk; there is an admission charge only for the indoor exhibits and the birds of prey. Dogs are not allowed on these trails.
• Coogan Farm · Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic, CT, about ten minutes. Part of the same Nature Center, connected to it by the trail network, through an orchard. Leashed dogs are welcome here; this is the one to bring the dog to.
• Paffard Woods Preserve · North Main Street, Stonington, CT, about ten minutes. An Avalonia Land Conservancy preserve running from wooded glacial valley down to a tidal salt marsh, with a spur out to the cove. Gravel parking on the west side of the road, about half a mile north of Route 1. Leashed dogs welcome, no bikes.
• Harkness Memorial State Park · Waterford, CT, about thirty-five minutes. An enormous piece of land with beautiful views, formal gardens and a mansion you can tour at weekends in season. The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is next door, on its own campus. Note that the old summer concert series no longer runs. No swimming. Out-of-state parking charge applies.
• Napatree Point · Watch Hill, Westerly, RI. Walk the beach out to the point; highly recommended. There is no parking at Napatree itself and village parking is expensive and tightly controlled, so read the practical notes first. Piping plovers and least terns nest here, so respect all roped-off areas, and dogs are restricted through the summer season.
• Stonington Docks and Stonington Point · Stonington Borough, CT. The docks are home to Connecticut's last commercial fishing fleet: over a hundred fishermen and two processors still work out of them, and they are both picturesque and educational to watch. I have taken thousands of photographs here. The old whaling village around them is wonderful to wander, surrounded by the houses of the whaling captains. Drive to the very end of Water Street for a beautiful sunset from the Point; the lot there is free public parking, though the fifteen-minute spaces further up the street are enforced. There is major reconstruction work on the North Pier at present, so expect equipment.

More in our Mystic area guide.