White Memorial Conservation center is a sprawling property in Litchfield Connecticut. Owning 60% of the land around Bantam lake and multiple large parcels to the east, this area has many wonderful hikes to enjoy!
I've been dying to check this place out since I saw some photos online a year ago. I finally had the chance to head down here and on the way we decided to stop at knife shop falls. This is a lesser known water fall in CT but worthy of the quick pit stop. You'll find a rough area to park for two cars across from the small dam.
There is an obvious path located across the bridge that will not give you a front view of the falls. The real path is located on the eastern side of the bridge near a bunch of over grown brambles. You'll find a tiny slab of stone as a footbridge and a path that will take you to the falls. Knife shop falls is maybe 12-15 feet tall and looks like a nice swimming hole.
A short drive later we found ourselves at the memorial center. They have a museum that looked pretty cool online, but like many things in the area, this spot is closed for the pandemic. There are quite a few buildings labeled here but none we could see inside so we didn't spend much time exploring before moving on, but I would like to come back again some time.
On the back side of the museum were some cages where we found an owl and red tail hawk. Both seem to be injured and undergoing rehabilitation but I believe I read that they will not be able to be released to the wild. : (
Our first hike was to the south, the official map can be a bit confusing, but what could go wrong when following a guy with a site that has the words "gets lost" in it?
Heading across the grassy field south of the barn like building and just right of the pond, we found a trail marker for the Ongley pond trail.
This short little walk around the pond features some nice flowers, a little footbridge and , when we were there, tons of mud!
We only stayed on the Ongley trail for a minute before switching to the windmill hill trail before quickly switching to the Ice House ruins trail. It's a very interconnected trail system! This leads to the northern edge of the lake and has a great viewing platform to take in the sights. There was some activity on the water but not much.
This is where the trail gets interesting. Both the viewing platform and the trail behind it are loaded with concrete pillars from the old ice house ruins. These concrete pillars used to support a conveyor belt that would transport the ice from the lake to a warehouse for storage. It would then be shipped all over for use later on.
You won't be hiking between these pillars but the trail heads off to the side and you'll end up on the other side of the photo that I took pictured on the right. Please make sure not to hike off the trail! Because people saw us on the other end when we arrived there, someone tried to walk down this way and ended up in some mud.
The Ice house itself is no longer standing. You can see the foundation borders as some concrete still remains on the ground. The perimeter of the walls can be seen by the white poles topped with red markers, which show how massive it was.
In order to circle around to the ice house you'll cross this awesome canal on the trail. It's maybe 2 feet across but there are some foot bridges to cross it so don't attempt to jump it.
After another quick hike in the woods along a small stream and you'll end up at the back of where the ice house was. This is a large open field, we headed the opposite direction to return to the parking area. Along the way you could take the rest of the wind mill hill trail to the top. we didn't have time so I wonder if there is a windmill at the top.... something to explore further.
In order to make it to our second hike of the day we hopped in the car and proceeded down the road. At times it will narrow to a one lane road so be careful and watch out for hikers. After returning to the main road the huge parking area for the Little pond trail will appear on your right.
The little pond trail is what many people come to this area to see. This is a 1.6 mile trail around a pond, but almost entirely on a board walk. It's very unique and highly photographed on Instagram. There is a large population of birds in the area and many bird houses have been installed to encourage them, so don't be surprised to see birders camping out in spots. We also witnessed some fishing all around the pond.
We were able to spot a great blue heron, two swan, one of whom was guarding a nest, and countless smaller birds, frogs and chipmunks. While it isn't a huge hike, we took a counter clockwise direction and I felt like it was the perfect length for a stroll in something with no shade. This is an absolute must visit for anyone in the state that enjoys hiking or the outdoors, there just isn't anything like it elsewhere.
To finish our day we hopped back into the car one last time and drove south along the lake shore. A rather hard to spot parking lot for 3-4 cars sits at the back of a driveway surrounded by homes. This is the trail head to Apple hill. While you could hike a much longer way from the north through Cat swamp... no.
This was a quick 10 minute trek up hill to a MASSIVE grassy field filled with sparrows. In the center is a wooden observation tower. While it doesn't go nearly high enough to get a truly great view of the lake below, it does an okay job. The pictures don't do this spot justice, it really is wonderful. After this last quick jaunt, we headed back and on to some lunch. White memorial conservation center has many other trails to explore but from reading online these seem to be the three most popular and I can attest that they are well worth visiting.
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