I love walking in the woods in the fall. There’s something about the smell of leaves in crisp, cool air that revitalizes my senses. We visited the Stewart Preserve on a nice fall day. Though the sun was mostly hidden behind clouds, when it did decide to peek out, the forest glowed. We will definitely be returning to this beautiful place in the early spring to see what else it has to offer.
Stewart Preserve
Stewart Preserve is a 123 acre preserve that is maintained by the Nature Conservancy. It was gifted to the organization in 1966 from Dorothy England and was named after her late son. This preserve is sort of hidden. It’s only marked by the presence of a small white sign on Methodist Farm Road. The parking area is at the very end of Stewart Lane and can only comfortably accommodate two cars. Stewart Preserve seems to be well visited, so if it’s a nice day plan on getting here early!
This preserve now contains forests of hardwood and groves of hemlocks. This land used to be cleared and used for grazing animals. Every now and then, you might spot a part of an old stone wall.
There are many large and old trees along the trails. As a child, I was always drawn to big trees. The same can be said of me today.
Hiking Trails
There are two trails at Stewart Preserve that give you several miles of hiking. The main trail is the orange trail that loops around from the parking area. The orange trail does have some nice elevation change, especially near the southeastern end. There was a neat little area where people had piled up cairns.
The blue trail is accessed off of the orange trail. The blue goes through wetlands, up a hill, and then loops around before bringing you back to itself and then back to the orange trail.
We visited towards the end of fall when the leaves had mostly fallen from the trees. All of these fallen leaves completely obscured the trails. However, these trails were well marked with blazes on the trees so we never accidentally wandered off the trail. The signage was superb.
Woodburned Signs
One of the lovely surprises on this hike were the various woodburned signs identifying the different tree species. These were lovely and I found myself wanting to document them all. In my opinion, it was way more fun to collect these than Pokemon Go!
Where is it Located?
Stewart Preserve is located off of Stewart Lane in Averill Park, upstate New York. The parking is found at the very end of the road on the left hand side.
Map
There is a downloadable map available online from the Nature Conservancy website here.
Visit my posts on the Lisha Kill Preserve and the Lewis A. Swyer Preserve for other great Nature Conservancy hikes.