Nearby Attractions:
- Restaurants:
- Breweries/Wineries:
- Lodging:
- Shopping areas:
- Performance art venues:
- Movie theatres:
- Galleries/museums:
- Farmer’s markets/farm stands:
- Historical sites:
- Public gardens:
- Nurseries/garden centers:
- Geographical features:
Audubon Greenwich
Location Information
Sponsored by:
Audubon Greenwich
Location Entrance:
613 Riversville Road
Greenwich, CT 06831
Location Phone:
(203) 869-5272
Type: An entire preserve
Alternate trailhead or entry point:
Difficulty: Moderate (Gently rising terrain with the likeliness to encounter occasional obstacles)
Primary Walking Surface:
Earth
Hours open:
Dawn to dusk
Suitable for ages: • Children • Teenagers • Adults • Seniors
Number of walking trails: 8
Total walking route length: 7 miles
Admission fees:
Free for Audubon members. For non-members, $3.00 for adults and $1.50 for children/seniors.
Location Website: Audubon Greenwich
Location Details
Audubon Greenwich opened in 1942 as the National Audubon Society’s first environmental education center in the United States on land donated by Eleanor Clovis Reese and H. Hall Clovis. The 295-acre sanctuary has approximately seven miles of trails that lead to a hardwood forest, old fields, lake, streams, and vernal ponds. Reminders of the past are the stone walks, an apple orchard and original New England homestead buildings. The Kimberlin Nature Education Center building hosts exhibits, staff offices, and classrooms, while the Hilfiger Children’s Learning Center offers nature activities, natural history exhibits, an art gallery, a wildlife viewing window, honey bee hive exhibit, and gift store.
Location Features
| Landscape settings: | • Stream/river • Pond/lake • Woodland • Wetland • Meadow • Gentle hill |
| Amenities: | • Interpretative/educational signage • Restroom • Drinking water • Picnic • Lighted parking |
| Activities: | |
| Neighboring towns: | |
| Access restrictions: | Trails are open dawn to dusk, seven days a week. The Nature Center is open 9am-5pm, seven days a week, except major holidays. The Nature Store is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9am-5pm and Sunday, noon-5pm, except major holidays. |
How to get there
| Driving Directions: | From I-684, take Exit 3N. Turn north onto Route 22. At the first light, turn right onto Route 433. Go 2 miles to the stop sign at John Street. The entrance gate is on the left. From the Merritt Parkway (no commercial vehicles), take Exit 28 in Connecticut. Turn north onto Round Hill Road. After 1.5 miles, turn left onto John Street. The entrance gate is on the right. |
| Parking: | |
| Public transportation: |
Other Items of Interest
| Flora and fauna: | Audubon Greenwich is comprised of 11 other sanctuaries totaling 686 acres of woodlands, meadows, and wetlands, and 15 additional miles of hiking trails. Ecosystems at the sanctuary include large open fields, successional thickets, young and mature forests of mixed oak, beech, and maple, Mead Lake, shrub swamps, several vernal pools, Indian Spring Pond (human-made and present throughout the year), red maple swamps, and a small grove of hemlock trees. Also at the sanctuary are a beautiful old apple orchard, honeybee hives, wildflower meadows, a butterfly garden, and bird feeding station. The east branch of the Byram River crosses the property and was dammed in the nineteenth century to create shallow Mead Lake, home to frogs, water snakes and turtles. You will find a boardwalk and two bird blinds on the Lake Loop Trail. Noteworthy wildlife at the Center includes river otter, muskrats, wood ducks, white-tailed deer, coyotes, flying squirrels, nesting bluebirds, wild turkeys, bats, and a wide spectrum of reptiles, amphibians and birds. The Center serves as the site for the Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch and is one of the best locations in the Northeast United States to view the fall migration of raptors. Golden and Bald Eagles, Common Ravens and Black Vultures have also been spotted. Seasonal highlights include the late winter movement of spotted salamanders to their breeding pond, spring warbler migration, late summer meadow insects and the nocturnal fall migration of the saw-whet owl. |
| Affiliate Groups: |
