The Blue Trail enters the preserve from A.P. Gates Road. Access is from an established parking area as well as a small spur trail near the intersection of A.P. Gates Road and Woodmont Circle. The trail passes over a bog bridge across a vernal pool to the intersection with the Red Trail.
The Red Trail enters the preserve from Tater Hill Road, about 500 feet east of A.P. Gates Road and the Tater Hill Cemetery. The Red Trail crosses an intermittent stream, then heads up a steep hill, after which it splits to form a loop trail that allows access to most of the preserve’s interior, which comprises a mixed hardwood forest of beech, oak and birch.
As of 2026, the property was involved in a three-year forest management project, supported with grant funds from the Connecticut Land Conservation Council. Some 10.5 acres are scheduled to be shelter cut at the end of 2026 or early 2027, which will render the forest more resilient by allowing for the growth of younger and more varied tree species, and will make the preserve a welcoming home to a broader range of birds and wildlife than are currently on site, due to the lack of significant understory in this mature forest.
Find more information about Miller Farm Preserve from East Haddam Land Trust. Further details and color-coded trail maps are available on the East Haddam Trails Interactive Map.
The 87-acre Miller Farm Preserve was purchased by East Haddam Land Trust in 2018 from Margaret and Larry Nichols. Margaret Nichols’s parents had owned the site, and she was committed to preserving it in perpetuity. This parcel protects the Roaring Brook and Eightmile River Watersheds and is located in Audubon Connecticut’s Lyme Forest Block Important Bird Area. Its trees and shrubs, including masses of winterberry, shelter and feed woodland birds. Salamanders, frogs, and toads, amphibians particularly sensitive to habitat loss, live in its ferns, moss, and wildflower-dotted wetlands.
From Route 82, turn east onto Clark Hill Road in Hadlyme (opposite Hadlyme Congregational Church). Clark Hill Road turns into Tater Hill Road. After approximately 3.1 miles, turn left onto A.P. Gates Road, where there is a parking area on the right about 0.2 miles north of Tater Hill Road. Alternatively, follow Tater Hill Road some 0.1 miles past A.P. Gates Road Road, where there is a parking area on the left.
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