West Brook - Greenbelt Trail, Connetquot River State Park Preserve, New York

The West Brook section of the Greenbelt Trail is kid friendly and pretty cool too. Starting at the baseball field parking lot, you can catch the Greenbelt (white blazes) just past the crosswalk closer to Montauk Highway. From there you’ll meander through meadows where you may see some deer, past a ginormous elm which is great to climb and over the bridge of the broken dam that turned Westbrook Pond back into it’s former glory of West Brook just a couple years ago. The small pond side of the dam may be a good place to see turtles and herons and along the babbling brook you are sure to catch ducks, geese and maybe even some osprey overhead. Continue along what was the pond basin for some great views and a narrow, interesting trail. The trail meets Sunrise Highway and ducks below on a narrow low bridge to join a staircase on the other side of the highway. The stairs are suspended over another pond in Connetquot State Park and the Greenbelt continues on into the park. Generally we turn around here, which is about a mile from the parking lot. This section (from dam to highway) is not stroller friendly. I would recommend a carrier for this hike. There are no bathrooms or fee. Submitted by Jannine Thorp