Church Farm
Trail Information
Trail Map: Click here for the trail map. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view or print our trail maps.
Directions: From Mansfield Center, take Route 89 north, traveling past the stop light at the intersection with Mount Hope Road. Stay on Route 89 for 1.1 miles until you see a large yellow farm house with a pond on the left. Take a left on Varga Rd., roadside parking is on the right.
Trail Access Points: The Meadow Trail on the east side of Route 89 has been discontinued as the boardwalk repeatedly washed out in flooding events.
New Access to the Ledges Trail has been created on Varga Road. On Varga Road parking is available on the right 500 feet off Route 89. The new trailhead entrance is 100 feet beyond the parking pull-off on opposite side of the street. A second trailhead is located on the dirt section of Varga Road. Take Varga Road from Route 89, at 0.3 miles follow left fork, after 0.3 miles road changes from paved to dirt, entrance is a few yards further on the left. Parking here is very limited.
About the Property
The Church Farm Preserve was donated to Joshua’s Trust by Joe and Dorothy Church Zaring. Abutting property is protected by Eastern Connecticut State University, which celebrated the opening of the Church Farm Center for the Arts and Sciences in May 2009. Both the house, built in the 1700’s, and the barn, built later in 1895, are on the National Register of Historic Places. Joshua’s Trust maintains trails on both properties that are open to the public.
The land is wooded and includes a viewpoint atop ledges that in winter provide a vista of the Mount Hope River valley. After a brief uphill scramble, you can choose to take a quick shortcut back home or stay with the longer, 2-mile trail. This longer trail, “The Ledges”, is marked in yellow, and takes you through mixed hardwoods and pine. The highest point of the Ledges is 480 feet above sea level.
Location: Ashford, Connecticut
Donors: Joe and Dorothy Church Zaring
Acreage: 79
Preserved: in stages, in 1985, 1987 and 1998
Stewards: Charles McCaughtry, Ben Collins
