Hay Forest, Newbury
Size: 712 acres
Recreation: Hiking, nature walks and natural history exploration.
What you didn’t know: There are six different cellar hole complexes, including the remains of a sugarhouse, a cistern and gravity-fed water pipe system.
What to look for: Sixty-five species of breeding birds have been documented on the property. The most common is the ground-nesting “ovenbird” warbler.
The inside scoop:
Tally Jones counts herself lucky to live close enough to the Hay Reservation so that she can hike it year-round. Like so many frequent visitors, she takes great personal pride in being part a conservation legacy dating back to the 1800s.
“I have strong feelings of possessiveness towards the Hay Reservation trails,” says Jones, of Newbury. “I have hiked them all many times over the past years, sometimes with my family, but usually in solitude. Each season has its simple wonders...rustling leaves underfoot, animal tracks in freshly fallen snow, Beech Brook rushing with spring rain, the smell of the wet earth in spring -- all constant reminders of how much beauty there is all around us.
“This winter, three generations of my family snowshoed up Sunset Hill together -- the youngest member, nine months old in a backpack. Knowing that this will be here to explore and enjoy forever is wonderful. I feel fortunate to have all of this so close by and I appreciate the work that you and so many others do to make this available to us all forever.”
Abutting the 163-acre John Hay National Wildlife Refuge, the land includes The Fells -- a Victorian estate with well-kept gardens and outbuildings created by John Hay, who came to Newbury in 1891. In addition to being a noted naturalist, Hay was the personal secretary to President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State to presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
The Hay Forest Reservation offers more than four miles of hiking trails, winding through pine and oak forests grown back on abandoned fields, pastures and orchards. The Old County Road is flanked by stonewalls. Faint interior roads, scored by ancient wheel ruts, lead to the hidden cellars of forgotten farms with stone-lined wells. Sunset Hill offers sweeping views of Lake Sunapee, Mount Sunapee, Kearsarge, and distant peaks of the White Mountains.
