Date Visited: August 20, 2016
Location: New Boston Rd. (Route 57) Tolland, MA
Hours: Open everyday, 24 hours and day
Parking: There is not a designated parking lot or parking area. You have to pull over to the side of the road on Route 57.
Cost: There is no fee but donations are appreciated
Trail Difficulty: Easy
Size: We took the 1.6 mile Brook nd Charlotte trail loops
Dog Friendly: Technically, no, MA Audubon does not allow dogs on their trails. But, I suspect people do bring their dogs.
Highlights: brook, secluded, trails are not very steep, short and easy trail
Lowlights: trails are a little hard to follow (look for the blue and yellow marked trees), lack of visible wildlife, hard to find especially if you don’t have a passenger to help you look for it
Richardson Brook Wildlife Sanctuary
Richardson Brook Wildlife Sanctuary Trail Map
Richardson Brook is not the easiest trail to find. In fact, it took a few turnarounds and nifty parking to find a safe place to park and enter the trail.
The trail for Richardson Brook is pretty easy. The only catch is looking for the marked trees to follow since the trail is not clearly defined all the time and it can get a little confusing, even with the markings on the trees to follow. It could be very easy to get lost. Visions of Camp Crystal Lake flashed before my eyes a few times.
The big payoff is the brook which was not running very hard during my visit. But it was still very pretty.
We saw some little critters and colorful mushrooms along the way.
Water bugs, frogs, salamanders and baby salamanders were abundant, even if they did try to camouflage themselves.
Although we did not see many birds we did hear them and we did see evidence of other animals. I am also convinced that if you were determined to find other wildlife you wouldn’t be disappointed. If you had a lot of time to spend and you went off trail you could definitely find bigger wildlife. Just look out for Jason!
The video below of Richardson Brook really captures the beauty of the trail.
Similar Places I Have Visited In New England:
Cascading Waters (Worcester, MA)
New England Nomad 
September 10th, 2016 at 5:10 am
Really a beautiful place for walking, Wayne 🙂
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September 10th, 2016 at 6:50 pm
It’s such a peaceful place. I could sit there and listen to the water running over the rocks all day ( : Thank you, Irene!
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September 10th, 2016 at 7:41 am
It’s a lovely place. In woodland, you won’t see many birds if you walk about because they fly away without your even seeing them. The secret is to sit quietly and have your lunch, with your back against a comfortable tree, ensuring that you have a wild field of view. Gradually they will all come back and you will see them!
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September 10th, 2016 at 6:51 pm
I wish I had that amount of patience! I will work on it. I know eventually birds and wildlife will come by if I just wait long enough ( :
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September 10th, 2016 at 11:53 am
Looks like a lovely place. Great picture of the spiderweb.
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September 10th, 2016 at 6:53 pm
Thank you! Yes, it took a while to get my settings correct before I finally got that photo!
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