Exploring Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut

Weir Farm National Historic Site is one of those hidden gems you just don’t think about when you think of National Parks. You have heard of Yosemite, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, and various other National Parks, but the United States is also filled with a bunch of National Historic Sites as well.

This particular national historic site is dedicated to a well known artist named Julian Alden Weir. I am not a historian, so I am not going to try to pretend to be one. However, here is a link to a very informative video on the park itself and the history behind it.

WHERE TO PARK

The parking lot is located right off of Nod Hill Rd across the street from the visitor center. This park is dog friendly, although you will need to keep the pups on a leash of course.

Right near the sign (pictured above) you can grab a map of the national park so you can better understand the layout of all the structures. The park is not very large, but still full of beautiful views and historic value.

WEIR’S HOME

Whenever I head to a place of historical significance, I always try to picture myself living during that time period. It is fun trying to imagine what it would be like roaming through these grounds just like they did over 100 years ago.

The best part about this national historic site is you don’t have to imagine, you can see it through the eyes of Mr. Weir in his paintings. Above is the Weir house where he used to live while on the property.

THE PALACE CAR

After we quickly glanced at the Weir house, we started making our way towards the pond. As you can see in the photos, the clouds were debating on whether to float on by or douse rain all over the place. So we decided to get the little trail in first before we had more opportunities for shelter later on.

The picture above was Weir’s Portable Studio. I’m not sure how he transported it his “Palace Car” but either the guy was always sitting down inside of it, or he was quite a bit shorter than myself.

WELL MAINTAINED TRAILS

The paths to the Weir Pond area were wide and well kept. No need to worry about getting into poison ivy unless you get off the paths. The path isn’t wheel chair accessible, but it is still a fairly easy hike with no large inclines or declines throughout.

WEIR POND

You get to walk right along Weir Pond and check out where Weir and others have stood gazing upon nature. As we were walking around the pond we thought we saw some bird watchers on the other side.

Turns out, they brought some art supplies themselves and were working on a couple of paintings. It appears as though the tradition continues among this beautiful landscape in Connecticut.

SNEAKY SNAKE

As we were taking the time lapse of the pond/clouds in our video, we happened to see this neat snake just chilling in the water a few feet from us. This wasn’t the only wild life we saw either as we were on our short trail. We also came across a couple deer foraging through the woods and heard plenty of frogs enjoying the cool sporadically rainy day.

I definitely recommend you head over to this national park during their office hours and when the visitor center is open. Here is a link to National Park Service’s website for more information.

We didn’t take the guided tours that they offer because we had Blaze with us. We do plan to come back again and absorb more information on this awesome park. So much history and information to soak in while strolling through the park.

OTHER NEARBY HIKES

Rock Lot

Topstone

Centennial Watershed State Forest

Devil’s Den Nature Preserve

Leon Levy Preserve

Saugatuck Falls Natural Area

NOTE FROM WRITER

If you enjoyed this blog post or the video to go along with it, feel free to share it with your friends.  You can find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our channel’s RSS feed via the subscribe button on the sidebar. If you have any questions or comments go ahead and leave them below and we will try our best to get back to you! Thanks for reading/watching!

Also be sure to check out Deanna’s food blog when you get the chance! A lot of awesome and healthy recipes to use there!

Adventure On!