A Walk Through Moonbeams Preserve
When I think of Middletown, I never think trails or hiking. It just doesn’t look like a place that has any, but it does. The Moonbeams Preserve is a great little trail that hides the train path and history well. When you park at the Moonbeams lot, you are in an open field with a house and a barn to your left. The field has a few bird houses and plenty of birds flying around. As you walk down the path, you can go to your right, to the left or straight into the woods. We choose to go to the woods, as always. In the summer, you can walk down the path and enjoy a few fresh, natural, wild and delicious berries.
O&W Rails to Trail in Middletown NY
We chose a very cold, windy day to go to the preserve. We were in the neighborhood so we decided to take a walk. This place is never busy and even if there is a car or two you never see the people on the actual trail. I don’t know where they go hiding but they do it well.
Once you go from the open field, which used to be part of the dairy farm, you enter the woods. And if you glace to the left you will see the path that goes to the rail trail. We finally saw this today, after going here at least five times. We still didn’t head that way but went into the woods instead. A short walk in and you’ll see a small bridge and on top of the hill is a bench and the rail trail board. There is no map or information on the board. It was still nice to see that a train used to run through here and walk through history.
What You’ll See
The Moonbeams Preserve is a place for nature and bird lovers. If you want to observe bird or photograph them, this is a great spot for that. You can also see deer, a heron, a hawk or eagle, if you’re lucky. On this day, we saw deer but I scared them off by yelling “DEER!” I see them every day but they still excite me.
After your walk, you can go to Middletown NY and grab something to eat or even stop by Dos Amigos, since it’s close by.
