Hathaway Preserve

Kingston's 77-acre Hathaway Preserve features 2 miles of established trails along Spring Brook and the Jones River, with four bridges and a boardwalk, and a section of the Bay Circuit Trail. The access road may not be suitable for all vehicles, so proceed with caution -- but the payoff is a genuinely peaceful stretch of mature pine-oak forest and wetlands, with a good chance of spotting box turtles, herons, and even bobcats. The property's history includes a small pottery operation: the Bradford family once made red-ware using iron-rich clay dug from a vernal pool on site, and shards from that work have turned up during more recent boardwalk construction. Along with the neighboring Three Rivers Basin and Cranberry Watershed Preserve, Hathaway forms a 3-mile-long green corridor between Lake Street and Wapping Road.