With our brother home from college, Anna and I dragged him along for our adventure to Hallock State Park Preserve in Riverhead, NY.  Honestly, he takes twice as long as us to leave the house and we ended up arriving at the park around 2:45pm.  It runs in the family.  Since it is winter, we had till 4pm to complete the trail.  So we had to move quickly.  Seeing as this was our first winter hike, we were very excited while our brother begrudgingly got out of the car and we headed down the path at the far end of Parking Lot 2.   

The trail itself and the sun at the perfect position in the sky made the snow that had fallen the night before shimmer and sparkle.  It was still soft and had not iced over so we had plenty of traction going up and down the terrain.  

At the end of the first section of trail we turned right on the blue trail heading toward the beach, since we absolutely love the waterfront. When we arrived at the water, it was breathtaking.  We had the beach to ourselves.  The waves were crashing on the shore and the wind was ferociously blowing across the sand.  It was really magical.

By the time we had our fill of the water, my fingers had all but frozen from the wind.  We headed back up the trail and made our way to the car.  We stopped in the gift shop to see what they had.  It’s a small shop of all hand made materials and goods from the locals.  I bought a jar of honey and a knit hat but was very tempted to purchase more.

This was an amazing spot to visit and I think coming here in the winter was perfect. Even our reluctant to come along brother said it was worth the hike! 

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Trail Facts:

Hike Distance: 1-2 miles

Terrain: Minimum elevation with small hills.

Difficulty: 3/10 due to the snowy conditions of ground

Path: Yellow Trail to Blue trail heading to beach

Address: 6062 Sound Ave, Riverhead, NY 11901