Caleb Smith State Park

This is a local park that for some reason isnt open daily! Ive passed this park so many times and more then 60% its closed???
When it is open its such a beautiful place you cant believe it. A lot if gorgeous landscape and wildlife. The perfect place to chill out and relax.

It’s a beautiful place to go jogging, it’s not very crowded, and it’s very clean. I’m a city girl who enjoys the small town getaways and this one is perfect. If you love to fish or love to read by the water, this is the spot for you.

Call me crazy, I just wasn’t all that thrilled with this park. I found the map, which can be picked up in the main house, to be misleading and didn’t find the trails to be that spectacular. The best sights are found by the pond at the entrance. Besides and abundance of insects, there didn’t seem to be a large variety of wild life in mid june. If I had my choice, I’d drive a little farther east and check out the Quogue wildlife refuge.

On Long Island there many state parks often beach or standard forest this a small park never crowed trails are nice there is a pond and fishing. a museum across the street from Caleb smith is a county park. Fall is amazing but it is no Yellowstone but for Long Island parks it is nice… Thomas 10 yo

Long Island’s parks are really not that different from one another. There’s grass, some paths and trails, trees and ponds. This fits the bill and seems like a nice place to walk around. Luckily there were no kids hanging around in the winter, so it was peaceful enough. The lake looks picturesque when it’s iced over. What’s disappointing for me is the house itself. The original house is not much more than a memory, the date of construction as listed on the sign (1700-​something) now meaningless because it was later re-​purposed into a shooting club. I would rather them tear it back down to its original size. It’s embarrassing to walk on land used for rich people to shoot things … after they stole it from the native peoples who once lived here, of course. Glorifying a shooting club on stolen land is not only in poor taste, it normalizes guns and gun ownership, which I can’t abide. To add insult to injury, there are traffic cones, warning signs, caution tape, green luminescent pointing-​man signs and other artifacts of human intervention marring the landscape. Just let nature be nature! You can’t even get any good photos without a lot of Photoshop help. That shouldn’t be something you have to say about a park. On a related note, why are we so flippant and inconsiderate about our historical buildings? All over Long Island they are falling apart or «restored and renovated» beyond recognition, or worse, gone. For some of the richer estates, the grounds are converted to parks that close at dusk that hardly anyone even knows exist or how to get to. This park — like most on Long Island — should be open later, cleaned up of traffic cones and the like, the main buildings open in all seasons, plenty of historical and ecological information on display, etc. It’s sad that parks on LI are like fenced in attempts at preserving natural beauty before all is lost. It makes walking around them a bit sad. Come on, New York. We can do better.

Right off of 25/​25A in Smithtown you have this oasis from the hustle and bustle, (no I am not referring to the «gentlemen’s club» by that name nearby) Caleb Smith State Park. This is a pretty large park with a restored historical home that now acts as an information center. As someone that enjoys hiking this is a great spot, with views of a large pond and streams throughout the grounds. An extra perk: the last few times I have gone hiking I spotted a few deer. The grounds are well maintained and the information center does offer a lot of information on the park and events there. Stop on bye and enjoy a nice relaxing day outdoors!

This is currently not a full review as the trails were still closed. The reason given was hurricane Sandy aftermath but it’s just bureaucratic red tape: See the hilarious snapshot I took of kids playing on «hazardous area.» If I felt enticed by this park, I would have explored the trails anyway but did that at nearby Blydenburg and BIll Richards Memorial park later that day instead. The parking lot is tiny here. I think it holds six cars if even that. I wonder what’s going on in that pond. It’s somewhat wide but only about two inches deep visible from land. It’s a lovely building though with a wonderful porch.

great park for exploring. lots of deer especially on the red trail (saw two does and two fawns recently). Nice and quiet during the week, hardly ever other hikers around. At least two to three miles of unique trails, hang a right after passing the museum and stick to the North side of the park for some interesting flora. A little mosquito-​y in the summer.

Smallest state park in New York.
Better on Long Island but a good place to go to for a hour or 2 when you have nothing else to do.

A treasure so hidden that you’ll have to watch carefully for the entrance sign on the north side of Jericho Turnpike NYS Route 25, a fast-​moving stretch between Smithtown & Commack. Former private hunting club for rich guys from Brooklyn. Park now allows women and children but no guns. The original clubhouse (an enlargement of the house held in the Caleb Smith family for six generations) has been preserved and restored nicely (thanks largely to the efforts of a very active local Friends of Caleb Smith – see website below), lower floors open to the public; lockers originally used for storage of members’ bottles still in place. A great place for nature walks, and some excellent interactive exhibits in the building (dedicated by contributors to the memory of the late Dr. Herbert G. Luther, owner of adjoining property containing a 18^th Century grist mill). Seldom crowded, and friendly, helpful staff. The ½ of the park land on the north side of Jericho Turnpike is open W-​Su (hours have been somewhat reduced due to State underfunding of parks) and the part south of Jericho is now open only for special programs and tours by advance special appointment. Organized summer programs and events for children. Superior leaf peeping in the Fall. Trails for XC skiing. No bikes. As is true of all nature preserves near urban areas, poison ivy is in profusion, so if planning to leave the main road and hike the trails (recommended), wear shoes and socks. For me it’s been a sanctuary of peace and beauty, and have contacted my NYS representative to urge more adequate State support.

this park is great for kids. there’s a huge pond that is designated as a Junior Angler’s area at which only kids up to 15 years old can fish. that would have blown my mind when i was a wee one.
in addition there is a nice big trail loop that ruins through the park. it’s a wide, really well maintained and manicured flat trail that really just winds through dense forest. it’s absolutely perfect for a nature walk with kids or maybe for those who have some physical limitations but isn’t really that fun for an experienced hiker.
we found that out the hard way.
but time with nature is always welcome and energizing.
of note: there was this beautiful lone swan that was gliding around the pond feeding and just swimming about. we sat down on a bench next to the water to eat our lunch and the swan made its’ way over to us. he exited the water and moved slowly to us. thinking he was looking for a hand out we threw a chunk of bread near him. he ignored, waddled a little closer and let out this demonic hiss. swans can fucking hiss!!!
he inched closer… still hissing… which prompted the GF to jump up and cower behind me (she’s usually unfazed by ‘danger’ but apparently swans are her kryptonite). i clapped and yelled at him and he slowly made his way back into the water… stopping every few feet to turn his head to the side and let out a protesting hiss.
so…on our nature walk we learned that SWANS HISS!