Silver Sands Boardwalk – Silver Sands State Park, Connecticut

Silver Sands State Park, a beachfront park along Connecticut’s Long Island Sound and Milford Harbor, showcases the area’s beautiful natural beaches, tidal marshland, sand dunes, a wading bird rookery, and an offshore island – Charles Island, accessible via a tombolo that appears during low tide, is one of the 3 largest wading bird rookeries in the state.

The park offers 2.3 miles of trails, but the 0.75 mile long boardwalk that leads from the parking area through the tidal marsh and along the beach turned out to be our chosen path – we thoroughly enjoyed strolling through the marsh and viewing the birds and our excursion to the boulder-strewn beach.

Our visit coincided with low tide, the perfect time to explore the tide pools and cross the tombolo (a bar of sand or shingle joining an island to the mainland) to reach Charles Island, except that our visit was also during the bird nesting season – access to the island is prohibited from May to September to further protect this Audubon Important Bird Area (IBA).