Firearms deer season opens on Wednesday, November 18, and the main parking area for Macricostas Preserve at 124 Christian Street in New Preston is closed Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., while Steep Rock Association builds its new stewardship center beside it.
The rules inside the preserve fence haven't changed. What changed this fall is how you get in. The other ways in send weekday walkers toward two preserves where Steep Rock and its contractors spent the past year rebuilding trail.
The state calendar running alongside the preserves
Connecticut's 2026 deer seasons cover the private and state land around Washington through the end of the year. The CT DEEP deer hunting page was last updated October 29, 2026. It lists these dates for this stretch of the year:
- Through Saturday, November 14: Junior Deer Hunter Training Days, when junior hunters with firearms deer permits may be hunting with firearms. On state land, the Sunday in that window is excluded.
- November 18 to December 8: private land shotgun, rifle and revolver season, plus the state land no-lottery shotgun season.
- December 9 to December 22: muzzleloader season on state land. On private land it runs through December 31.
- September 15 to December 31: archery season on private land in every zone.
Hunting hours run from half an hour before sunrise until sunset. Bowhunters must wear 400 square inches of fluorescent orange from November 18 through December 31. They may take it off while in a tree stand at least 10 feet off the ground.
Sunday has its own rule. DEEP allows deer hunting on Sundays "on private land only," using legal bowhunting equipment, and it bars Sunday hunting within 40 yards of blazed public trails. The printed 2026 guide gave that distance as 40 feet. DEEP's website says 40 feet was a mistake and 40 yards is correct. That's a 120-foot buffer rather than a 40-foot one, and anyone holding the paper copy should know about the correction. DEEP's hunting laws and regulations page has the full rules.
What the preserve rules say, and what's different this fall
Steep Rock Association's Steep Rock Preserve, Hidden Valley Preserve and Macricostas Preserve each list the same line among their posted rules: "No hunting."
| Preserve | Address | Posted rule | What's different in fall 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Macricostas Preserve | 124 Christian Street, New Preston | No hunting; open sunrise to sunset, daily | Main lot closed weekdays, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., during construction |
| Hidden Valley Preserve | 120 Bee Brook Road | No hunting | New 0.5-mile Bronson Fields Connector Trail |
| Steep Rock Preserve | 2 Tunnel Road | No hunting; open sunrise to sunset, daily | Rerouted Centennial Loop and reopened summit |
The rule is the same at all three. The rest of the table is what's new this year.
Why the Macricostas lot is closed on weekdays
The construction at Macricostas is the Edward and Kirsten Peckerman Stewardship Center. Steep Rock's September newsletter reported that ground was broken on August 25. It's part of the association's Center for Conservation. Steep Rock describes it as a $3 million project serving conservation, recreation, education, food insecurity and access. Steep Rock's Macricostas Master Plan Committee is leading construction, Reese Owens Architects designed it and West Mountain Builders is building it. The site sits beside Steep Rock's office and Judea Garden. The garden began in spring 2009 to grow fresh produce for community members with limited financial resources.
The main lot closes Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., for as long as construction is underway, and it should be open evenings and weekends. On a weekday, the closure map gives these options, in order:
- The ancillary lot on Route 202, just east of Christian Street. It leads straight to the southeast corner of the hayfield.
- 116 Christian Street, which has limited parking and signs pointing hikers to the Meeker Trail access point.
- Another preserve. If those lots are full, the map suggests Hidden Valley at 120 Bee Brook Road or Steep Rock at 2 Tunnel Road.
The first two options keep you on Macricostas's flat ground. From the old main lot, the Yellow Circle Trail reaches the Meeker Swamp viewing platform in 0.77 mile of level walking. Meeker Swamp is a calcareous wetland covering more than 300 acres, and it sits over one of Washington's largest aquifers. The steep part of Macricostas is the climb to Waramaug's Rock. It's 1.69 miles one way to a 1,250-foot overlook of Lake Waramaug, and Steep Rock calls it "perhaps the most physically challenging hike in any of the preserves."
Where the other lots lead
The two preserves on the map's fallback list are where Steep Rock has done the most trail work over the past year.
Hidden Valley's new connector
Steep Rock staff, interns and volunteers spent the summer building the 0.5-mile Bronson Fields Connector Trail. It starts at the northwest section of the Bronson Fields Trail and links the Bronson Fields Loop to the Half Mile Gallop, which adds more loop options. The trail has stone steps, steppingstones and a wooden footbridge. Apart from the decking and screws, the footbridge was built from a red oak felled and milled with a chainsaw on site. A historic foundation stands next to the trail.
The preserve's best-known crossing is the Thoreau footbridge over the Shepaug River, a 134-foot cable-stayed mass-timber suspension bridge. With the new connector, Hidden Valley offers more loop options than it did a year ago.
Steep Rock's rebuilt Centennial Loop
At 2 Tunnel Road, the trail once called the Steep Rock Loop has been renamed the Centennial Loop. It's a 4-mile route through old hemlock forest, along the Shepaug River and up to the Steep Rock Summit. Both sections leading to the summit had eroded, with exposed roots and unstable gravel. Between November 2025 and April 2026, Tahawus Trails LLC installed 78 stone steps wherever the grade passed 10 percent. The crew also dug 3 swales, built 33 drains and moved 900 feet of trail onto gentler grades. Steep Rock says the trail is now open. Riders should know that horses have to use the fords to reach the summit. The association's July newsletter reported that the Steep Rock Summit reopened on Wednesday, July 8, after drainage, stone-step and reroute work.
That means anyone who used to start weekday walks at Christian Street and switches to Tunnel Road this November will be on a loop that's been rebuilt since last winter. Last November, crews were just starting work on it.
Evenings, weekends and the 5 p.m. reopening
The Macricostas closure ends at 5 p.m. on weekdays, and the main lot is expected to be open on weekends. The preserve itself is open from sunrise to sunset every day. In practice, a weekday visit through the main entrance is limited to the hours left between the lot reopening and sunset.
Sundays are also when the state's private-land rules are tightest near marked paths. Deer hunting is limited to bowhunting equipment and can't happen within 40 yards of a blazed public trail. This post covers the rules as general information only, not legal advice. Landowners and hunters should confirm their own situation with CT DEEP or a qualified professional.
Steep Rock posts its rules, parking notices and trail updates on each preserve page. It also takes trail condition reports through its report trail conditions page. The Macricostas Preserve page is where a change to the weekday parking schedule would appear.
If you own land near one of Steep Rock's preserves, or you're thinking about how trail access figures into a Washington property's value, we're glad to talk it through over coffee. The team at E.J. Murphy Realty has worked these towns for three generations, and we'll start with a free home valuation from our Litchfield experts.
