Litchfield, which was recently highlighted by Condé Nast Traveler as one of the best places to go in the U.S. in 2025, is a four-season destination. Outdoor adventures like ice skating, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and hiking make winters magical, and enhancing frozen landscape excursions with indoor warmups completes the Litchfield experience. Here’s the scoop on what to do and where to do it.
Ice Skating
We see folks who own lakeside cottages ice skating on Bantam Lake, and others skating on the lake adjacent to the parking area at the Point Folly Family Campground on North Shore Road, but the safest and most accessible option is the public skating rink behind the Litchfield Town Hall (74 West St.), which is open for the season and attracts hockey players, casual skaters, and even puppies. Guests can park behind town hall and the rink is just behind the parking lot.
Recommended Winter Walks and Hikes
We love to walk/hike snow covered trails, especially during snow showers or after snowstorms – making sure the roads to and from hikes are safe to travel. The Litchfield landscape is magical and especially beautiful in the snow, and the serenity is soothing.
Here are some of our favorite places to walk/hike in the snow in Litchfield.
The Lake Trail at The White Memorial Conservation Center, the Pine Island trails, and the trails at Five Ponds. Trail map: https://whitememorialcc.org/…/WMF-Property-Map-March-28…
The Upper Bantam River Preserve of the Litchfield Land Trust. Trail map: https://litchfieldlandtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Upper-Bantam-Preserve-kiosk-Trail-Map-2019.pdf
The Litchfield Community Greenway. Info and trail map: https://litchfieldcommunitygreenway.org/
Topsmead State Forest. Info and trail map courtesy of Friends of Topsmead State Forest: friendsoftopsmead.org/
The Boyd Woods Sanctuary of the Litchfield Hills Audubon Society LHAS. Info and trail map: lhasct.org/
Before and/or after your snow hike, seek out the terrific coffee, scratch baked goods, breakfast, or lunch to be found in town. Connect with options here.
Snowshoeing, Cross-Country Skiing & Sledding
The White Memorial Foundation, anchored by the White Memorial Conservation Center, oversees 4,000 acres of nature preserves with 40 miles of trails in Litchfield and Morris – and many of the trails are suitable for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Head to the trail maps page to get started.
80 Whitehall Rd. | (860) 567-0857 | whitememorialcc.org
Topsmead State Forest, once the summer home of Miss Edith Morton Chase, spans 510 acres and is open from dawn to dusk year-round for passive recreation that includes cross-country skiing, as well as sledding and snowshoeing. See a park map on the state’s Topsmead website, or consult the Visitor Info section of the Friends of Topsmead website.
Buell Rd. | (860) 567-5694 | friendsoftopsmead.org
The Litchfield Community Greenway, whose route overlays White Memorial trails in stretches, is wide, flat, and perfect cross-country skiing, and suitable for snowshoeing too. The website will show you the route and where to park.
Ice Fishing: Drop a Line or Pause to Watch
Bantam Lake, the largest natural lake in Connecticut, is known for pike
and largemouth and smallmouth bass – and it’s an ice fishing hotspot with several points of public access in the winter. These include the Morris Town Beach on East Shore Road, the state boat launch just off Route 209, the White Memorial Point Folly campground, and Litchfield Town Beach, both along and off North Shore Road.
There’s an ice fishing contest taking place at the moment; see the flier photo for details.
(Anyone planning to use Litchfield Town Beach needs to get an access permit from the town. Call Park & Rec at (860) 567-7569 or email [email protected].) The White Memorial trail map of the entire property is the best resource for showing all those access points.
Mt. Tom Pond is located off Route 202 at the edge of Litchfield and it’s a small but popular spot for ice fishing. There’s a long access road to the park, leading to a boat launch and beach area that both provide easy access to the ice.
20 Mt Tom Rd. | Litchfield/Morris/Washington | MtTomwebsite
Watch the Ice Boating on Bantam Lake
Connecticut Ice Yacht Club members have made the Point Folly Marina and Boat Launch on Bantam Lake at The White Memorial Conservation Center their winter home base for roughly 50 years.
When the ice freezes thick enough for sailing, club members will be flying across the surface on weekends, and some weekdays too. This winter, the ice sailing got underway in mid-January and it’s a treat to watch the iceboats glide almost silently across the frozen surface of the lake.
Park at the entrance to the White Memorial Point Folly campground, or at the camp store, both on North Shore Road, to watch the action on the ice.
Skiing & Snowboarding
Mohawk Mountain isn’t in Litchfield, but it’s only 15 minutes away in Cornwall and offers 26 trails that range from winding beginner and intermediate trails to steep and challenging black diamond trails on 112 skiable acres served by five triple lifts and three conveyor carpets. The summit elevation is 1,600 feet, snowmaking takes place all season long, and Mohawk offers both night skiing and snow tubing.
46 Great Hollow Rd. | Cornwall | (860) 672-6100 | mohawkmtn.com
Where and How to Warm Up Indoors
Before or after our outdoor adventures – or both – we love to enjoy coffee, tea, or a specialty latte with scratch baked goods, and we get to do that in different places on different days because Litchfield is blessed with lots of coffee shops and bakeries. See our blog post “Our Favorite Cups of Coffee…and More” to connect.
Lunch and dinner are also the perfect winter warmup, of course, and thanks to some recent restaurant openings, the options are greater and tastier than ever. The new Lost Fox Inn has fireside dining, the restaurant in the new The Abner Hotel is located in a former courtroom, and in Bantam the new La Catrina has added spice to the landscape. Meanwhile, Materia Ristorante, Arethusa al tavolo, At the Corner, West Street Grill, Marketplace Tavern, The Village Restaurant and others have scooped up lots of top restaurant awards in recent years. Head to our dining page to connect with all the options.
Other warmups include shopping and gallery hopping. Litchfield is filled with sophisticated hometown shops, and you can find information on all of them in our shopping section – and when it comes to browsing and buying, seek out the FCC Bookstore, tucked away in the basement of the First Congregational Church. It’s open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m.
In terms of gallery hopping, Alofft Gallery, Jennifer Terzian Gallery, and the gallery at Oliver Wolcott Library are within easy walking distance of each other in the center of town (Litchfield Historical Society reopens in the spring), Litchfield Auctions is on the way to Bantam, amArtHouse is in Bantam, and the gallery at Wisdom House is a hidden gem in East Litchfield.
And here’s a nightcap to the winter warmups: Visit Litchfield Distillery for a complimentary tour and sample tastings of the award-winning spirits, arranged by reservation on the website. (Walk-ins are also welcomed if a timeslot isn’t full.) Tours are offered on the hour (Mon-Sun) beginning at 11 a.m. The last tour begins at 4 p.m. (except Sunday when the last tour begins at 3 p.m.). See the website for details and the link to reserve. For questions, call 860-361-6503. Visit the Facebook page for announcements and updates.