Some rich people are only devoted to acquiring more wealth and keeping a safe distance from those they consider lower-class.

Well-to-do patent lawyer George Dudley Seymour was not that type of tycoon. True, his friends included President William Howard Taft, Pennsylvania Gov. Gifford Pinchot and celebrated portrait artist John Singer Sargent, but Seymour was more of a progressive egalitarian than pompous aristocrat. He used his wealth to promote a passion for land preservation and public access.

Not long ago, friends and I spent a glorious morning hiking on trails overlooking the Connecticut River at George Dudley Seymour State Park in Haddam and adjoining Hurd State Park in East Hampton. The state purchased both parks with money from a foundation established by Seymour.

From the late-19th through mid-20th centuries, his foundation also helped the state buy six other properties for public recreation and conservation. These include Beaver Brook State Park in North Windham, Becket State Park in East Hampton, Millers Pond State Park in Durham and Haddam, Nathan Hale State Forest in Coventry and Andover, Platt Hill State Park Scenic Reserve in Winsted, and Stoddard Hill State Park in Gales Ferry. These add up to some 4,000 acres — more than half the size of New London.

The cheerful call of a Louisiana waterthrush greeted Sharon and Carl Astor, Maggie Jones, Mary Sommer and me when we began our outing at the entrance to Seymour State Park, a paved walkway off Clarkhurst Road.

The 222-acre park had been the estate of George, Henry and Thomas Clark, who from the late 1880s and early 1900 tested farm equipment that had been built at their Clark Cutaway Harrow Company in nearby Higganum.

In 1921, Henry Clark's daughter inherited the property, and after having had little luck trying to develop a golf course and other recreational facilities, sold it to Marion Guthrie in 1942. Eighteen years later, using foundation funds, the state bought the land from Guthrie and created George Dudley Seymour State Park.

While our group strolled through the park, Maggie pointed out a variety of other early-spring birds: field sparrows, bluebirds, osprey, redwings, tree swallows and great blue herons. Working out way north toward Hurd State Park, cascading white flowers of shadbush enhanced the view.

We also came upon an expansive swath of hepatica, a delicate, pale-lavender wildflower with star-shaped blossoms.

"This is one of the most spectacular patches I've ever seen!" Maggie exclaimed.

While bushwhacking for a short stretch — the path between Seymour and Hurd parks wasn't clear — we came upon an enormous, cleft boulder.

"This must be Split Rock," I announced, but Maggie checked her map and disagreed.

"It's in the wrong place," she said.

No matter — it was fantastic, and we stopped to take pictures.

After scrambling off-trail, up (and around) a steep ledge, we followed a gravel path along a powerline, serenaded by the trilling of pine warblers and distant cry of a red-shoulder hawk. Eventually, we veered onto a marked trail at Hurd State Park.

Sharon and Carl needed to leave early, so Maggie, Mary and I accompanied them on a road walk for a mile to their car at the entrance to Seymour Park, and then drove back to explore more of Hurd State Park, named for the Hurd Family that moved from Massachusetts to Middle Haddam in 1710.

After centuries of farming and mining for feldspar, flint and mica on the property, the state, with Seymour's support, bought 150 acres in 1914 for a riverfront park. A lawsuit by a mining company almost blocked the state from acquiring additional park property, but a 1935 court ruling allowed Hurd to expand to its present size, 991 acres.

George Dudley Seymour would be pleased. Born in Berlin in 1859, he practiced law in Washington, D.C. and New Haven, where he became a leader in the national City Beautiful movement　that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s.

Seymour also was a historian who extensively researched the life of patriot Nathan Hale. He bought and restored the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry, and then donated it to the Antiquarian & Landmarks Society, and also donated a bronze statue of Hale that now stands outside the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters in Washington.

A highlight our visit to Hurd State Park was a 2.7- mile hike on a loop trail that began near the park entrance off Hurd Park Road, descended steeply to the east bank of the Connecticut River and returned via a more gradual path through corridors of evergreens and mountain laurel.

Hoping to view the elusive Split Rock, we also hiked on separate path leading to spectacular overlook. Turns out that Split Rock is not a single boulder cut in half, but a large crack in a cliff.

This cleft may be impressive, but I like the split rock we came upon in the woods better.

Information:

https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/State-Parks/Parks/George-Dudley-Seymour-State-Park

https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/State-Parks/Parks/Hurd-State-Park