The A to Z of CT State Parks

Haddam Meadows State Park

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:06:48 -0400

We were pretty sure when we looked up Haddam Meadows on the map, that we were in for a pretty short, and rather dull time. There’s no map on the DEP website, which is never a good sign. The park occupies a floodplain alongside the Connecticut River, and was used historically for growing hay and animal pasture. Once The Connecticut River Valley was industrialised it became an excellent spot for transfer of goods, animals and materials onto ships from the less exotic New York City to the West Indies. The park is on the west bank of the river, in perfect position for the deep shipping channel. Today you can see the remnants of these functions in the rather less exciting Higganum transfer station next door, and the small but very popular boat launches maintained in the park. The state obtained the park as a gift in 1944, and has created fishing areas, and playing fields that were full of Little League games, the day we arrived. While a dip in the river may seem inviting on a warm summer’s day, the currents in this region are strong and the urge to dive in should be resisted.

It was pretty late on a warm but blustery Saturday afternoon, and in all honesty I think we expected to be back in the car within ten minutes of leaving it. But Haddam Meadows hides a surprising amount of interesting habitats for wildlife, and a Tardis like trail system along it’s length, that may actually keep you busy for some time. We headed from the middle parking lot along the trail by the shore, where the thickets of spiky plants were just starting to form buds after the winter.

The damage to the shoreline from our recent major storms could also be observed in quite a few locations. Once you pass the boat launch, the trail bends into the woods and you’re surrounded by swampy pools.

These pools are the remnants of flood water, in combination with the high spring water table, and they bring with them piles of nutrients and small animal life. The evening we arrived these pools were brimming with peepers, which I didn’t manage to spot, despite the crystal clear surface of the water.

A little further on the trail takes a sharp bend around a rather grotty looking human created inlet from the river. As we were walking past the surface of the water was disturbed, and when we looked closer, a small group of rather large fish was hanging out in the shade down there. No idea what they were, they had a very square nose and were over a foot long, and looked like it might be swarming time. That was pretty awesome. At the far south end the trail turns into a vehicle road popular with fishermen, and we turned around to retrace our steps.

In addition to the amphibious noise creators and the fish, this park is also supposed to be awesome for birdwatching (as it much of the Connecticut Riverfront). I was certainly pleasantly surprised by the place.

Haddam Island State Park

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:36:33 -0400

There it is, hiding in the shadows. But we still can’t get to it, because it’s in the middle of the Connecticut River. One day we will acquire flotation based transport and revisit all these waterlogged Parks we’re skipping.

Gillette Castle State Park

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 22:27:14 -0400

I’m just going to say it outright. Gillette Castle is completely mental. It’s an absolute monstrosity of a mansion. Whoever describes this as a “medieval” style castle lifted from the banks of the Rhine must have been taking some serious LSD at the time. Commissioned by William Hooker Gillette, a turn of the century actor most famous for giving Sherlock Holmes his deerstalker hat and “Elementary, my Dear Watson,” it took 5 years to build entirely from local stone. The frame is made from steel, and the exterior can be described as, well, a total mess.

I think it’s supposed to look dated, but it looks like a five year old stuck some rocks in playdough and then his dad did a half assed job of trying to straighten it up. The balconies are an attempt to be ornate, perhaps a little mediterranean, but they’re also ham fisted and clunky. The north east side of the mansion is extremely dark, with teeny tiny windows that looked that they’ve imprisoned at least a couple of mad women in the attic. It’s a little bit gothic, but a really low budget eastern european version of Dracula as opposed to a shiny Hollywood version.

Gillette was known as a great eccentric. On the Connecticut Riverboat tours they tell of the elaborate ruses he would perform on guests - making them take his personal train up to the estate from the car park to arrive at Grand Central Station.

Each door inside is closed by an elaborate, hand crafted and unique latch system. He picked a beautiful spot to build his castle, and I admire his use of local materials. But I just don’t know what was going through the architects head at the time. When Gillette died he left a clause in his will prohibiting the purchase of the castle by any “blithering sap-head who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded” (thanks Wikipedia), and so the Governor took control, changing the name of the property from “The Seventh Sister” to “Gillette Castle,” and creating a new State Park.

We’ll be back after Memorial Day when the house and Visitor Centre are open for tours, as the few photos I’ve seen suggest that the interior is a little more easy on the eye than the exterior. The place is definitely worth a visit, if just to marvel at the sheer cheek of it. There’s trails and things aswell but really, you don’t come to a place like this for a good hike. And don’t worry - if you promise to have fewer than 50 guests, you can get married here too. Bonkers, awesome and awful all at the same time.

George Dudley Seymour State Park

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:03:00 -0400

It’s a bit weird that there are two State Parks named after men called George, but of the two, George Dudley Seymour was definitely the most auspicious, at least where State Parks are concerned. This George worked as a patent attorney in New Haven in the late 1800s, and used his patenting wiles to acquire numerous bodies of land in Eastern CT for the State to preserve, including the awesome Bigelow Hollow. He was therefore a pretty big thinker in this field, and when the state finally acquired this parcel of land in 1960, naming it after him was a no brainer. Despite his standing in State Park History, this is a rather undeveloped park. The DEP site speaks of interpretive panels in meadows, but we managed to miss all of these. The trails are unblazed, and there’s not even the familiar brown sign to welcome you to the car park. In fact, there’s a dodgy looking blocked up bridge over a stream and a whole bunch of private signs, so the whole thing feels a little seedy at the start. After checking we were in the right place about twelve times whilst waving our phones like lunatics to get phone reception for google maps (Dad would have despaired), we finally set off across the bridge and took the tarmac road off to the left, towards the Meadows.

After 15-20 minutes of roadway through pretty standard woodland (again looking lovely in the bright white snow):

…you come to a field which looked like it used to house a car park before the bridge got too dodgy. We took the trail off to the right, which leads you to the flood plain of the Connecticut River via some marshland which looks like excellent birdwatching territory.

Where the trail joins the flood plain lies the remains of the Clarkhurst Estate, a mansion and machinery testing station for the family cider press manufacturing business which ran until the early 1900s. This large estate was impossible to maintain for the single owner who took it on afterwards, and fell into disrepair. There’s now a few stone foundations and steps, but not much else. Apparently this is covered on the interpretative panels that we never found.

From here, things went a bit south for our little trip. We should have taken the flood plain (which has native grasses from the 1600s and bald eagle sighting), but instead we tried to take the unmarked trail to the north to do a loop through Hurd State Park. We quickly lost the trail in the snow and ended up hiking across a couple of quite steep gullies in highly unsuitable footwear, then bashing through some pretty serious mountain laurel aiming to hit the power line that marks the northern edge of this park. We managed eventually but it was a little strenuous, so we stuck to the sunshine under the power lines until the trail back to the car park.

In the snow this was not clear, but our trail based scooby senses picked up a slight dip in the snow which rapidly turned into a pretty good sized track. All in all, more of an adventure than we had anticipated, but we feel like George Dudley Seymour would have approved.

In conclusion, the DEP really needs to commission some better maps, Contours would have massively helped in the absence of trail blazes. Not likely in these sequestered times, I presume.

George C. Waldo State Park

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:49:10 -0400

There’s two reasons we’ve been putting off visiting this state park. The first is access, having been significantly snowed out of the woods for the last month now here in CT. We’re not the most graceful cross country skiers and snow shoes always seemed a bit pointless, so trudging through two feet of wet stuff was not appealing. The second reason is emotional, as to get there we would have to drive through Sandy Hook for the first time since December. I don’t wish to dwell on the events of late last year, but thinking of them still, and likely always will strike me cold. It’s barely possible to imagine a more idyllic location with cute houses, plenty of open forests, and friendly faces. As we drove through today, sunlight reflecting off the snowy gardens, many mailboxes and welcome signs held purple balloons to remember Dylan Hockley, who would have been 6 a couple of days ago. A beautiful and poignant reminder of an event of the kind I hope I never hear of again. Feeling subdued, we carried on through the town to park up by George C Waldo State Park on Purchase Brook Road, and stomped off down the main track.

There’s not much in the way of trails to be found here, a gravel track down to the edge of Lake Lillinonah and a mountain biker created winding trail, around the outskirts of park territory. As these trails usually are it’s winding and undulating, but adds significantly to the park as it means you can do a looped visit.

The pretty average forest looked spectacular with snow on the ground and stupendously bright sunlight. Stone walls are littered somewhat randomly across the property, and there’s a few hills with stony outcrops throughout.

The real highlight of the visit is the shore of Lake Lillinonah, a beautifully calm spot with views for a couple of miles. The Lake looks a little more like a wide river, and it’s actually man made, dammed by the Shepaug dam in the 1950s.

Today the Shepaug dam is a great place for bald eagle watching in the winter until mid March, though the skies were quiet the day we visited. Unfortunately, the dam is also the first real squeeze point for the river, and in the summer the lake tends to turn a sickly looking green. These algal blooms likely result in an accumulation of phosphorus from sewage plants in Danbury, and the DEP are trying to figure out ways to get round this habitat damaging event. It’s a real shame, as in summertime this would make a great picnic spot, though it does look like you might have to fight the local teenagers for the prime spot.

We returned along the bike trail, cutting corner when we could see the orange blazes turn back on each other, and it looks like a fun trail for novice mountain bikers, plenty of direction changes and nothing too technical. There’s nothing particularly spectacular to see, but the woods are pleasant and we enjoyed the warm breeze wafting through the trees. We lost the tracks a few times, losing them completely around quarter of a mile from the end, and stomped through the woods back to the main gravel trail.

So who was George C. Waldo, and why is there a park named after him? Wikipedia tells me that George was a lawyer in the late 1800s who practised in New York but went to school and was buried in Scotland, CT. Not really sure why that warrants a state park, but it’s a lovely parcel of land and I’m glad it was preserved.

Gay City State Park

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:59:15 -0500

It’s a few weeks since CT A to Z visited Gay City State Park. Real life got in the way of the write up until today, when I find myself with a few spare hours having been sent home pre Winter Storm Nemo. The storm hasn’t really revved up yet, but we already have a couple of inches of powdery stuff. In fact, it’s pretty similar ground conditions to our Gay City visit.

Gay City used to be the sight of a small settlement, “Factory Hollow”, begun in 1796 that grew to around 25 families, many of whom bore the name Gay. They were an insular bunch of devout MOthodists, and not much inclined to mix with outsiders. Their trade mainly focussed around the building and running of a sawmill. A woollen mill followed, which saw moderate success until trade restrictions imposed by the British preceeding the War of 1812 slowly killed it off. Business finally ended in 1830 when the mill burned down. The families of some of the original settlers, the Sumners, tried to revive the settlement and prevent the flood of people back to urban industry with the construction of a paper mill, but were left without staff when the young men went off to fight the Civil War. Rumours have it that the town also had a major alcohol problem, and When this mill burned down in 1879, the fate of the town was sealed. Gay City became a State Park in 1944. Few traces of the town remain, there’s a mill race just to the west of the bathing pond and a small graveyard by the entrance.

We only scratched the surface of the activities available at Gay City. Along with some excellent hiking in some of the clearest woods you’ll see in Connecticut, there is a great single track bike loop in the south west corner, and more loops are appearing in the south east corner. The CT arm of the New England Orienteering Club hold meets there once a year, and if you’ve recently accepted God into your life, a mass baptism is held in the lake there every Fall. It’s also very popular with believers in the supernatural, although unfortunately I forgot the website address of the guy there who wanted to show me his orb photos this summer. As you can see, it really does attract all sorts!

Dropping in to Gay City on a crystal clear, icy cold weekend however, you have to park in the winter lot, right by the 85 between Bolton and Hebron. It’s a short walk from here to the main attraction of the park, a lake with bathing in the summer months, and a lovely picnic spot. Today though we chose to stick to the outer loop trail, a red blazed trail of around 4 miles that hugs the circumference of the Park.

It’s not the most exciting of trails unless you’re a woodland junkie like me, and in the depths of winter it’s almost eerily quiet, with only occasional signs of life.

Many of the main thoroughfares had frozen into thick ice sheets, which were great for sliding downhill on your bum.

As always, there’s some hefty glacial erratic boulders, and the partially frozen streams looked fantastic as the ice sheets splintered above them.

But you don’t really go to Gay City for the sights, you go for the recreation. There’s a ton to do there, whether you’re a young family, a hardcore biker, or a jogger eager to get some trail action.

Gardner Lake State Park

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 23:35:57 -0500

It was a bit of a coup for the State to get their hands on some waterfront property near the town of Salem, in the form of a small strip of land abutting the southwestern edge of Gardner Lake. The problem is, it’s such a small bit, and the neighbours seem so desperate to keep you out, that the whole thing is a bit of an eyesore. I’m sure that on a summer’s day, when you can launch your boat and move out on the water, it’s a lovely spot (although google suggests it may be rather busy on the best days, and perhaps a bit of a mess). But on a harsh winter’s afternoon, just as the light is fading, the thing that strikes you most about the park is this…

…and this…

Which is a bit of a shame really. The lake is natural, but the depth has been augmented a little by damming. The Gardner family used to own a large amount of the land in the area, but these days it’s parcelled up into lots of tiny private beach fronts and boat launches. Squeezed in between is the state park, with since 2008 has had hard standing parking for 54 vehicles and a concreted launch.

Somewhere in the lake there’s a sunken house, after a silly chap in the late 1800s tried to pull it across the ice to move the hard way. As one might have envisaged, it got a bit stuck, and was used by the locals for fishing and playing for quite a few years. Had he tried this winter things would have been over before they begun, with the ice sheets occupying the only the edges, and breaking up into tiny sheets already. So after a quick game of ice boules (R. won), we headed home. We were a little perturbed whilst we were there at the number of cars parking up by the water, sitting for a few minutes, then driving off again. Could it also be a local cruising spot?! We shall return in the summer, when the place is more populous, hopefully with seafaring equipment, to investigate the State’s smallest State Park, Minnie Island.

Fort Trumbull State Park

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:08:47 -0500

The second of today’s Forts is more modern, but saw no battle action since it was built. Finished in 1852 it’s an enormous tombstone of a building, impenetrable looking and lacking in any ornate detail. The architecture is supposed to echo an Egyptian style, which it certainly achieves in grandeur alone.

The Fort forms part of the Third System of Defence, built to protect the vulnerable northeastern coastland from attack by sea. Once WWII came along and the major threat switched to the air, the Fort has taken on a few roles, many of them research based for the Navy and Coastguard, including the rather exciting sounding Magnetic Silencing Facility, which is still on the seafront today. This facility plays a vital role in detecting the size of the magnetic fields of ships in the harbour, ensuring they are small enough to avoid drawing magnetic mines in combat situations.

Again, there’s a museum at the site, but it’s only open in the summer, so we were left to explore with the help of the information boards. Next to the car park there’s the Officers Quarters and some barracks, and a route round the back of the fort itself.

The gates into the main fortifications are well barred,

but you can see some of the northern battery…

and a tiny store house built to house 50 men in time of combat.

If you wander round the back from there you face the river front, and you can walk down to a pier and stroll along the sea front.

The whole place is more imposing than Griswold but a little less interesting - all the exciting bits to explore are locked away. On the southern battery there’s some remaining cannons to investigate, and the walk must be very pleasant in the right kind of weather. We may be back in summer!

Fort Griswold State Park

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:47:00 -0500

Sunday brought a double whammy of military history (actually a triple, as we combined the parks with the Submarine Force Museum in Groton - definitely worth a visit) to CT A to Z, with a couple of Forts alongside the mouth of the Thames River. The mouth at New London is seriously deep for an outlet, making New London a critical location for trade and defence on the northeastern coast. Possession of New London was an enormous tactical advantage in the heady days of sea faring, and to this day still houses an outpost of the US Navy. When we visited, the foul foggy conditions of the previous day continued continued, so we were unable to fully appreciate the visual advantages these two locations provided in the defence of this key location. A grand day out was enjoyed nonetheless.

Fort Griswold is the older of the two locations, to be found on the Eastern Coast of the Thames River. This one saw some real action in 1781 during the Revolutionary War, when the turncoat Benedict Arnold led the British on a dual pronged assault of the river mouth. The attack was revenge for the seizure of an enormous amount of taxes for King George by the Confederacy from the boat Hannah earlier in the year. The outpost on the Western side was taken quickly, but Fort Griswold enjoyed a steeper aspect and proved a slightly more difficult nut to crack. The battle ended after a moment of confusion, when a flag was knocked down and the British believed that the Privateers had surrendered. When they found more retaliation as they advanced further towards the Fort, hackles were raised and the defending Privateers were massacred, resulting a large defeat. New London was sacked and burned, and civil buildings in Groton were destroyed. A way more detailed version of this story can be found here.

There’s a small Museum on site but it’s only open during the summer months, so we just got to explore the fort itself. You can see the fortifications well, some of the only remaining revolutionary earthworks in New England. There’s a cool little passage through the walls,

and a dugout trail from the top fortifications…

down to the lower battery, which would have housed serious cannons.

There’s a shot furnace where cannon balls were heated to an extreme temperature so that they’d set fire to attacking wooden ships, and a reinforced powder magazine where all the ammo was stored.

It’s a really cool little site with plenty to investigate, and I imagine on a better day, pretty good views of the river too. Well worth a visit.

Farmington Canal State Park Trail

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:16:26 -0500

Well, it’s been a while! CT A to Z spent the last month or so frantically beavering in the lab, before heading back to the homeland for a while. When we returned to CT things were decidedly British, foggy and damp, with icy patches all over, so it was with trepidation that I headed out on the Farmington Canal Trail to test out my exciting new road bike in a traffic free situation.

The Farmington Canal is a wonderful resource for the New Haven Community. In the summer its packed full of commuters, dog walkers, Chinese power walkers and tiny children wobbling around on bikes. The Canal was first active in the late 1820s, part of the mega canal building craze that gave birth to the massive Erie Canal in New York State and provided a means of transport to burgeoning industry, linking New Haven on the coast with Northampton all the way up in Massachusetts. It wasn’t the speediest form of transport, boats being drawn by mules led by humans, and with unpredictable patches drying up in hot summers, but did allow for relatively easy movement of heavy loads. Within only 20 years though, the canal had been supplanted by the faster rail industry, and a track was even built right on this site, which was active until the 1980s.

Strictly these days the State Park bit only goes from Todd Street in Hamden north to Cheshire. Annoyingly, by the time I got to this bit it was pretty badly iced over, and so I actually didn’t make it.

The photos therefore, are all from further south. The trail is pretty innocuous, mostly not in the most spectacular of locations. It runs behind lots of small businesses, cuts through patches of woodland and provides a quiet route as an alternative to the bustling Whitney Avenue.

There’s a couple of dramatic cuttings where it heads through little hillsides, but it’s mostly a well surfaced, safe place for recreation of all kinds.

For this, it’s a wonderful resource, and well used. On a good day you can see the head of Sleeping Giant, and stop at the amazing Wentworth’s ice cream (but not on a Sunday).

But what struck me on this distinctly dull day was how this trail quietly tells of Connecticuts more modern history. There are many stark reminders of the financial history of the past few years, with warehouses turned into gyms (including the awesome True Athletics) and Zumba Centres, and “lifestyle centres” turned to wasteland.

When the sun comes out again, I hope to get up to Cheshire and see the restored locks that can be found there, and perhaps explore some of the sections further north (not yet joined up) that form the rest of the Greenway.

Farm River State Park

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 21:36:54 -0500

First off the bat, I’m really not sure that Farm River comes before Farmington. But the DEP website reckons it does, and who am I to argue?

After an exciting ten days where CT weathered not only a hurricane come super storm, but also a 7 inches of snow dumping Nor’Easter, CT A to Z was able to get back on track with the arrival of the Thanksgiving break. Worried that this one would be too easy, based in East Haven just down the road, we managed to make it more difficult by driving straight past the car park twice. There’s a house right next to the small car park with a number of exciting features in the garden, including a five foot high stone walrus, which rather takes the attention away. Don’t try and park on the blocked off track or go down Brown Road, both lead to dead ends and the former will lead to a nice scratched bottom of car. The car park is on Short Beach Road, just before you hit the woods themselves. You take the only trail out of the car park, down the hill through the laurel, and towards the shore.

Part of this trail is included in the future 25 mile long Shoreline Greenway Trail, planned to extend from Lighthouse Point to Hammonassett Beach and there’s already some subtle signage up. This section doesn’t connect to any of the others yet, and it looks like it may be some time before that happens.

Farm River is a small State Park managed privately for the State by Quinnipiac University. This move has caused a little controversy as they now charge for permits to enter on the Mansfield Road/marina entrance, but there’s enough of a trail network from the Short Beach Road access point that you don’t need to bother with that nonsense. In the summer the boat launch and a large number of exciting nesting birds make the park quite a hotspot. But in the winter the place was all but deserted, including a strange super modern summer house that seems to be boarded up and left to rot, despite the signs of life surrounding it, like spooky piles of chopped wood and security cameras. It’s all a bit weird really (Actually, random message boards suggest it may have been a small cafe. Even weirder).

CT A to Z recommends avoiding this less exciting limb of the trails - on the DEP map the branch to the north with the fishing and binoculars symbol, but taking the limb that goes further to the south. If you’re here in nesting season (March to August) though, do take a peak in the marsh to the left of this branch, where an Osprey platform sits in the middle.

After heading over some beautiful rocky knolls surrounded by salt marshes there’s a little rocky promontory with a gorgeous view of the Sound and docks, with a large amount of carpet like flattened grass at the base, damaged by the storm surge of Sandy.

This lovely spot seems to have been left pretty much untouched by the wrath of Sandy, and there was no sign of another soul when we were there. It’s a very small but serene spot, tucked in between the luxury developments, and is ideal for a short escape after a day of Thanksgiving Excess.

Enders State Forest

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 19:25:20 -0400

Despite Enders State Forest taking up a rather large portion of land near Barkhamsted way up in the North-West corner, it’s another of these parks that is generally curiously absent from the internet. There’s no maps, nothing on the DEP site, and a few online reviews talking about waterfalls. So on a damp and grey midweek morning, I set off with my parents and a vague idea of where to park, hoping to find something of interest.

There’s only really one way out of the car park, which is on the south side of Route 219, despite the presence of multiple trails, they all pretty much converge on the large vehicle track on the far right hand side.

If you follow this trail down through typical CT style woodlands, you’ll start to hear the rushing of water and soon, looking carefully, you’ll notice a series of small side trails that lead tantalisingly towards the sounds.

The side trails are all a bit more gnarly, but if you don’t mind a little scramble and damp then they’re not a problem. There’s a few random drop offs nearby, so if you’re with kids you may want to keep them on a close rein. It’s a very short distance downhill to the falls, which are remarkably lovely. There’s three major falls, with a few minor ones interspersed along the way, formed as Enders Brook carves its way through a soft seam of rock towards Salmon Brook.

While you’re down there scramble about as much as is safe - some of the best views upstream don’t appear till you’re right next to the falls.

My favourite fall though, is one I’ve christened “the table,” where a perfectly still square pool on top cascades over an overhang, a perfect natural replica of those fancy swimming pools in holiday resorts where the edge just disappears.

My powers of description are really not sufficient for this place. It’s an absolute gem, incredibly beautiful, and was deserted except for a lonely photographer the day we were there. The falls, the surrounding woods, and the geology (awesome pothole)…

…means that Enders State Forest fits a lot of fun into a tiny area. I took a GPS track aiming to map the paths, but everything falls in such a small area that it’s kind of pointless. Still, if anyone’s interested in seeing it, leave a comment below.

Apologies also for the blurry photos - my camera’s not the best in bad light!

Eagle Landing State Park

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:51:08 -0400

Land next to the Connecticut River comes at a premium, whether you’re Mr Rich investment banker or the State itself. For this reason, the CT DEP are incredibly happy to have secured their very own portion of riverfront, right next to the East Haddam swingbridge, enabling access to the public. So many public in fact, that they decided to pretty much make the whole thing a car park. Yup people, that’s right. 16 acres of prime riverfront, at least 9 of which must be car park. There’s also a little bandstand and a couple of ramshackle piers, from which private companies run sightseeing tours in the summer and at weekends.

The real draw to Eagle Landing is in the name. In the winter Bald Eagles who have escaped harsher climes to the north, make this portion of the river their home - plenty of trees for perching in, space to inhabit and these days, even a ton of fish to eat. When we visited around a week before Sandy however, it was still too early, and a couple of errant Seagulls was about the best the park had to offer.

Luckily, just as we were leaving an alarm went off and the Swing Bridge opened, which meant we pretty much doubled our time there. Not the most exciting of Parks, but probably a good place to hang out with a picnic in the summer.

Dinosaur State Park

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 17:11:46 -0400

There’s not many State Parks in Connecticut that lead to full blown existential crises (other than the why do I live here and not in California kind?), but Dinosaur State Park manages this feat easily. Because what you’ll find here is not only magnificent an astonishing, but so mind blowing that it’s almost impossible to comprehend. As you take their invitation to Step into The Early Jurassic prepare to be surprised, not only by the timescales, but by the story of a Connecticut so very foreign to the one we inhabit currently.

The problem with all this talk about dinosaurs and ancient geology is that’s is so long ago, and so massive, that it’s just impossible to comprehend. Dinosaur State Park makes a couple of stabs at this, the first more successful than the latter. When you walk towards the Exhibition Centre, a space aged dome surrounded by highly manicured rolling lawns, there’s a timeline in the footpath, with every foot representing a large unit of time I can’t quite recall. This is awesome, and enables you to get a grip on just how recently humans arrived, and how long the CT of today has been in the making.

The second is in the welcome film “Step Into the Early Jurassic” which is a slightly cheesy introduction to the geology and timeline with an unsuccessful penny metaphor. Despite the worrying accent of the archaeologist, it’s an admirable attempt at an intro to what you’re about to see.

Which is this.

(Thanks official website for the pic)

That’s right kids. Actual preserved Dinosaur tracks. And tons of them! The whole location was made a State Park within a month after they were uncovered by a bulldozer in 1966 because they are, quite simply, immense After studying the size, nature and tracks of the location for years, the theory is that this was simply a route a ton of the animals passed through, likely within a short period of time, that had a fortuitous amount of the correct kind of mud and post track events to be preserved for millennia. There’s attempts at dioramas and models, but really, the tracks are the only thing to take in here. They’ve left bits of the excavated rock in place on the edges, so you can see how the tracks were under layers and layers of compressed rock. It really is something, and well worth a visit.

Once you step back outside into the sunlight, there’s a few miles of unspectacular trails, and aside from the prehistoric looking swamp…

…which is pretty awesome, there’s a small arboretum with specimens of ancient plants, some of which were just starting to turn colour as the nights get colder. For kids there’s track casting and mineral mining stations , and a bunch of educational programs.

But really, as an adult, you don’t need that stuff. Just go and look at those tracks and try to imagine the Taconic Range as high as the Himalayas, cracks in the valley spurting lava, great rivers and mud plains full of beasts as big as a bus. It’ll blow your mind, in the best kind of way.

Devil's Hopyard State Park

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 21:13:29 -0400

So, just why does the Devil’s Hopyard have such a menacing name? Did the devil try to leap across the river, catch his tail, and then get so hopping mad that his hooves burned big pot holes between the cascades of Chapman Falls? Was there a tenant farmer named Dibble, who owned a portion of land and raised hops, who through chinese whispers and a bit of a reputation became the Devil? No one actually seems to know, least of all the State of Connecticut, but the name appears to have stuck. Today it’s not the satanic links in the park that draw the visitors, but the small yet striking Campbell Falls and the gorgeous hemlock forests that surround it. Obtained by the State in the early twentieth century, the Falls had a previous life driving a mill wheel, though now the land has been completely reclaimed by nature and little trace remains.

Aside from the Falls there’s a few short trails at the Park. We’ve walked the orange trails before starting the A to Z, and while they were tranquil and scenic, they didn’t feel worthy of a re-walk. They’ve also suffered some fire damage over the past year, so I imagine they currently don’t look quite at their best. The overlook is alright, but the view is obviously bog standard CT, with rolling forested hills and a few turkey vultures in flight above. Today we took the red trail on the opposite side of the road that splits the park, and there were short sections that reminded us of Muir Woods in California.

The balmy temperature, the clear forest floors, the somewhat smaller trees were rather pleasant, and the small brooks flowing under the trail provided for some bridge based amusement.

The red trail is short, and after crossing the road, we continued along the red to the bend, past the cool rock with a shark fin;

and then freestyled it across the river to the orange trail on the opposite side.

Because if you go to Devil’s Hopyard, there’s simply one feature you must check out. It’s such remarkable geology that someone had to write it’s name on the rock next to it in case you missed it.

Seriously, the Devil’s Oven (presumably he needed to warm up after getting his tail wet) is a very small cave bedded into a decidedly more impressive rock face. It’s a bit of a steep jaunt up the hill, but the cliffs are pretty impressive even if the Oven is not. You head straight upwards from the marker post (which confusingly is only marked “Bridge” if you come from the south), and after about a minute of scrabbling, you’re there.

The orange trail back towards the car park and Covered Bridge is a little rocky, so not for very little or very old feet, and you’re quickly back at the car park having done a wee tour of the best bits of a very lovely park.

Lunch Recommendation: Station Place Cafe, Norfolk

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:45:58 -0400

Lunch Recommendation: Station Place Cafe, Norfolk:

Dennis Hill State Park

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:41:11 -0400

Dennis Hill is the smaller, lesser well known brother of Haystack Mountain in the northwest corner of the state. They fall either side of the lovely little town of Norfolk, and were likely both formed from the same geological processes, both being rather conical shaped. Unfortunately the descriptions of the geology provided by the state are very small scale, focussing on the rocks by the side of the trail, and not the formation of the feature. There’s a lot of volcanic type stuff in there though - gneiss and schist, so perhaps they were volcanoes. And in fact, when you get to the top, it seems that those assumptions may be correct. A famous Yale geologist claimed this spot as an extinct volcano after a visit to the property one summer. The second interesting geological fact that you discover at the top of the hill is that water that hits the top of Dennis Hill will fall into three separate watersheds.

Anyway, Dennis Hill used to house a summer house for Dr Frederick Dennis, a famous surgeon from New York City with even more famous friends. In fact, he was the White House physician for both Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft, with the latter making multiple visits to this property. He was also a big lover of state recreation, and held a legendary annual steak dinner for members of the State Parks and Forest Commission, aswell as using this property as an experimental area for forestry and growing a wide range of tree species. Once Dr Dennis died in 1934, the whole hillside was donated to the State, and the summerhouse eventually converted into a picnic barn. The picnic barn has retained the original shape of the house, which is a crazy octagonal thing with large windows for taking in the views, apparently based on the design of wool markets back in Wales (presumably Wales UK?). While the views are not quite so spectacular as the information suggests, the ones to the south and south east are serene, even with full foliage.

R. and I parked at the lower car park on our trip during a beautiful early fall day, and first took a stroll around the looped yellow trail on the lower flanks of the hill. Despite the decreased elevation there’s a lovely view from the picnic shelter on this loop, and for a short trail there’s quite a variation in vegetation. Swampy areas, pines with clear forest floors, and thicker scrubbier areas which are beginning to become over run with rhododendrons, which probably look beautiful when they flower in spring.

After completing the loop we then headed up the white trail towards the summit, where things got fernier and began to smell like the Lake District back at home. In fact, all of a sudden we thought we’d stepped through a portal, as we popped out onto the asphalt and we’re presented with a large swath of bracken type ferns. I’ve not seen a field of so many ferns since my trip back to Scotland, so it was a welcome surprise.

Just a note, if you’re trying to go down the white trail, it’s not too easy to spot, but exists from the clearing north of the road that looks like this:

The picnic shelter at the top is pretty great, a large cool structure with plenty of tables and retaining the original vision of the architecture of Dr Dennis’s summer house. The metallic roof doesn’t even look too out of the place, and the large picture windows are a great place to sit and watch the world go by.

After taking our time admiring the view, we strolled back down the main road to the car, a very short distance but retaining the air of a driveway to somewhere important. It was a pleasure to spend some time up here today, but I can only dream how exciting it must have been with a legendary steak dinner waiting at the top!

Day Pond State Park

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:35:41 -0400

Day Pond is a rather teeny State Park, which forms a small corner of the much larger Salmon River State Forest. It’s a man made pond which was dammed by the Day Family in order to drive a sawmill, at an undisclosed “colonial” time in history. The park was obtained by the State in 1949, and there’s now a cute sandy beach with swimming area, picnic pavilions and the remnants of the dam to inspect on a lazy weekend.

I don’t really have much to say about Day Pond, other than that. It looks like a nice place to spend a quiet afternoon. We took the blue blazed trails into Salmon River, so I can’t really talk about them yet, but on our return tried to find the short yellow trail that’s within Day Pond. The only problem was that as we were walking down the road looking for the trail head, the heavens opened. We never found the start of the bit that runs parallel to the entrance road, and after a couple of minutes of getting progressively wetter, things took a turn for the worst and suddenly turned into one of those amazing monsoon downpours. So we cut in from the road and headed at an angle to intersect the yellow at any point where it might exist, and after a couple of minutes of slipping around on the wet leaves, we saw it and pegged it as fast as we could back to the car.

Still, the whole area is pretty standard CT. A few smallish erratics (and one enormous one)…

…a little more ground vegetation than perhaps we’re used to, and the small Day Brook waterfall that definitely deserves a visit at a time other than the middle of summer.

The highlight of our day was not, I’m sorry to say, a permanent feature of the State Park. When we approached the wrecked car which upset CTMQ on his travels here, we were greeted with flashes of light. As we moved closer, there was a middle aged lady in incredibly tight purple trousers crouching in a seductive fashion over the car wreck, while a guy took photos of her with a full photographer set up - a flash umbrella and everything. It was utterly bizarre, and the comment she made about “at least I’m wearing clothes” just made things all the more surreal.

So, Day Pond. A generally family Day Out, but perhaps avoid the car wreck.

Dart Island State Park

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:11:01 -0400

Well, readers, this will be a quick one. Because I will confess now, we weren’t actually able to make it to Dart Island.

There’s three islands in the Connecticut River that are State Parks. There’s Dart, Haddam, and finally Selden Neck. They’re only accessible by the water, and here at CT A to Z we are without boat. We could have borrowed one from friends in north west CT, but to be honest, we just couldn’t figure Dart out. The only information out there, other than it being the smallest of the three islands, is that you have to come from the water. But there’s no State launches within a distance that’s canoe-able by two people who aren’t particularly good at canoeing. There’s no hire places nearby either. So we decided to take the cop out option. On the way to Day Pond, we would drive to the river and take a look at the Island from afar. If you scrutinise the area on google, the west bank seems to be an enormous industrial complex, which no hope of getting close in an average car. So we took to the east bank, and headed for Oaklum Dock Road, which looked like a very promising combination of name and google satellite images.

Turns out, there’s even a small launch there. It seems to be public, or at least there’s no signs saying otherwise. Next door is a fenced off private yacht club where couples were having wedding photos taken, right in front of the huge chimneys of the aforementioned industrial complex. Hmm.

And boy, did the State Park actually look fun?! We hit it on probably the last major boating weekend of the year, and the river was full of all kinds of craft, ranging for kayaks to jetskis to large luxury yachts. People were jumping in the river and there was serious gazebo enabled sunbathing and grilling on the sandbank on the edge of the park. So there you have it. You can launch from Oakum Dock, and it would be a short kayak across the water. But wait until next summer, when hopefully you’ll get a party and a free hot dog on a not very interesting and very bushy looking island.

There you go. I promise to try harder next time.

Connecticut Valley Railroad State Park

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 21:57:00 -0400

The Connecticut Valley Railroad State Park is pretty awesome. It’s really fun to have a State Park that’s a real attraction, with actual things to do that aren’t solely outdoor recreation oriented (similarly looking forward to Dinosaur, for that very reason). While the claim on the tourist leaflet that it’s “One of the last great places on earth” may be a rather bizarre overstatement, it was a lot of fun for CT.

To get things straight off the bat - the state owns the land that used to form the Valley Line, which connected Fenwick and Old Saybrook on the coast with Hartford, stopping at just over 20 places on the way. The State still owns the whole line, and permit the Essex Steam Train to run between Essex and Chester, a very short but scenic section of the route. The route was commissioned in 1868, and at a speed that makes the renovations of the Yale Art Gallery look practically glacial, was opened by July 1871. As railroads in this part of the world go, it was a pretty easy job. The route mostly keeps close to the Connecticut River, meaning the need for long tunnels and copious blasting was minimal. Despite this, there’s still a couple of tricky looking cuttings on the short trip we took, so it wasn’t all plain sailing.

Business on the line was great at the start. Trips along the line were great value for money, and it was incredibly valuable in the harsh winters which had previously left these towns isolated. However, the onset and duration of the Great Depression in the 20s, and the changes to the manufacturing process of cars in the recovery troubled the passenger carrying side of the line immensely, and the last passenger train ran in 1933. The line continued to be used for moving freight until the late 1960s, and was due to be torn up by the company in charge, Penn Central. These moves were blocked by a hard working bunch of interested locals, and the state obtained the land in 1969. For 41 years the Valley Railroad Company have run their part of the line as a tourist attraction - introducing people to the glamour of travel by steam, the breathtaking work of the men who drive these vehicles, and combining steam train rides with gourmet meals and trips down the Connecticut River.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon we took the Steam Train and Riverboat Combo from Essex. It’s well worth the upgrade to first class (an extra $3, $31 in total) and experience the luxury of a long gone age. Fitted with soft swivelling armchairs to enable you to take in all the views, exciting light fittings and a drinks service, it’s a joy to sip a cranberry juice and sway gently from side to side as the forests pass slowly by.

The steam train engine was actually bought recently from China, where many industrial lines still use steam to transport their goods. It’s been refitted to look like an engine from the Old New Haven line, the parent line of the Valley Railroad. While it’s tempting to peer out of the window and watch the smoke puff out of the chimney, this is not advisable, as the chimney also throws out pretty large chunks of coal and dust that can hurt if they hit you in the face!

Definitely don’t do this. I mean it. Ahem.

It’s not a quiet ride, as one of the nice chaps who works there regales you with the history of the surrounding area, and occasional amusing anecdotes about the features you pass through. Deep River is only 7 feet deep kids! But very difficult to pull lumber across, regardless.

You take the train up to Chester, where there’s a couple of old railroad buildings, including one that looks like a signal box but was actually the old Quinnipiac Station from the New Haven Line. You also pass some large marshes which are a haven for birdlife, and although we only got views of cranes that day, those who are lucky with their seasonal timing can see Ospreys and even Bald Eagles. Once you reach Chester, the train is pushed back along the line to Deep River, where you disembark the train and stride onto the Becky Thatcher for the riverboat tour.

The riverboat tour is scenic, but the tour itself is less interesting. I’m sure there a bunch of interesting history about the settlements of the Connecticut River, their industries, the role of natives and business in growing the area. But the tour focusses more on celebrity. You pass Gilette Castle, which I can’t divulge info on yet, because it’s a State Park in it’s own right, and the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddum. You learn far more about Mister Goodspeed’s business principles and the owner of Gilette’s meticulous inventions for protecting his liquor cabinet than the fun stuff I was hoping for. But it’s a lovely ride, with some incredible property to ogle along the west shore, and definitely worth the trip.

After the boat you climb back onto the steam train, which has magically switched the engine back to the front again, which pulls you back to Essex.

Once there there’s a small museum and a model railway, but the delight is really in the ride. We asked for the “My first train ride” stickers and realised that it really is relatively likely that adults from the area may never have been on a train before. Shocking to a country much more public transport oriented, but not so surprising for CT. So an excellent day, with good company and plenty of history. If you don’t fancy the train/boat option, there’s a train only, Santa Trains, Dinner Trains and soon, Fall Foliage trains. You can be sure there’ll be something to tickle your fancy.