Connecticut hiking

Does anyone know of some good hiking spots in southeast CT? (New London county or near it). Or a good site with trail descriptions and/or maps?

I'm looking for a 2-3 hour, fairly easy hike with a decent overlook or view of some kind. Free or paid by car would be ideal.

Thanks!

Jon

I'm not familiar with too many big hikes with views in that area other than in parks state parks. I'd recommend picking up the CT Walk book which has all the blue trail systems in the state. They just revamped the books and first came out with the East edition:

http://www.ctwoodlands.org/bookstore/bkstore.html#guide

-Doug

connecticut

This site describes a few hikes which are not too far from New London and have some of the more prominent ridge lines in southern CT. The ridges over route 77 are quite nice. I particularly like Broomstick ledges near the Guilford/Durham line.

http://www.guilfordlandtrust.org/map9ps.pdf

The Fifty Hikes in Connecticut book also lists a few in that area. One of them, poorly named Mt. Misery (441’), is a very pleasant, four-season hike.

Bluff Point SP only gets up to a hundred feet but has lots of good walking, both wooded and along the shore, and a small but very nice beach. If you head east along the fence at the north end of the park you eventually will come to a bridge across the RR tracks leading to more trails at Haley Farms SP. Both parks are the “passive use” type with structures limited to just an outhouse or two. Nice places to go when searching for a cooling breeze on a hot day.

Maps are here.

Thanks guys - all very helpful! Should be enough to get me started. If anyone else has favorite hikes be sure to chime in.

Jon

The Devil's Hopyard State Park has a few nice hiking trails.

cbcbd said:

I'm not familiar with too many big hikes with views in that area other than in parks state parks. I'd recommend picking up the CT Walk book which has all the blue trail systems in the state. They just revamped the books and first came out with the East edition:

http://www.ctwoodlands.org/bookstore/bkstore.html#guide

-Doug

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They have done a fantastic job revising this book. It is considerably more usable and has lots more information and the maps are pretty decent considering the kind of hiking that is done on these trails. Looking forward to buying the West edition of the book when it is released.

Keith

Second votes for Devil's Hopyard in Salem and Bluff Point. Both are excellent locals.

-percious

SAR-EMT40 said:

Looking forward to buying the West edition of the book when it is released.
Keith

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Still looking forward...still looking and waiting...was it not suppose to be on the shelves this summer?

Puck said:

Still looking forward...still looking and waiting...was it not suppose to be on the shelves this summer?

Click to expand...

According to their website there is no set date. Good thing I still have my old one with the blue cover. The new one is veery nice, I was only disappointed to see that they had separated the state into two books, not released them at the same time, and not kept the older ones for sale until both came out.

I'll also put in a third for Devil's Hopyard. There is a nice hill with a slight view and some good little waterfalls to enjoy - and it's HAUNTED Muahahahahahaha

percious said:

Second votes for Devil's Hopyard in Salem -percious

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Third vote for Devils hopyard. Make sure you read up on the history that they used to have displayed about the area. Really good reading.

Here is the current info on the CT Walk book. Much better than the blue plastic book.

CT Walk book info

Keith

I'm only about 1/2 an hour from Devil's Hopyard & would recommend that for your criteria. I've done a hike on the Pachaug trail but that was out & back, some brook & cascade views, & a couple of ponds but no ledges or longer views. I've also done some of the Airline Trail which has a few views.

To put in perspective though when I spend time on the Airline I consider it walking or jogging while I consider Devil's hopyard to be hiking (fairly easy but still hiking)

Thanks

Thanks again to all for the input. We wound up doing Mt. Misery which it turned out was right across the street from the campground we were at. (Nature's Campground - which I'd highly recommend). The hike was just the right length of time since we got a late start in the evening and walked from the campground down the access road.

Thanks for reporting back, it's good to know that the group was able to help.

How are the views? I know a lot of kids who have been, I've yet to visit Mt. Misery.