Dates visited: 8/13/2020, 8/14/2020, 8/18/2020 & 5/18/2021

See Also: Manchester, Vernon, Bolton, Coventry, Andover, Columbia, Windham

Bolton Notch State Park is where the Hop River Trail and Charter Oak Greenway intersect. We walked this trail as part of our Hop River Trail expidition. Check out the second picture below where we got photo-bombed by the local wildlife!

More Images

Date visited: 5/18/2021

Just off the Hop River Trail near the Steels Crossing parking lot is the Clark Trail, named after Edith Toomie Clark, a long time resident of Bolton. Her family gave the land to the Bolton Land Trust in her memory. The trail is a nice loop that goes down, before it goes back up! There is a surprisingly pleasant waterfall on the way back up (left side of the loop when approaching from the Hop River Trail).

More Images

Date visited: 6/17/2021

Directly across the Hop River Trail from the Edith Toomey Clark Trail, is the Rose Trail. The Rose Trail leads up a hill to the Bolton Heritage Farm. The farm no longer appears to be a working farm, but the trail is well kept. It's a mowed trail around the farm. The weather was perfect, and there was some nice views from the top of the hill.

More Images

Dates visited: 10/31/2020

In addition to completing the Hop River Trail, we also completed the Charter Oak Greenway. This paved multi-use path runs from Bolton west through Manchester into East Hartford, following I-384 most of the way. There are two new concrete bridges on this section that were built to complete the trail. This isn't my favorite trail, a lot of it runs up again the highway and there are a lot of steep hills. That said, this section of the trail is pretty nice.

Dates visited: 10/31/2020 & 12/17/2021

We made a detour when walking the Charter Oak Greenway to check this place out. There are trails here that connect to Valley Falls and Belding Wildlife Management Area in Vernon. We didn't go that far. You can access the park from the commuter lot just past Bolton Notch. The trails run through the old abandoned Manchester Drive-In. Just be careful, evidently someone is living in the old snack bar.

Date visited: 10/24/2020

Most of this park is in Hebron, but part of it near this pond is actually in Bolton. We hiked this on a very raw and gloomy day, but thankfully it just sprinkled.

Dates visited: 6/30/2020 & 5/28/2021

Risley Pond is a Manchester Land Trust property, that lies on the border of Vernon and Bolton. There are some nice trails here. We had been here in previous years, but came here again in June of 2020 to do the loop around the pond. We returned in May of 2021 and did one of the more challenging trails up the hill. See the Vernon page for pictures from that section of the trail.

More Images

Date visited: 8/4/2021

We hiked the Blackledge River Greenway in Marlborough, Blackledge Falls in Glastonbury, and now we hit the Blackledge Marsh in Bolton. This is a short, just over a half mile loop trail around Bolton Land Trust property. We were here on a dark and gloomy late afternoon, and these woods gave off a real creepy horror movie vibe. This was probably not worth the trip by itself, but I had to pick up some stuff at nearby Highland Park Market anyway.

Date visited: 10/31/2021

Strangely enough, we were here on Halloween the previous year as well, as this park is where the Charter Oak Greenway and Hop River Trail converge. Last Halloween, there was snow on the ground while we walked this section of the Charter Oak Greenway. The weather was completely different this year, it was in the upper 60's. We hiked the Mohegan Trail, and it was a hike! The first tenth of a mile was straight up, and it only leveled off slightly after that as the trail climbs about 250 feet in the first six tenths of as mile. Since it was a loop trail it was all level or down hill aftet that. I marvel at Lexi, as she seems to have so much endurance. She wasn't even panting after the climb.

Date visited: 10/9/2023

This is the state boat launch and fishing area. You can walk along the dam here, but it's not a long walk. The whole thing out and back was only four tenths of a mile. There's no access to nearby Indian Notch Park, and the town of Bolton does not allow visitors in the off-season when the park is closed, nor do they allow dogs at the park either. There's some nice views of the pond from the dam, but that's about it. There's not really much else to do here.