Date visited: 7/15/2021

This park resides on the site of an old amusement park of the same name that operated between 1895 and 1905, located in the historic Uniondale section of Farmington. Not much remains from the amusement park, just remnants of the fountain, an underground storage bunker (that Mandy refused to enter), and the ruins of the old dance hall. There are some informative signs describing the history and layout of the old amusement park. It was operated by a trolley company. The trip by trolley from Hartford would take an hour and a half! The dance hall on site was also very popular back in the day. Evidently the park closed when the trolley rates went up and the numbers of trips were decreased. Today, there's a network of fun trails that run through the old site. Just be aware, there is no parking at the main entrance, but you can park at the end of nearby Cottage Street and access the park from there.

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Dates visited: 10/17/2020 & 7/9/2021

There are two disconnected sections here, the blue trail and the white trail. The blue trail starts near an old abandoned zoo. Ruins of the zoo cages still exist. The trail loops around a nice wooded area around the swamp. The white trail is nice, but not as interesting. It starts on the other side of New Britain Avenue and the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail bridge over Rt 6. It features a small pond.

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Dates visited: 2/14/2021, 5/16/2021, 7/5/2021 & 7/9/2021

See Also: New Haven, Hamden, Cheshire, Southington, Plainville, Farmington, Avon, Simsbury, Granby, East Granby, Suffield, Southwick, MA, Westfield, MA, Southampton, MA, Easthampton, MA, Northampton, MA

The first time we attempted this one was pretty much a non-starter. The snow wasn't cleared at all, and I didn't want to trudge through with the dogs. We started at the trail head in Plainville that serves as the start of the 2nd section of the trail and quickly crossed into Farmington. We only got up to the bench you see in the picture before turning around and going somewhere else. We came back a second time, in the Spring. We got further this time, but the weather turned and there was a rumble of thunder in the distance. We made it about a half mile past the big bridge over Route 6. We decided to turn around as the storm got closer, and just made it back to the car before the skies opened. Our third trip, we came in from Avon and headed south and made it past the bridge over the Farmington River, where we took a side trail down to the river. We finished the Farmington section on our fourth trip, which actually finished off the Northern part of the trail for us in Connecticut (From Plainville to the Massachusetts border).

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Date visited: 7/5/2021

This was a brief visit. We hiked in from the access trail off of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, just past the bridge over the river. We walked about a half of a mile to the boat house and docks, and stopped for some photos by the river before heading back to the big trail.

Dates visited: 7/9/2021, 7/18/2021, 9/27/2021 & 9/29/2021

See Also: Farmington, Burlington, Canton, Simsbury

This is an off-shoot of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail. It runs west of the parent trail and loops around going through Burlington and Canton, and meeting back up with the Heritage Trail in Simsbury. As of this writing, we've done some of the trail in Burlington, Canton and Simsbury, and all of the trail in Farmington.

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Date visited: 3/22/2022

This is a short trail at the site of the old Farmington Canal Aqueduct. The loop trail near the aqueduct is called the Henry Mason trail. The old aqueduct area was pretty nice, but the rest of the trail wasn't all that interesting.

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