Dates visited: 7/30/2021, 11/9/2021 & 7/5/2023

We finally found a beach where dogs are welcome year round! This is a small beach, operated by the Town of Groton. There's a little picnic area, volleyball courts, and short path to the cove as well. The beach also has real rest rooms that are clean too! Once Mandy saw the water, she couldn't get in it fast enough! We stopped a second time when we passed by here on the way home from another trip. It was an unusually mild November day. Once again Mandy couldn't wait to sit on the edge of the water. We returned for a third time a couple years later to cool off after another hike in the area.

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Dates visited: 11/27/2020 & 9/26/2021

We went here the day after Thanksgiving. It was a cool November day, perfect for walking! There's a trail here, that leads to the beach. So this place is a mixture of woodsy trails and beach.

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The second time we came here, the weather was much beter....perfect actually. We concentrated more on the beachy sections instead of hiking the whole loop in the woods like we did the first time. That being said, we still walked over six miles here on this trip.

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Date visited: 11/9/2021

This is a cool place. We hiked a three mile loop trail that featured a wide variety of different landscapes. There is a neat bridge over the rail tracks. The trail actually ran along side the tracks for a bit. There is a fence that separates the railway line from the trail. The weather was fantastic when we visited, mid 60's and sunny! Nothing better than a great trail and great weather! There is also a trail that connects this park to Bluff Point State Park, another really nice spot in Groton that we visited previously.

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Date visited: 4/24/2024

This is a great place to take your dog for a walk on a nice evening. This is UConn's Groton campus, and the grounds are open to the public. There are great views of Long Island Sound here. The highlight is the "Branford House" mansion, originally built in 1902. There's a free art gallery on the 2nd floor open to the public (but not to dogs). There's a walking path near the shore, that includes various sculptures located within the large lawn area in front of the rear of the Branford House. Also on site, is Project Oceanology, as well as a marina. I'm not sure how it took four years since we started these adventures to find this place, but it was worth the wait!

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Date visited: 5/23/2021

This area of the state was about eight degrees cooler than the Hartford area, so we headed here on a warm May day. This is a nice park with many trails. We walked the outer loop. The purple blazed section was challenging with inclines and rocky stretches, so we did that side of the loop first. The rest of the trail was wide and mainly flat, alternating between wooded sections and some more open areas. There is also a pond. This is also the home of the Groton Dog Park, named "Central Bark". It was a little hot for the park, and there were no other dogs so we passed this time. I have to say, this is the largest dog park I have ever seen. The small dog side was normal sized, but the large dog side was tremendous! All in all, this is a pretty nice place.

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Date visited: 4/9/2022

The weather was crazy on this day. The sun was out when I left the Hartford area, but on our way down here, we drove through a downpour. The sun came back out and it was clear sailing...that is until we got about five minutes away from our destination and it started to pour again. Luck was on our side, because right as we pulled into the parking area, the sun came out and the rain stopped. Surprisingly, even with the downpours, the trail wasn't muddy. This was a very nice hiking area located in both Groton and Ledyard. We actually hiked two different trails here. The red loop, was mainly in Groton, and the blue loop that circled the farm enitrely in Ledyard. The red loop was more of a standard wooded trail, but it was scenic and an enjoyable walk. The blue loop had a variety of different landscapes, and was the highlight. A short section of the loop was on a road on the far side of the farm, but it didn't detract from the adventure. Photos below are from the Groton section of the trail. Check out the Ledyard page for photos from that section.

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Date visited: 4/27/2023

This isn't a farm, and there isn't any sheep, but I guess at one point this property used to be a farm where sheep grazed. What is here now, is a fun set of trails with some ups and downs and two waterfalls. This was definitely a better than average walk in the woods.

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Date visited: 7/14/2021

Saw the Minions while stopping for food, and I had to have the dogs pose in front of them. It was late in the day, and the lighting wasn't the best, but still got the photo.

Date visited: 5/22/2022

This historic state park is the site of a revolutionary war fort. On September 6, 1781, Benedict Arnold commanded British forces who captured the site and massacred 88 of the 165 soldiers stationed there. We explored the remnants of the old fort. There are plenty of photo opportunities here, including the short tunnel which is pretty cool.

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Date visited: 7/30/2021

This is a different place from Beebe Preserve in Lyme, a place we visited recently. Here we hiked a rocky loop trail around the "pond", but it looked more like a swamp than a pond. It didn't really matter since there was no real access to the "pond" anyway. The trail was actually quite nice.

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Date visited: 7/30/2021

This is a short loop trail across the street from Beebe Pond Park. It's a good trail to add on to the Beebe trail, it's only a third of a mile long.

Date visited: 9/26/2021

This trail is a half mile, almost completely on a wooden boardwalk running along side the Poquonnock River. It's very close to Bluff Point.

Date visited: 5/12/2022

While it was mostly cloudy and 82 degrees in the Hartford area, it was 62 with bright sun in Groton. The weather was perfect for a nice two mile loop trail in the woods. The trail was fun, with some rocky and rooty areas, but generally pretty easy. It made for a pleasant evening hike.

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Date visited: 4/27/2023

The All-Trails app led me to a trail head behind Gold Star Office Park that was only labeled with a very small "Avalonia Land Conservancy" sign. The main sign is actually located at the end of a cul-de-sac on Antonino Road, which might be a better starting point. We hiked a mile and a half loof that was pretty non-descript, except for some very cool rock formations and an old rusted out junked car in the middle of the woods.

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Date visited: 7/5/2023

This was a fun hike in the woods. The loop trail runs for about one and a half miles. The section that runs along side the stream is quite an adventure. It's a rocky and rooty section, where you have to really watch your step. The last third of the loop is actually on the sidewalk leading down from a magnet school. The old path at that point is overgrown. Overall, this was a good after work hike.

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Date visited: 8/5/2024

This is the tourist trap on the west side of the Mystic River, mostly along West Main and Water Street. Like most tourist traps, the streets are lined with small gift shops, restaurants, ice cream shops and art galleries. The 1988 movie "Mystic Pizza" was based on the restaurant on West Main Street, but was actually filmed elsewhere in Stonington. The restaurant here was actually re-modeled to match the set of the movie. This was combined with our walk through Mystic River Park.

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