Hamden

West Rock Ridge State Park

Date visited: 11/28/2020

Yet another hike around a lake. We came here after Long Wharf in New Haven, and it poured during the trip. The rain stopped by the time we arrived. This must be *the* place in Hamden to take your dog for a walk. There were many dog walkers, and it seemed like everyone we encountered was walking their pooch! There is another section of this park in New Haven that we visited at a later date.

Brooksvale Park

Dates visited: 4/2/2021, 9/12/2021 & 1/4/2022

This is a cool park with a functioning farm. We walked here via the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail from Cheshire. The chickens were really inquisitive when I was posing the dogs for their photo in front of their coop. There are some trails here too, that we didn't explore, because it was already a long walk to get here. We returned a few months later, and parked here on our way to do more of the Canal trail. The weather was nicer, so I re-took some of the photos. We finally came back a third time and hiked some the trails. The trail system is quite extensive. The trails are all well marked, and there is a sign with a map at every trail intersection. Of course, we couldn't help taking even more pictures at the farm too!

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Farmington Canal Heritage Trail

Dates visited: 4/2/2021, 9/12/2021, 9/13/2021, 9/15/2021, 9/18/2021, 9/19/2021 & 9/20/2021

The Hamden section of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, is 9.5 miles, the longest length in any of the towns. Since we can only handle a maximum of four or five miles a day total (and we have to walk both directions), it will take multiple days to get through the town. Click below to expand the section and read about the trips.

Farmington Canal Heritage Trail in Hamden Part One

The first section we walked in April 2021, connected Lock 12 Park in Cheshire with Brooksvale Park in Hamden.

In September we returned to continue the rest of the trail in Hamden. The next section went from Brooksvale Park to the old "Lock Keeper's House", which is now the Hamden Police Mt. Carmel Substation. Like the days we did the Southington and Cheshire sections, the weather was great!

We came back the next day to do the next section, which starts from the "Lock Keeper House" and goes to the Sherman Street parking area. This is sort of a transitional section, it starts pretty rural but gets more urban the further south we get into Hamden. This section pretty much parallels Rt. 10 (Whitney Avenue) for a while near the commercial areas around Mt. Carmel and Sleeping Giant State Park - a very popular State Park that we have not visited due to the fact that the dog's little feet aren't really equipped to hike up steep mountains. I loved the trail passing through the rock cut-outs in this section. The brewery that looks like the building used to be an old train station looked very nice. It was here that we encountered the dog bench that both Mandy and Lexi thought was a real dog at first. I think the brewery is called "MiKro Depot" and features a variety of imported ales as well.

Farmington Canal Heritage Trail in Hamden Part Two

We continued the trail from where we left off a couple days latter. This section ran along side Sherman Avenue a bit, before curving left and heading into the woods. This part of the trail was completely straight and flat. There is a really cool spot off to the side of the trail, an area dedicated to "Rest and Prayer," according to the guest book. It featured signs that said "Dog Washing Area," and "No skinny dipping today"! The bench and bridges are painted a pastel purple, so the area really catches your eye. It made for some great photo opportunities! From the newspaper article displayed at the site, I learned that the place is maintained by Cliff and Cindy Pollack, as the area extends out from their backyard. On the way back to the car, we stopped to take a picture in front of the Quinnipiac University sign across the street from the trail parking lot.

A few days later, we returned to the next section, that ran from where we left off last time, to the bridge under the Wilbur Cross Parkway. This part isn't as interesting as the other sections in Hamden. A good portion actually runs parallel to the Wilbur Cross. I was impressed with all the non at-grade street crossings though, as we didn't have any busy intersections to navigate on this stretch.

I actually skipped ahead and did the New Haven portion next (I didn't want to walk through the Yale Campus during the week), but came back to finish Hamden the next day. This is actually the last section of the trail that we completed, and as of 9/20/2021, we've walked the entire built portions of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, from New Haven to Northampton! (Of course, a new section of the trail is scheduled to open in Westfield, MA next month, so we will have to hit that when it is completed, and the extension in New Haven is scheduled for next year). Since we walked both directions, we actually finished the trail twice! We traveled a total of 141.8 miles on the trail! This last section runs from the Wilbur Cross bridge to Putnam Avenue. It travels between the rear of businesses off of Dixwell Avenue on one side, and apartment complexes on the other side.

The day we did the New Haven section of the trail, we parked in Hamden and had to walk about a half mile on the trail to reach New Haven.

Pine Rock Park

Date visited: 10/28/2022

We passed here on the way back from somewhere else, and I saw the foot bridge from the car, so I stopped to take a picture. It's a small park. Pretty much just this bridge over a stream, and beyond that there are athletic fields.

East Rock Park

Date visited: 5/2/2023

The plan was to drive up to the summit, and park at the lot up there, and then begin our hike from the top. That did not plan out, as the City of New Haven, the entity that runs the park, has closed the park roads to vehicular traffic. I guess this was done during COVID to give people more space to walk. The road up to the summit might be open only on Sundays now, but I'm not sure about that. The website did not indicate the road closures, and we had to change our plans. Needless to say, we did not make it to the top. The walk up would have been a little much for Mandy (though I know Lexi would have no problem). Instead, we explored the "lower" areas of the park. And don't get me wrong, it's a very nice park. We walked a combination of the park roads and some trails that run parallel to the roads. The park veers into New Haven. The photos from that part of the park are on the New Haven page. One of the trails leads out to the Eli Whitney museum. There's a cool covered bridge near an outdoor exhibit. The Whitney Lake Dam is also nearby. We took a few pictures from up high of the dam, but also some more from down low near the museum. The waterfall was producing such a strong spray, that we had position ourselves further back to not get wet. This was a fun visit, and perhaps we'll return when we can get up to the summit.