Dates visited: 9/11/2020 & 1/8/2022

This is a very popular area in the town of Simsbury. The landscape is quite scenic and offered many photo opportunities. The dogs were also super cooperavite that day...I must have had some good treats with me. We walked the old rail trail. It was a pretty easy walk on a nice evening. We returned over a year later, and this time hiked the white blaze trail in the snow. The trail started out well enough, it was pretty well patted down, but by the time we reached the loop, we were trudging through the snow. The dogs got all sorts of snowballs stuck to their fur. We recreated some of our earlier park section pictures, but didn't take many on the trail at all.

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Dates visited: 10/22/2020 & 11/8/2020

This area connects to Stratton Brook State Park, but looks to be it's own entity. There are lot of trails here, and a picnic area at the trail head. We came here in the fall during peak foilage season, and came back a second time a couple weeks later to hike some of trails we didn't get to the first time.

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Date visited: 10/22/2020

This is the historic district in Simsbury. The historical society is located here, and there are a lot of nice shops and stuff to explore (when COVID is over). The foliage and weather were perfect. It made for some good photo ops!

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Date visited: 6/2/2021

Just across the street from Simsbury Center is the library, behind which lies the trail head for Belden Forest. This "forest" comprises of a stretch of land between downtown Simsbury and some resedential neighborhoods. It's not a very large area, the trail is only about one and a half miles. Some of the trail runs awfully close to people's backyards. It's a nice enough quick jaunt through the woods if you're looking for a short trek and are in the area.

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Date visited: 5/23/2022

This place looks very nice in the pictures, but looks can be deceiving. It was filled with mud, bugs, and ticks. We hiked the "Tanager Hill to Lucy Brook Pond" loop trail. There are two paths up the hill, a "wet" trail, and an alternate dry trail. The loop utilizes both, but they were both wet and muddy. About three quarters of the trails we hiked were mowed grass, and ticks are a problem. There was also lots of insects. Don't think they were mosquitoes, more like flying gnats. It seemed too early in the year for there to be that many bugs. Perhaps, in other seasons this is a more enjoyable hike, but right now it wasn't that nice.

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Date visited: 4/20/2023

Technically, Marion K Wilcox Park ends at the Bloomfield town line, but the yellow blazed trail crosses over into Simsbury when it reaches the scenic overlook. The position of the sun made taking photos of the overlook a challenge, but you can sort of get a sense of it. These pictures are from the overlook, see the Bloomfield page for photos from the rest of the trail.

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Date visited:8/1/2021

This is another one of those trails that goes through a working farm. There is a blue blazed trail that actually passes through three different parcels of land: The Tulmeadow Farm, Woodlot, and some Town of Simsbury open space. The trail comes out right across the street from Town Forest Park. The trail starts at the farm entrance near the ice cream shop. After a short distance through the farm it curves around. At this point, there was a tent set up and I was told that they were having some sort of concert later that afternoon. We didn't stay for the show. We did hike out to the end of the blazed trail. As the trail enters the woods, it goes through the "Woodlot" property and the open space. On the return trip, we took some side trails near the farm that led out to the weird area with the log structures and the creepy "Bates Motel" camper. The map indicated a "scary tunnel," but it looks as if the tunnel collapsed, and is now a pile of debris. This was a pretty intersting trail with lots of varied landscapes!

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Dates visited: 10/18/2020, 1/4/2021 & 1/9/2021

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 Farmington Canal Heritage trail is a multi-town, (multi-State actually) multi-use trail that follows the old Farmington Canal and rail way. It starts in New Haven and runs up to Northampton, MA, with a couple gaps. The Simsbury section is quite lengthy. We covered the entire distance in Simsbury, but it took three different trips. On one of the trips we walked 9 miles (out and back), which was too much for one day.

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Date visited: 12/26/2020

I actually don't know the name of this trail, I just made it up knowing that it is on Simsbury Land Trust land. Usually waterfalls are named, but I couldn't find a name for these falls either. The falls were pretty impressive regardless. We also hiked a nearby "Esker Path" trail as well, which wasn't terribly interesting.

Date visited: 5/2/2021

Simsbury has so many nice trails. This one is Simsbury Land Trust property known as Wagner Woods. There are a few different trails here, with elaborate trail signs. All of them are well marked and well maintained.

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Date visited: 11/22/2020

The name is a misleading. The pond doesn't look that great, it was mostly dried up. We happened to go on a gloomy cold day, and it started sleeting just as we arrived. I looked at the radar on my weather app, and it showed that it was only sleeting at one spot in the whole state....right where we were! The sleet did stop, and we walked the loop trail. What I remember the most about the trip, was the horses. There were a couple people riding horses on the trail. Our paths crossed a couple times, and Mandy and Lexi were not happy about it!

Date visited: 10/22/2020

This is a multi-town multi-use trail that connects with Town Forest Park. We did a portion of this trail in Canton as well. I recall it being a short, easy hike on a nice day.

Date visited: 10/22/2020

The local dog park has a great name...."Paw Meadow"! So cool! It was also a nice mostly grass dog park, but the small dog side was quite small. There weren't many dogs there at all the day we checked it out.

Date visited: 9/28/2022

This is a very nice town run recreation area. We walked the "David Emott Jr Memorial Family Fitness Trail". The trail loops around the perimeter of the property, mainly around a golf course that is part of the recreation area. The trail is a typical fitness trail with exercise stations along the way. The surface alternates between pavement, gravel and mowed grass. The loop is about three miles long, with varied landscapes. It made for a nice evening walk.

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