Sterling

Moosup Valley State Park Trail

Date visited: 4/26/2021

According to the Connecticut Government DEEP website, this is trail is known as the Moosup Valley State Park Trail. It starts in Plainfield, continues through Sterling and goes into Rhode Island, where it becomes the "Trestle Trail". So imagine my suprise when I arrive to find sections in Sterling to have "No Trespassing" sings installed, with no indication that the trail is part of a State Park. What I think is happening, is that the trail has been overrun with ATV's and the town is trying to keep them away. The state seemed to abandoned the trail completely. We walked one section that didn't have the "No Trespassing", and it is obvious that the primary use these days has been ATV's. As a matter of fact, we encountered the same three ATV riders that we encountered on the Plainfield section. This town has a great name, but a really crappy trail!

Date visited: 3/28/2025

Back in 2021 when we were making our first run through each Connecticut town, I selected this trail for our trip to Sterling and Plainfield. At that time, I was very disappointed. The trail was not in good condition, and portions in Sterling had "No Trespassing" signs up. Fast forward four years, and things have changed for the better! In late 2023 and 2024, the trail was improved. Parts of it were resurfaced and new parking areas and signage was created. I am very impressed with the improvements! We only walked three quarters of a mile of this trail in Connecticut for this trip, from the new parking area off Railroad Avenue, to the Rhode Island border, where the trail becomes The Trestle Trail. We also checked out a side trail and found an old underground storage bunker of some sort, that Lexi was very curious about! The most impressive improvement might be the new, large sign at the state line, that features welcome messages for each state on either side. We continued another two miles or so in Rhode Island, before heading back, walking just shy of six miles total. We will definitely need to come back and check out the rest of the improvements.

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Date visited: 4/1/2025

This is Part Two of our "New and Improved" Moosup Valley Trail adventure. Like Part One, we started at the new parking area off Railroad Avenue, but this time headed west. We made it about two miles to "downtown" Sterling, right where we left off four years prior (before the trail was fixed up). A good deal of the trail runs through a pine forest, which is always nice this time of year, before there are leaves on the trees. This section of trail is pretty rural, featuring a nice foot bridge over Providence Road. Part of the trail is paved, but most of it was a fine stone dust surface. There are new signs at every street crossing, as well as new mile markers. Once we made it to the center of the town, we briefly visited Neil H. Cook Memorial Park, and Sterling Pond (the locals refer to it as Wacky pond), before heading back the way we came.

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Date visited: 4/2/2025

This is Part Three of our "New and Improved" Moosup Valley State Park Trail adventure. We started at the parking area on Industrial Park Rd, near where we left off the day before. This time we headed west, finishing the section of the trail in Sterling. This is the same part of the trail we tried to walk back in 2021, but there was "No Trespassing" sings up. This time, the trail was pristine. The surface is a mix of paved trail and fine stone dust, and flat and smooth, unlike the rough trail here back in 2021. There was only about a mile of trail in Sterling, before we headed into Plainfield, where we continued until the end of the trail, before turning around and heading back.

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Pharisee Rock Trail

Date visited: 12/30/2021

This is one of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association's Blue Blazed Trails. After such a bad experience the last time I was in the town, this trail turned out to be much nicer! This was a fun, short hike, on a really damp day. The rain had held off on the drive here, that is until we made it to the Sterling town line! The rain did taper off, and the trail was suprisingly not too muddy, despite all the rain the last couple of days. The highlight of the trail is definitely the small waterfall area with the wooden bridge crossing the stream. It's probably considered more of a cascade than a waterfall, but it was pretty cool none the less. The sun actually tried to peak through the clouds, right as we reached the summit, but the appearance was brief.

Neil H. Cook Memorial Park

Date visited: 4/1/2025

We visited here as part of our Moosup Valley State Park Trail adventure. This is a park area that features a footbridge over Moosup River, a playground and a baseball field. Dogs aren't allowed on the field or the playground, so there's not much for them here. The bridge is scenic, but that's about it.

Wacky Pond

Date visited: 4/1/2025

The official name of the pond is "Sterling Pond", but locals call it "Wacky Pond", though I don't know why. There is a picnic area near the dam. In front of the pond and picnic area is Andrew Shippee Memorial Park. The pond area is located off Sterling Road, a short distance from where the Moosup Valley State Park Trail crosses it. The Sterling Pond Dam features two waterfalls, which made for some nice photos.