Vernon

◂︎ Mandy & Lexi's Connecticut Adventures

Vernon

Valley Falls

Dates visited: 6/20/2020 & 10/9/2023

This is a very popular area in the town of Vernon. There are the waterfalls, some hiking trails that ascend up a large hill with a nice view, and a swimming area.

It's getting dark so early and I needed to find a nearby place after work to visit, so we returned here for the first time in over three years. On this trip, we hiked the quick loop around the pond, as well as the "Mult-Access Heritage Trail", a short loop with signs in English and braille explaining the history of the land. While on the pond loop, we encountered Jonah Rodriguez, a Boy Scout from Troop 20/20, completing his Eagle Scout project. He had just finished building a boardwalk over a muddy area. Mandy and Lexi were actually the first visitors to cross the bridge! You can see the moment documented in the first picture below. Oh, and it was Mandy's 9th birthday as well! Happy Birthday Mandy! Someone built you a bridge for your birthday!

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Belding Wildlife Management Area

Dates visited: 4/5/2020 & 5/15/2020

This is another popular area, with lots of well-marked trails.

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Hockanum River Trails

Dates visited: 7/3/2020, 7/4/2020, 7/14/2020, 10/11/2020, 10/15/2020, 2/15/2021 & 4/22/2021

The Hockanum River Linear Park consists of a number of trails that follow the Hockanum River through East Hartford, Manchester, Vernon and Ellington. They are not all connected, but they are all very interesting. I love these trails, they have so much unique character. These are not your typical "escape to nature" trails. Some of them pass under highway under passes, and near water treatment facilities, behind shopping plazas, apartment complexes and landfills. They are not for everyone, but I like how different they are from your typical trails. I decided to give these trails their own pages, so go here to read about them.

Risley Pond

Dates visited: 6/30/2020 & 5/28/2021

Risley Pond is a Manchester Land Trust property, that lies on the border of Vernon and Bolton. There are some nice trails here. We had been here in previous years, but came here again in June of 2020 to do the loop around the pond. We returned in May of 2021 and did one of the more challenging trails up the hill. See the Bolton page for pictures from that section of the trail.

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Fox Hill Tower - Henry Park

Dates visited: 8/21/2021 & 12/3/2021

On the eve of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Henri, we visited Henry Park in Vernon. Henry Park's most notable feature is Fox Hill Tower. When we arrived, there was a wedding party taking pictures, but they departed soon after, and we were able to get right up to the tower. There are also great views on top of the hill of the Greater Rockville area. We returned in December when the tower was lit up for the holidays.

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Rockville Town Green

Date visited: 12/21/2021

This is the Town Green in the Rockville section of Vernon. We stopped here to take Christmas photos in front of Santa's house.

Stickney Hill Preserve

Date visited: 6/9/2022

This is a Manchester Land Trust property in the Rockville section of Vernon. There is no signage, or any information at the trail head, which is at the end of Pleasant Street. I found the spot by looking at the Manchester Land Trust webpage. They have a hand drawn map of the property on the site, which is not to scale, but helpful none the less. There are two trails, the main white blazed loop and a secondary, short blue bazed loop toward the rear of the property. It was honestly, not that great of a spot. It might have nicer at one point, but it is terribly overgrown now. There are also large trees that have come down blocking the trail in places. There are plenty of nicer places to go in the Vernon area.

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Boulder Ridge Park & AK Webster Preserve

Date visited: 11/4/2022

I was looking for something nearby, as this was the last possible day for us to go on an advenutre after work without me taking a half day. This was the Friday before the clocks change, and it will be dark by 4:30 PM going forward. It was a super mild 70 degree in November. I couldn't let the afternoon go to waste! Over the past two and half years I think we've visited every trail type place in the immediate area. This might be the last place for us to visit in Vernon. We parked at the end of the Boulder Crest Lane, and followed the stone dust path to the soccer field, we then walked the loop trail that circles the field in the woods, dipping into the AK Webster Preserve along the way. The whole loop was only a mile long, but it was just nice to enjoy the mild temperatures after work one last time.

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Hop River Trail & Rockville Spur

Dates visited: 8/18/2020, 8/23/2020 & 11/4/2022

The Hop River Trail is a linear State Park that follows an old rail line running east from Manchester, and through the towns of Vernon, Bolton, Coventry, Andover, Columbia, finally ending in Windham at an intersection with the Air-Line Trail. We walked the entire distance in 7 days over a 10 day period (missing a few days because of weather). The 7.2 mile section from Manchester, through Vernon to Bolton Notch we did in one day, being dropped off at Bolton Notch and picked up 2 1/2 hours later at the trail head in Manchester. At that point, it was the longest walk we did in one day. Also included, is the Rockville Spur trail, which we did a few days later. We did the same thing with this one. We were dropped off in downtown Rockville, and picked up an hour and a half later at the Church Street lot. We returned a couple years later and re-visited the area near the historic tunnel.

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Saxony Dog Park

Dates visited: 2/17/2020, 7/19/2020, 3/8/2021, 3/21/2021 & 4/18/2021

This is a new dog park on the Saxony Mill Park property. We actually stopped by while they were building it last February (see 2nd picture below)! I wonder if Mandy and Lexi were the first dog's there? I think it didn't actually open until July, as it was delayed by COVID. We like the dog park because it's another grass surface park, but it looks like wood chips were added to spots in order to combat the muddy areas that developed over the winter. It's still mostly grass...for now. This is our primary park when the East Windsor park is closed.

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Gene Pitney Memorial Park

Dates visited: 10/18/2020 & 2/16/2023

We first visited this new park in the fall of 2020. At the time, there was just a short stone dust walking trail here that ran the length of the parking lot. It was very pretty in the autumn. Fast forward, two and a half years and I heard rumors of a possible extenstion to the Hockanum River Trails being built here, so I decided to check it out. There is a rudimentary trail there now that follows the pond/Hockanum River for a short bit, with a connecting trail that leads up a hill to a cemetery. If this is a future extension of the Hockanum River trail system, it's not complete yet. We followed along the side of the river as far as we could but the terrain got too tough and it the trail just sort of petered out.

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Walker Reservoir

Date visited: 10/21/2021

There are actually two reservoirs. Walker Reservoir East and West. There's a loop trail around the East Reservoir. We walked that trail first. One side of the loop follows the road. The trail is on the other side of the guard rail. The yellow trail blazes are painted on the guard rail. I tried to take a pictures of it, but none of them came out that great. After doing the loop around the East Reservoir, we hiked the blue blazed trail that runs between the West Reservoir and I-84. This is actually part of the Shenipsit Trail. There's a short side trail that leads to a wide open space. It was marked as a former gravel pit on my map. We continued down the blue trail to the intersection of Baker Road and then turned around and headed back.

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Tankerhoosen Falls

Date visited: 11/4/2021

I would be remiss not to include Tankerhoosen Falls on this list. We visited here a few times in 2018 & 2019, and finally made it back in the fall of 2021. There are no hiking trails here, but it is a nice spot for photos, and you have to love that funky sign. We actually were able to walk a nice loop while we were here utilizing some quiet side streets, as well as a small segment of the Vernon Rails To Trails. The photo of the crazy sign is from one our previous trips here, since I like it better than the one I took recently.

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Talcott Ravine

Date visited: 3/21/2022

We actually hiked this trail back in 2019, pre-COVID. Since this page documents our adventures since COVID, I did not include this place before. I decided to revisit it, because it's been three years since we were here. It's worth the revisit. The trail starts at the end of the cul-de-sac on Main Street in the Talcottville section of Vernon. If you're not familiar, Main Street is a historic road, which is now a dead end. When they reconstructed I-84 in the 80's, the end of Main Street was chopped off. Unless my memory is going, when we were here previously, we parked at the cul-de-sac, but now there's a parking lot. The trail follows the Tankerhoosen River, shortly after it branches away from the Hockanum. It traverses between the river and I-84 (which is out of view because of a wall, but provides plenty of highway noise) before it approaches the Dobson Mills Historic Site. All that's left of the mills is some ruins. At this point, there are two paths. The lower path follows the river through the ravine, but ends abrubtly where the rocky area that once held part of the trail washed away. It's hard to see the large waterfall from here, unless you want to go into the river. The upper path heads out to Dobson Road along the side of a steep cliff. Toward the end of the path, the large man made waterfall is in full view. This is short, interesting trail that's perfect for a quick after work hike.

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Vernon Center Middle School Trail

Date visited: 5/18/2022

It's actually surprising that it took us so long to visit this spot. The trail here, co-exists with the Esker Hill Disc Golf Course, and forms a loop in the woods behind the school. Besides the loop trail with the disc golf course, there is also a yellow blazed "Esker Pond Trail" that runs along side a small pond. That trail is actually owned by the Northern Connecticut Land Trust, as opposed to the town of Vernon who owns the rest of the land. The trails run right next to each other. It's a pretty strange situation, that most people will never need to care about. We walked just over a mile here.

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Rockville Heritage Trail

Date visited: 2/16/2023

This isn't actually a real "trail", it's a guided walk on sidewalks through the historic section of Rockville. I saw the route listed on the Vernon Historical Society Website. It roughly follow the Hockanum River through Downtown Rockville. This section of the river is not covered by the Hockanum River Trails. It starts at the corner of East Main and Grove Street, right by Gene Pitney Memorial Park. It follows East Main Street west down the hill near the old mills to Downtown Rockville. Once it reaches the hospital, it turns on West Main Street and follows that road until the end at Saxony Mill Park, right next to the Dog Park. Most of the historical landmarks on the trail are old mills. Some have been converted to apartments, while others are crumbling. One such apartment even has it's own private mini dog-park! It passes West Main Street playground and a "historical area" which features a couple of bizarre sculptures. There are seven placards along the way that describe the historical significance of the buildings. We passed some interesting people along the way. One woman tried to sell me her "wooden owl", while another guy playing basketball at the park told me "This basket is for you", and proceeded to take a shot and hit the basket. On our walk back, we changed things up and walked on the other side of West Main Street. There's a cool elevated sidewalk on that side of the road, with good views of some of the old mills. The walk was about 3 miles total out and back, on another unusually warm, 64 degree February afternoon.

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Dart Hill Park

Date visited: 9/15/2024

We stayed local for this trip. I had an event (without the dogs) in the evening, but it was such a beautiful day we had to do something, so we went to this park. We were actually here before, four years ago. The multi-town Hockanum River Trail goes right through this park. There are separate pages on this site that document the trips where we completed the Hockanum River trails back in 2020. Since our previous adventures completing those trails were documented as a "point-in-time" journey, I created a new entry for this trip. The park itself is a small park with a grassy area, a picnic pavilion and a playground. There's a fitness trail that loops along the perimeter of the open grassy area, and the access to the Hockanum River Trail is in the rear of the open space. This is probably the nicest, most accessible part of the Hockanum Trail. It's a wide stone dust surfaced trail until Hockanum Boulevard, and after that is paved until the Pleasantview Marsh Trail. The thing that really caught my eye this time around is the cylindrically cut pine trees! They were like that back in 2020, but I guess I just didn't notice them that much back then. They are present along the paved portion of the trail, and consistently cut throughout! We wound up having a nice three and a half mile walk (out and back) on this gorgeous day.