Continuing my journey to visit all the best parks in Connecticut, I finally managed to hit a park close to my home that was worth the wait!
Located right in New Haven, East Rock state park provides incredible views of the downtown that are some of the best in Connecticut. Many of the roads surrounding the park are closed to traffic the majority of the time so take your pick between leisurely strolls or rugged trails to the top!
Pressed for time we ascended the old asphalt road from the parking area to the top. The entire journey took less than 20 minutes. There are several spots for good views along the way, but the view from the top is superior. It was an incredibly windy day so I even had to mute many of the clips from the hike up.
At the top you'll discover an extremely large picnic area, numerous information signs and the soldiers and sailors monument. I've seen pictures of this tower for a long time and it really lives up to them. The impressive monument is adorned with gorgeous statues and plaques that have to be seen to be appreciated.
I will be posting a full photo series of these on my Instagram as they really are impressive enough to warrant the attention.
From here we descended on the Giant Stairs Trail. We were warned not to take the dog but he did fine as he is essentially a mountain goat. I wouldn't recommend most breeds take this trail though. The stairs are as giant as their name implies and the folks jogging up them looked far more exhausted than we were so I'm glad we chose to descend instead. This was an extremely quick trail but going up would probably take much longer.
While it would have been nice to visit Edgerton Park, just outside the western limits of East Rock, there was something going on there so we instead headed straight to the Eli Whitney museum. The museum was closed on the day we were there but they have a few cool things to check out and the hike leads straight back to our parking lot.
The covered bridge, man made waterfall and coal shed are all covered in my video. I would like to point out the fact that I never really pay attention to man made waterfalls and yet this one was really awesome. It took a panoramic photo to capture it as it was much too wide for an 18mm lens. I highly recommend visiting this spot if you are in east rock.
Over all the trip took us less than an hour and a half to circle the entire park including the Eli Whitney museum. There are many many criss-crossing trials to the summit and to the adjoining peaks that we did not check out and would definitely be worth revisiting. For now, I'm happy to report that my initial visit left me wanting more of East Rock state park!
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