The gorgeous Hidden Valley Preserve, located in Washington Depot Connecticut, contains one of the most instagrammable locations in the entire state.
If you live in Connecticut than It's almost impossible to avoid seeing this park on your friends instagram pages thanks to the splendid pedestrian bridge. The Thoreau Bridge is an iconic stop for many people but it's located only several hundred feet from the parking lot, making it accessible to basically anyone. There are several quotes cut into the bridge and
surroundings including a finely engraved bench, perfect for taking it all in. The Bridge itself is a long suspension style bridge with quite a bit of bounce, and while it isn't the only one in the park, it is the nicest. It lies at the intersection of several trails, after admiring it for some time we headed across to explore the rest of the area.
We discovered there are some lovely picnic areas along the river including full stone grill/fireplace combos and lots of flowers. Hiking only a few minutes we discovered a second bridge to cross back over the river. this one has quite an intricate stair case to get down to it and leads quickly towards our next important location.
Hidden Valley is home to the remnants of a Quartz Mine. This area can be found very easily with the tell tale sign of small bits of Quartz along the ground. Soon enough the entire ground is white with the stuff in all directions! It can get a bit confusing in this spot with somewhat poor trail markings and lots of stone walls cutting in different directions.
The photo to the left is what you are looking for, the remains of a quartz seam that runs under the above rock. There are some especially large chunks of quarts here and it's interesting to see an open mine like this in my state. After getting turned around here a few times we got our bearings and headed towards the nearby vista.
The vista is viewable in our video but I didn't care to take a photo since it's nothing to write home about. instead we headed across the park towards the summit of the mountain near the parking lot. I suggest using a trail app if you've never been here before as there are quite a few forks in the road but the trip is certainly worth it.
The view from this peak is significantly better, higher and less obstructed than the official vista. If you don't visit the Quartz mine you can hike directly here from the bridge in about 10-15 minutes and it's definitely a worthwhile pursuit.
All in all we enjoyed our time in Hidden Valley and suggest you add it to your plans
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