Steep Rock Preserve is located in Washington Depot Connecticut and is home to a well known train tunnel that is Instagram famous.
A day after our visit to Hidden Valley Preserve we headed back to Washington Depot to explore Steep Rock. Along the way we made a quick stop at Camp Columbia State Park to see their large stone tower and abandoned ruins. You can Check that out in the video above and read about our trip to Steep Rock Preserve below:
Steep Rock is owned by the same group that manages Hidden Valley, but the terrain here is quite different. While both parks share a lovely stream side setting, we found Steep Rock to be significantly more muddy. We parked at the main lot and hiked down the entire road to our destination but you could easily park in any of the extra lots to save time.
Our primary destination was the old train tunnel that is so famous on Instagram. While there are no longer any track remaining, we followed the old train bed to the tunnel. It was here that we witnessed a man on a motorcycle going through the tunnel. While I don't believe that's allowed, we were more mystified by the fact that he disappeared on the other side. It's not like there was anywhere for him to go!
The tunnel itself is VERY dark, much cooler than the surrounding air and full of spiders. After taking a few photos and enjoying the free air conditioning we traveled over the top of the tunnel courtesy of the nearby hiking trails. It's hard to tell from photos just how large this tunnel really is! We finished up in the area by heading across a large suspension bridge. These parks really love their bridges!
The Climb up to Steep Rock itself is fairly steep... The view is excellent and better than the view at hidden valley. While we saw tons of people down by the tunnel, we were joined only by a single group on the entire hike up. More people should definitely put this peak on their radar when visiting. We hiked back down on another trail which was steep and had several pedestrian bridges to enjoy before wandering back to our car on a leisurely stroll. One point of contention I would like to mention though is that most of the trails were COVERED in horse poop. I'm not sure how much a single horse goes in a hike, but if you told me there was an army of horses on the trail that day I would have believed you.