Wadsworth Falls State Park was a great spot we visited early on. We decided to revisit the park to discover the hidden gems we overlooked the first time around. Watch our video and then read about the trip below:
There was a big windstorm recently that smashed Middletown and downed a ton of trees. We of course visited the little and big falls like the first trip, but our goal today was to see the trails and attractions we missed the first time around and assess the damage. First we made a quick crossing of the picnic area and headed to the purple trail. I wanted to recreate the first photo we took here on the old stone bridge. It came out similar but the lighting was radically different. I'm not entirely sure which I like better!
The next stop was to take the yellow trail and find the old abandoned pump house. Had we done a bit more research we would have discovered that crossing the stone bridge on purple would lead us to a convenient staircase and the top of the pump house. Instead we had to climb down a super steep hill and cross a stream. Had this been spring, we likely would have had to back track. Luckily the summer heat dried up the water allowing for us to cross. The pump house is a two floor crumbling building with lots of graffiti. a Pipe inside spills water from the top floor down a ladder into the bottom. It's generally gross and not very safe looking! The rest of the yellow trail included about 5 foot bridges and followed along side the dried up creek.
Our second destination was the old foundation ruins located on the blue trail. It took us some time to locate them. Unfortunately they are very overgrown and appear to be just a part of the stone wall running along most of this trail. Unimpressive and not obvious unless you are specifically looking for them!
The short detour on the blue trail was followed by a trip down the red trail through a small marsh. Luckily for us, it was fairly dry and not buggy at all. We didn't find anything particularly notable along this route but it took us back to the blue trail where we crossed to the little falls. As you can see in the video, the little falls were quite dried up. I placed a clip of our last trip in into this video for comparison.
An interesting thing about this park is that the Big Falls are actually separate from the rest of park. The only way to access them is to park directly at them [limited parking] or hike alongside the road following the orange trail. You'll have to cross train tracks as well!
There was a large group of soldier at the park this day. I'm not sure why but they were camped next to the falls as I was taking photos. Because of this, we only took in the much smaller summer falls and started the hike back to the north.
The orange trail heading north crosses the little falls, in case you missed it while heading south. We helped a family take a nice group photo on the way back!
The last few things to see include the Giant Laurel, another small stone bridge, a wooden covered bridge by the northern parking lot, and the swimming hole with sandy beach. It looks like the recent wind storm inflicted some damage to it the Giant Laurel and sadly the swimming was off limits today. The reduction in water during the summer can shrink the pond and increase the concentration of bacteria to unsafe levels.
Over all, the park hasn't been badly damaged by the recent wind storm and we managed to see the last few hidden things the park has to offer. This is a place you can see all of in half a day and is 100% worth the visit.The most impressive time to see the water falls is definitely spring though, so don't be disappointed by the summer.
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