Crystal Peat Conservation Area

Parking: Small pull-off near 167 Cook Rd Tolland, CT

Trail Map. Trails: 1 mile Rating: ★★☆☆☆

It takes three trails to total just over a mile of hiking here at the Crystal Peat Conservation Area, but there are some nice sights along the way. From the parking off Cook Rd. the blue trail follows and old town road which used to connect to Ladd road now blocked off by gates and cement blocks. It is a simple out and back with two connections to the yellow trail.

The yellow trail heads down into the namesake marshy area. Just around a bend in the trail are the foundations of the Crystal Peat Humus Company and a tall wall built into an embankment which was used for loading the peat onto trucks. There is a good decent description of how the peat harvesting worked on the town website. Now the wall serves as a canvas for a mural painted by Tolland High School art students in 2015. The trail continues gradually downhill until reaching Amanda Way.

The short orange spur trail serves mostly to pass a tiny overgrown pond but continues to a lollipop loop that makes a hard turn back along a tiny gravel ridge.

From the Tolland town website,

“The terrain of the land is very flat. Most of the north and east sides of the area are wetlands, especially in the peat bog area and near the brook. In the middle of the property, there is a 0.3 acre pond surrounded by heavy undergrowth. Brooks Brook starts on this property and flows south, joining the Skungamaug River just before entering the Charter Marsh.”

History:

Established as a conservation area in 2013 when the land was donated by the Roncari family who ran the Crystal Peat Humus Company, Inc. The land was used as a commercial peat farm but had become somewhat of a dumping ground.

Crystal Peat Conservation Area