Grayville Falls Town Park
20 acres in Hebron, CT
Parking: Medium sized lot near 142 Grayville Rd Hebron, CT
Trail Map Trails: Less than a mile Rating: ★★★☆☆
Grayville Falls is a Hebron town park that only recently has been added to their website even though it has been a town park since 1971. There is a large paved and dirt parking lot across from Reidy Hill Rd. At the far end of the parking lot is a large field with picnic tables and horseshoe pits as well as a gated access road down to the falls with a few more picnic tables and barbeque pits. The area had been unmaintained in previous years, but 2018 saw rebuilt tables and clearing of brush and trash.
Splitting the property in half is Grayville Falls which cuts a wide swath over stepped rocks and through a shallow mossy ravine. Just at the top of the fall are the remains of an impressive stone foundation (see history below). The water of the falls is Raymond Brook which feeds into the Jeremy River to the west. There is an overbuilt wooden bridge upstream from the falls that crosses to a few unmaintained trails in the southern half of the property.
These trails aren’t blazed and my gut tells me they exist because fishermen want different access to the brook and Jeremy River. One rugged path heads uphill toward the Airline Trail and the other follows the small bluff along Raymond Brook. It soon heads away from the brook through a small overgrown path into a grassy open area and a secluded spot along the river. An even smaller path continues past this that is nearly impassable except in winter and provides access to even more secluded spots. To the right and downhill of the main parking lot is a lower field of tangled thickets.
An option for longer hikes is down the road to the adjacent section of the Salmon River State Forest or the Air Line Trail that forms the eastern boundary of the property. The area west is known as the “Hebron South” parcel of the Salmon River State Forest and has a maze of mountain bike singletrack and old paths.
History:
Preserved since 1971. From Peter Marteka’s article,
“In 1972, a contest was held to name the park. The winner was Joan Bowers, who came up with the name Grayville. The falls were named after the William Gray Carpet Warp Manufacturing Co., which once stood on the banks of the brook. Near the end of the falls, old foundations can still be seen rising from the bank, a testimony to the era of water power.”
Links:
Peter Marteka – It’s Worth The Hike To See These Falls (2008)
Greg Parsons at New England Waterfalls
Peter Marteka – It Just Takes A Hike To Fall For The Falls (2000)
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Last updated Feb. 17, 2019
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