State Parks

Connecticut’s State Parks

Connecticut has 110 state parks and as far as I can tell this is the only complete list to be found anywhere.

Links


State Parks

Above All Auerfarm Beaver Brook Becket Hill Beckley Furnace
Bennetts Pond Bigelow Hollow Black Rock Bluff Point Bolton Notch
Brainard Homestead Burr Pond Camp Columbia Campbell Falls Capt. George Comer
Chatfield Hollow Collis P. Huntington CT Valley Railroad Dart Island Day Pond
Dennis Hill Devil’s Hopyard Dinosaur Eagle Landing Farm River
Ferry Landing Forster Pond Fort Griswold Fort Trumbull Gardner Lake
Gay City George Dudley Seymour George Waldo Gillette Castle Haddam Island
Haddam Meadows Haley Farm Hammonasset Beach Harkness Haystack Mountain
Higganum Reservoir Hopemead Hopeville Pond Horse Guard Housatonic Meadows
Humaston Brook Hurd Indian Well Ivy Mountain John A. Minetto
Kent Falls Kettletown Killingly Pond Lake Waramaug Lake Williams
Lamentation Mt. Lovers Leap Macedonia Brook Machimoodus Mansfield Hollow
Mashamoquet Brook Mianus River Millers Pond Minnie Island Mohawk Mt.
Mono Pond Mount Bushnell Mount Riga Mount Tom Moween
Nathaniel Lyon Old Furnace Osbornedale Penwood Platt Hill
Pomeroy Putnam Memorial Quaddick Quinebaug Lake Quinnipiac River
River Highlands Rocky Glen Rocky Neck Ross Pond Salt Rock
Satan’s Kingdom Scantic River Seaside Selden Neck Seth Low Pierrepont
Sherwood Island Silver Sands Sleeping Giant Southford Falls Squantz Pond
Stillwater Pond Stoddard Hill Stratton Brook Sunnybrook Sunrise
Sunset Rock Talcott Mountain Tri-Mountain Trout Brook Valley Wadsworth Falls
West Rock Ridge Wharton Brook Whittemore Glen Windsor Meadows Wooster Mountain

There are a few former or uncertain status state parks:

Former State Parks

  • Quinebaug Pines – This former state park located in Putnam started with the purchase of 37 acres for $6,100 in 1923.  It was purchased from a Ransom H. Bradley who had owned it since 1913.  The stand of pines was one of the few remaining in the state at that time with some pines at least three feet in diameter. It was damaged by flooding in 1936 and the majority of the pines were leveled in the 1938 Hurricane.  In October 1948 the state traded the property to American Optical for 24 acres along Lake Mashapaug (modern day Bigelow Hollow)
  • Fort Shantok – This 160 acre state park was originally acquired in 1926 and 1930 thanks to the efforts of Mr. Arthur Peale of Norwich (then a new member of the State Park Commission) who was an enthusiast of local Native American history. Fort Shantok was a Native American fort, cemetery, and the sacred grounds of Uncas.  The now discontinued blue blaze Mohegan Trail ran through the property from 1942 likely through the early 60s.  The park was returned to the Mohegan Tribe upon their federal recognition in 1994.
  • Buttonball Brook – This small state park was originally acquired in 1919 as a road wayside park similar to Wharton Brook.  A squatter occupied the park through 1925 who built a small house and dam on the property and patroled it for wildfires. It received work from the Natchaug CCC crew in the early 1930s to build a dam for a proposed 7 acre pond though work was stopped in 1935 and the project was never completed.  State park reports from the time show it had in excess of 20k visitors each year through the 1940s. The park was folded into a parcel of Natchaug State Forest at an unknown date.
  • Saptree Run and Wolf Den State Parks – Consolidated into modern day Mashamoquet Brook State Park
  • Pequonnock River Valley State Park – I’ve seen references to this area as a state park but have roughly confirmed with locals that is has never been state park as far as they know.
  • Beardsley State Park – Old references, very uncertain and unconfirmed.

Moosup Valley State Park Trail

★★☆☆☆

2-58 Withey Hill Rd, Moosup, CT, USA

Moosup Valley State Park Trail Connecticut State Park 62 acres in Plainfield and Sterling, CT Parking: West End – Few spots near 2-58 Withey Hill Rd, Moosup,…

Campbell Falls State Park

★★★★☆

117 Old Spaulding Rd, Norfolk, CT, USA

Campbell Falls State Park Connecticut State Park 102 acres in Norfolk, CT Parking: Small lot near 117 Old Spaulding Rd, Norfolk, CT Trail Map.         …

Mohawk Mountain

Unexplored

1 Toomey Rd, West Cornwall, CT, USA

Mohawk Mountain State Park and Forest Connecticut State Park / State Forest 4,016 acres in Cornwall, Goshen, and Litchfield, CT State Park – 273 acres State Forest – 3,743 acres Parking: Main… Read more…

Wooster Mountain State Park

Unexplored

41.351877, -73.474826

Wooster Mountain State Park Connecticut State Park 444 acres in Danbury, CT Parking: Small lot near 74 Sugar Hollow Rd, Danbury, CT Trail Map       Trails:…

Trout Brook Valley

★★★☆☆

41.247271, -73.344313

Trout Brook Valley Connecticut State Park and Aspetuck Land Trust 1,009 acres in Easton and Weston, CT Parking: Small lot on Bradley Rd Weston, CT Small lot… Read more…

Windsor Meadows State Park

★★☆☆☆

41.813168, -72.647661

Windsor Meadows State Park Connecticut State Park 155 acres in Windsor, CT Parking: Medium sized lot near E Barber St, Windsor, CT Trail Map       …

Whittemore Glenn State Park

Unexplored

41.512071, -73.071003

Whittemore Glenn State Park Connecticut State Park 242 acres in Naugatuck, CT Parking: Shoulder parking near 816 Church St #684, Naugatuck, CT Trail Map       …

Tri-Mountain State Park

Unexplored

41.442427, -72.740176

Tri-Mountain State Park Connecticut State Park 157 acres in Durham, CT Parking: Shoulder parking near Howd Rd, Durham, CT Trail Map     Trails: 2 miles    Rating:…

Sunset Rock State Park

★★★★☆

41.660733, -72.845229

Sunset Rock State Park / Crescent Lake Connecticut State Park and Southington Town Park 18 acres in Plainville and Southington, CT Parking: Large lot near 403-, 537…

Sunnybrook State Park

★★★☆☆

41.850667, -73.127916

Sunnybrook State Park Connecticut State Park 464 acres in Torrington, CT Parking: Small lot near Newfield Rd, Torrington, CT Trail Map            Trails:…