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.

Haystack Mountain

★★★★★

42.005899, -73.211236

Haystack Mountain State Park Connecticut State Park 292 acres in Norfolk, CT Parking: Small lot by following the road near 199 CT-272 Norfolk, Connecticut Trail Map     …

Millers Pond State Park

★★★☆☆

41.479883, -72.629513

Millers Pond State Park Connecticut State Park 280 acres in Durham and Haddam, CT Parking: Large lot at 344 Foot Hills Rd, Durham, CT Trail Map   …

Wadsworth Falls

★★★★☆

721 Wadsworth St, Middletown, CT 06457

Wadsworth Falls State Park Connecticut State Park 285 acres in Middlefield and Middletown, CT Parking: Main park entrance at 770 Wadsworth St. Middletown, CT Easiest access to…

Mashamoquet Brook State Park

★★★☆☆

41.855745, -71.983001

Mashamoquet Brook State Park Connecticut State Park 917 acres in Pomfret, CT Parking: Main Parking: Several lots near 303 Mashamoquet Rd Pomfret, CT Dirt road access close…

Humaston Brook State Park

★★☆☆☆

41.704336, -73.106654

Humaston Brook State Park Scenic Reserve Connecticut State Park Location: 141 acres in Litchfield, CT Parking: Go past 4 Newton Rd Northfield, CT and take the next left at… Read more…

Camp Columbia State Park

★★★★☆

315 West St, Morris, CT 06763, USA

Camp Columbia Connecticut State Park / State Forest 600 acres in Morris, CT Parking: Small lot near 315 West St Morris, CT Trail Map       …

Bigelow Hollow State Park

★★★★☆

41.994655, -72.130835

Bigelow Hollow State Park Connecticut State Park / Nipmuck State Forest 516 acres in Union, CT Parking: Several large lots along the park’s road off CT-171. Trail… Read more…

Day Pond State Park

★★★★☆

41.557409, -72.418005

Day Pond State Park / Salmon River State Forest / Comstock Covered Bridge Connecticut State Park and State Forest 180 acres in Colchester, CT Parking: Day Pond…

Bolton Notch State Park

★★★☆☆

41.789576, -72.450194

Bolton Notch State Park Connecticut State Park 95 acres in Bolton, CT Parking: Medium sized lot where Rt 44 meets I-384, before the exit ramp to 6…

Sleeping Giant

★★★★★

200 Mt Carmel Ave, Hamden, CT, USA

Sleeping Giant State Park Connecticut State Park 1,465 acres in Hamden, CT Parking: Main Lot: Large lot at 200 Mt Carmel Ave, Hamden, CT   East End: Small…