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.

Mount Bushnell State Park

★☆☆☆☆

41.687191, -73.366729

Mount Bushnell State Park Connecticut State Park 214 acres in Washington, CT Parking: Small lot at the end of Tinker Hill Rd, New Preston, CT Trail Map   … Read more…

Lake Williams State Park

★★☆☆☆

41.629718, -72.301327

Lake Williams State Park Connecticut State Park in Lebanon, CT Parking: Small lot near 1644 Exeter Rd, Lebanon, CT Trail Map          Trails: Less…

Salt Rock State Campground

★★☆☆☆

41.640380, -72.094430

Salt Rock State Campground Connecticut State Campground 149 acres in Sprague, CT Parking: Small lot near 173 Scotland Rd, Baltic, CT Camping Map       Trails: 1 mile …

Rocky Glen State Park

★★★☆☆

29 Dayton St, Sandy Hook, CT, USA

Rocky Glen State Park Connecticut State Park 46 acres in Newtown, CT Parking: Small lot near 29 Dayton St, Sandy Hook, CT Trail Map       …

Wharton Brook State Park

★★★☆☆

41.425054, -72.837532

Wharton Brook State Park Connecticut State Park 96 acres in North Haven and Wallingford, CT Parking: A couple lots near 675 US-5, North Haven, CT Trail Map …

Nathaniel Lyon Memorial State Park

★★☆☆☆

41.847478, -72.083341

Nathaniel Lyon Memorial State Park Connecticut State Park 5 acres in Eastford, CT Parking:  Small lot along Kingsbury Rd Eastford, CT Trail Map        Trails:…

Macedonia Brook State Park

★★★★☆

159 Macedonia Brook Rd, Kent, CT, USA

Macedonia Brook State Park Connecticut State Park 2,300 acres in Kent, CT Parking: Small lot near 159 Macedonia Brook Rd, Kent, CT Trail Map       …

John Minetto State Park

Unexplored

41.883625, -73.169530

John A. Minetto State Park Connecticut State Park 715 acres in Goshen and Torrington, CT Parking: Seasonal parking near CT-272, Torrington, CT Trail Map        Trails:…

Indian Well State Park

★★★★☆

41.342002, -73.124122

Indian Well State Park Connecticut State Park 153 acres in Shelton, CT Parking: Large lot near 1 Indian Well Rd, Shelton, CT and alternate/seasonal along the same… Read more…

Housatonic Meadows State Park

Unexplored

41.837385, -73.379377

Housatonic Meadows State Park Connecticut State Park 451 acres in Sharon, CT Parking: Small lot near 90 US-7, Sharon, CT Trail Map         Trails:…