If you want to check on the hikes that I completed so far as part of this challenge, go here.
Prologue: A hiking challenge is going on this year by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEEP) in the state of Connecticut where I live, “Sky’s The Limit”. We have to finish a hike in the chosen 20 Park and Forest locations before December 3rd this year Each location has some specific points of interest that the departments asks us to take pictures of and document them. Most of the Parks and Forests are located in an hours of driving distance, except a few. I decided to take this challenge and hopefully will be able to complete all of them. Here we go!
Next up is Wharton Brook State Park. This is # 9 on the list provided by DEEP. I am not following the order they have listed. I am just going to any hike I can whenever I can from that list. 🙂
Warton Brook State Park is located in the town of Wallingford, Connecticut; with sandy knolls and wooded area to enjoy a quiet and solitude picnic as well. This was called Traveler’s Wayside in the early 1900s, as motorists would stop by here to service their cars, wash up and have a quiet picnic.
We started on the unpaved park road, going over the bridge over he Wharton Brook before we reached the Foot Trail that would lead into the Wharton Brook Natural Area Preserve.
The Wharton Brook flows into the Allen Brook Pond, which is a perfect place for some fishing and swimming as well apart from picnicking. At the other end of the Pond, it flows down into Allen Brook over these man-made structure.
This 1-mile hiking trail takes us through the Wharton Brook Natural Area Preserve where we can see sand plains providing habitat to rare plants and insects. Several Pitch Pines trees are seen being grown around the area. These pitch pines need lot of sunshine which is offered by this Preserve. The leaves of these trees are dark green needles arranged as 3 needles per fasicle.
Some of the flora and fauna we saw along the trail are: Lily Pads on one end of the pond; Berries and Flowers; Fungi; and a family of turtles (or tortoises may be!) basking in the sun.
We also came across this plastic construction that looked like rain water catcher. Couldn’t find anything about it around the construction either.
A very small trail but with plethora of flora and fauna at every step, this was a very much an educational trail in my opinion.
Galavant Reflections 