Sky’s The Limit # 7: Collis P. Huntington State Park

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 Collis P. Huntington State Park. This is # 7 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. 🙂

Collis P. Huntington State Park covers three town lines – Bethel, Newton and Redding bordered by Centennial Watershed State Forest in the southern part of the Park closer to Redding. We began our hike from the Redding side of the Park closer to West Lagoon and Lily Pond. The park land of 1017 acres was donated to the state by Archer Huntington and was named after his father, Collis P. Huntington, a railroad tycoon.

Park provides space for several activities such as Canoeing; Horseback Riding; Skiing; Biking; Hunting; and Pond Fishing apart from Hiking. We had taken this hike at the beginning of leaves changing colors. But with the many rains and warmer days we had, most of the leaves went from green to yellow or brown directly and fell to the ground making a beautiful canvas for photography.

The leaves made a beautiful layer on the pond water as well.

The trail took us by Lake Hopewell all the way to South Pond before it looped around to come back to Lake Hopewell and West Lagoon.

We passed this geological feature, although it looked like huge pieces of a very large rock.

And couple of Trail Bridges.

At one junction near East Lagoon and West Lagoon we came across the Park signage with hand drawn trails and hand drawn explanation.

As much as I was impressed by the hand drawn signage, I was mesmerized by the view of East Lagoon from here.

We came across a few equestrians from a neighboring farm taking their horses for a stroll inside the park.

Anna Hyatt Huntington, wife of Archer Huntington, was an internationally famous sculptress. Her sculptures of bears and wolves greet the visitors at the entrance of the Park.