Hiking At Devil’s Hopyard State Park in East Haddam, CT
Sunday, July 27th, 2008As I have mentioned before, Connecticut is the place to be if you like parks, hiking, mountain biking and recreation in general. We are learning that people around here take this stuff very seriously. When driving around, it’s hard not to see people jogging, riding bikes, playing golf…whatever.
Last week, we decided to drive down to East Haddam to visit Devil’s Hopyard State Park. I looked at this park’s trail map online and it looked good. The thing that really attracted me was the waterfall. As usual, I opened up Google Earth and checked it out from above. Well, all it looked like was woods. I don’t know, after seeing the satellite view, I didn’t think it looked all that great. We went anyway. I am usually wrong about these things.
I was really wrong about this one. I have been to many state parks in my life and I have to say this one was the best so far. The water does it for me. It’s a very low-key park. There are no highways around and it’s tucked back in the woods. The waterfall is great and the river adds a lot to the hike. This park is going to be on our list for a long time. They also offer camping, which is cool.
I took a bunch of pictures and will add captions where I think they would fit.
We parked on Helon Cone Rd., right off of Hopyard Rd. This was the enterance sign to Devil's Hopyard State Park.
Chapman Falls on Helon Cone Rd.
Stone bridge on Hopyard Rd.
Random photo of stones that make the stone bridge.
Nice rock I found.
The beginning of the unblazed trail heading towards the bottom of Chapman Falls.
Continuing down the unblazed trail.
Chapman Falls at Devil's Hopyard State Park.
Field down near the picnic area.
The covered bridge at Devil's Hopyard State Park.
Beginning to walk down the orange trail towards the Devil's Oven and the Vista.
Eight Mile River at Hopyard State Park.
Cool picture of some moss.
Sign leading to Devil's Oven.
Devil's Oven at Devil's Hopyard State Park.
The perfect camping spot along Eight Mile River.
Lake at Devil's Hopyard State Park.
Cool dude leaning against a big tree. Is that my Sizzle Chest shirt again?
Like I said, it’s a really nice park. I also took some video. Check them out…
