Our Trip to Lakeville, CT
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006I have been holding on to this post for a while. As you may have noticed from some earlier posts, Laura and I like to skirt the border of Connecticut and New York. There are some pretty cool areas along the line. Every time we go there, we see something new. This time, I wanted to head up Lime Rock Park and Lakeville, CT to enjoy the drive.
Now, just to give you a reference point, the Lakeville/Salisbury area is the most Northwest part of Connecticut. If you drive north from Lakeville into Salisbury and look to your left, you will see the Berkshires. Don’t be fooled by these tree-filled looking mountains…there is tons of stuff to do in there. One day, a while back, we drove for about 10 miles down a dirt road on the very top of the Berkshires. We had no idea where we were, but couldn’t turn around because the road was so thin. Good thing another car wasn’t coming in the opposite direction. We passed so many camping areas and a few much hidden resorts. We finally headed down a paved road and popped out right in Salisbury. It’s a very cute town, so that’s why I wanted to go back and visit the area. I am not sure I would be able to find the road back up into the mountains today…that’s how well it was hidden. We visited this area towards the end of the trip.
We started out by heading up Rt.7 in Connecticut…past New Milford, Sherman and Kent, where we stopped for a few minutes at Kent Falls State Park.
I used to visit Kent Falls when I was a kid, but like so many other things we do when we are kids, the memory was a bit blurry. I wanted to visit again. This is a great park to visit with kids. They can run around and create all sorts of havoc in the front field and then everyone can walk to the top of the falls on very woodsy stairs. It’s not a very far hike, but quite scenic. Make sure to bring your camera.
We continued North on Rt.7 and quickly made a visit into Cornwall over the covered bridge, which is very cute.
The great thing about driving through New England is that they take very good care of their covered bridges. This was a very small, but functional town, although it is quite a distance from a major food store or mall. Back on the road, we came across an area that reminded me of why I like this area so much…its beauty.
People travel out West to see the beauty of the landscape and forget about what is right in their backyard.
If you have never been to Lime Rock Park, you should really make it a destination. There is a really cool race track with lots of turns and a straightaway. You can watch motorcycles and many different types of cars racing around the track. There are even days where you can bring your own car or bike there to get timed. It’s pretty exciting. The last time I went, I was with my cousin Joe and we just chilled on the lawn watching the cars all afternoon. The best part is that this park is very casual. You pull in, park and walk to the spot you want to sit yourself for the rest of the day.
A few miles past Lime Rock is the “Lake” in Lakeville. It is called Lake Wononscopomuc. Say that 3 times fast…or once for that matter.
We had to pull in here to check it out. There was no one swimming at the lake today due to the clouds, but we were really interested in how a place this nice gets paid for up here where the population is pretty low. I walked inside the building to talk to someone. A woman inside explained to me that since there were many people from New York City who had summer houses here, there was good tax revenue generated for the town. Also, there are a few private schools in the area that bring in some money. She was actually pretty excited to tell me about how the native residents get all of the good benefits and great schools for their children paid for by out-of-towners. Seemed like a good deal to me. There were some really nice houses up here in this area…
On the way out of the lake area, we noticed a really interesting restaurant called “West Main.”
This really has nothing to do with our trip, but thought it would be cool to show you what you can do with an old school house looking building.
After spending some time in Lakeville, we started to head home taking Rt.41 into Sharon, CT and through Amenia Union, NY on to Rt.22 South.
If you decide to take a trip like this, make sure you bring your camera, plenty of food and a good map. It will most likely take all day, but will be worth the drive!
