Devil’s Hopyard State Park

Not the best picture, but Mike and me at the viewpoint.
PC: Elizabeth A.

Cost: free
Kid friendly: yes
Parking: a few parking lots
Bathroom: some porter potties
Website: https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/State-Parks/Parks/Devils-Hopyard-State-Park

My experience: Sunday, July 5, 2020

We went to hike to the Devil’s Oven and the Scenic Viewpoint on the orange trail. We parked in the lot on Hopyard Rd. and crossed the wooden bridge. We missed the Devil’s Oven going on the western side of the loop, but there was access to it on the eastern side of the loop. The trail leading to the Devil’s Oven is rather steep. The Oven is just a very large rock that has a tiny cove. We also accidentally happened upon the viewpoint because the trails and maps are a bit confusing. It took a little while to find the other direction around the loop, but the view was lovely. I bet it would look gorgeous in the fall. It was a beautiful trail, especially along the creek.

Monday, November 9, 2020

My mom and I went to hike around Chapman Falls. First of all, the country roads are a little narrow with all the fallen leaves, so drive carefully! We parked in the somewhat small lot across from the waterfall on Foxtown Rd. It was about half full at around 1:30pm.

We decided to take the orange/white trail. DON’T RELY ON THE MAP ON SITE! It is not accurate. The updated one is online here. I tried using AllTrails, but I didn’t have any cell service (Sprint). It took about 40 minutes to take the white loop trail south from Foxtown Rd. to orange and back to white and around.

Even though many of the leaves were still on the trees in Groton at this time, most of them had fallen off in East Haddam. It was beautiful, and a little difficult to walk on the copious amount of leaves on steep inclines and declines. There weren’t too many steep inclines/declines, but I recommend good hiking shoes.

The waterfall was gorgeous! Much bigger than I imagined. The different layers of falls was really cool! There’s a little pool at the bottom that seems like you can swim in during the warmer months. This seems to be the main attraction in the area.

At first I said I wasn’t going to return because the map onsite was so terrible, but now that I found an accurate one online, I may revisit this park and try a different trail.