Small, busy, and owned by somebody
The 2020 census counted 3,605,944 people here, on a land base the Congressional Research Service puts at 3,135,360 acres, of which 9,775 belong to the federal government. More people than acres, and almost none of those acres federal, is the whole planning problem in one line.
That arithmetic decides the shape of a trip. You are not looking for a corner of public land big enough to disappear into, because there is not one. You are looking for a specific state forest block, a specific gravel road inside it that is open this month, and a specific campground with a permit attached to your name. The distances are short and the rules are dense, which is the opposite of the western pattern and needs a different kind of planning.
It also means the people who answer questions are local. Connecticut has no county government of any kind, so the fire permit, the local road restriction and the parking sign are town business, and the town is who you ask.
Source 5
The forest system is older than most, and it shows on the roads
The state forest programme started in 1903, when the Experiment Station forester bought 627 acres in the town of Portland for 964 dollars and 16 cents under an act of 1901. That purchase became Meshomasic State Forest, and the Division of Forestry records it as the first state forest in Connecticut and the first established in New England. Everything else here grew out of that habit of buying worn-out farmland and letting it come back as timber.
A century on, the management plan for Meshomasic’s Mountain Block describes 6,270 acres with eight miles of forest road open to the public. Woodchopper Road, South Mulford Road, North Mulford Road, Del Reeves Road and Cox Road are open most of the year and posted closed after the first snowfall until the spring thaw has drained, and the department states outright that it does not maintain them in winter. A 2008 survey found the roads passable by a two wheel drive vehicle but short of gravel for proper drainage, and found 51 of 132 culverts without enough fill for safe passage.
That is the honest picture of a Connecticut forest road: a graded gravel lane built for a log truck and a fire crew, drivable in a normal vehicle when it is open, not maintained for your benefit, and gated for a quarter of the year. Ground clearance matters less here than reading the gate calendar.
Source 19
What counts as access, and what does not
The forests are big on paper and awkward on the ground. Natchaug covers over 13,200 acres in seven towns, and its own plan says public access to the forest is rather limited and usually only available where authorised trails cross public roads. The administrative routes into it are named town roads: Firetower Road, Chase Hill Road, Old Colony Road, Ashford Road, Westford Road, North Road, Horse Hill Road, Moon Road, Kozey Road, Iron Mine Lane, Perry Hill Road and Krapf Road, off Route 44 and Route 74.
Beyond those there are forest roads of varying accessibility, used for forest management access, fire protection and low-impact outdoor recreation, maintained by the Division of State Parks. The plan is candid that limited staffing means these secondary roads have had few improvements and that most maintenance is reactive to serious storms. Treat anything past the first gate as a road that had a bad winter and nobody has been back.
The practical consequence is that a Connecticut forest day is usually a town road, a small gravel parking area and a short spur, rather than a through route. Plan the stops, not the traverse.
Source 20
Two wheels have two options. Four wheels have none
The state says it in one line: Connecticut does not have any public areas open to quads. Since the first of January 2006, riding an all-terrain vehicle on state or municipal property, except where specifically allowed, may bring a charge of criminal trespass. The only carve-out DEEP describes on state forests and wildlife management areas is for paraplegic riders holding the proper permit, on ungated roads.
Registered motorcycles do better. The department’s own off-road page describes Pachaug State Forest in Voluntown as over 22,000 acres of public land, a smaller number than the 26,477 acres the forest’s own page gives, with roads and trails shared by hikers, snowmobilers, motorcyclists and equestrians, and the designated enduro trail is the one motorised trail in the system. Shenipsit State Forest in Stafford hosts privately organised enduro races once or twice a year, which need approval 90 to 120 days ahead. That is the whole state list.
For anything else with knobbly tyres, the federal answer is Thomaston Dam, where the Corps of Engineers has run a two-wheel trail bike area since 1975. Three and four wheeled machines are prohibited there as well, which makes Connecticut unusually consistent: no public ground in the state, state or federal, takes a quad.
Source 10
The summits you can drive, and the ones you cannot
Connecticut publishes its own list of places with a view, which is a useful planning document because it quietly separates the ones with a road from the ones with a trail. Dennis Hill, Haystack Mountain, Mohawk Mountain State Forest, Mount Riga State Park at Bear Mountain, Mount Tom, Naugatuck State Forest, Pachaug at Mount Misery, Penwood, Platt Hill, Shenipsit at Soapstone Mountain, Sleeping Giant, Talcott Mountain at Heublein Tower and West Rock Ridge are all on it, along with Fort Griswold, Gillette Castle, Lamentation Mountain, Lovers Leap, Southford Falls and Squantz Pond.
Of those, a handful put a vehicle near the top. Haystack Mountain has a paved park road partway up to a parking area below the stone tower. Dennis Hill has a gently sloping road to the summit pavilion. West Rock Ridge has Regicide Drive to the South Overlook. Mohawk has a forest road to the trailhead below its communications tower. Most of the rest are a walk, and Mount Tom in particular is a one-mile tower trail rather than a drive.
Every one of those roads has a season. The northwest park roads open in late April and close in November, and West Rock Ridge runs its drive from Memorial Day weekend to the last weekend in October. A summit that is fifteen minutes from a state highway in July is a locked gate and a hike in March.
Source 18
Weather sets the calendar, and the northwest keeps its own
At 5,009 square miles Connecticut is the third smallest state, 90 miles across and 75 from top to bottom, with about 100 miles of coastline and its highest ground in the northwest corner at 1,000 to 2,000 feet. That small a state should have one climate and does not.
Most of it averages three to four feet of snow a year. The coast runs about 20 inches in the southeast to near 35 in the west and centre, with lean winters under 15 inches and heavy ones at 60. The northwestern highlands climb past seven feet, and totals over 150 inches have been recorded at higher elevations in particularly snowy winters. Outside those highlands, snowfalls of more than an inch are rare before mid-November and after mid-April, but April in the northwest can still deliver ten inches every few years.
The growing window tells the same story from the other end. The freeze-free period runs 155 to 170 days over much of the state and only 125 to 135 days in the northwest and the local highlands east and west. Measurable snow cover holds from late December to early March in most of Connecticut. Read that against the gate dates and the shape of a year here is clear: forest roads from April to the first snow, park summit roads from late April to November, and a long quiet stretch where the driving is paved.
Source 7
Passes and routes
-
Pachaug State Forest enduro trail
58 miles
Voluntown, Plainfield, Griswold
The one motorised trail in the Connecticut state forest system. It runs through wooded ground and public roads alike, is marked by a white diamond with a red arrow, and starts from the enduro parking area on Spaulding Road in Plainfield. Riders must stay on the designated trail or on roads open to passenger vehicles, and motorcycles are barred from hiking trails and from any part of a multiple use trail that is not the marked motorcycle route. 38
- Vehicle
- Registered street-legal motorcycle and a current motorcycle licence. An ATV registration is not valid
- Season
- Year round except mud season
-
Pachaug State Forest roads, Chapman and Green Falls
Voluntown, Sterling, Plainfield, Griswold, North Stonington, Preston
The gravel road network through the largest state forest in Connecticut, 26,477 acres over six towns, with two campgrounds and an equestrian one on it and the Mount Misery overlook above them. An alcohol ban is in place across the forest and buses seating more than 30 passengers are not allowed. In winter the unplowed gravel becomes the snowmobile and ski network rather than a driving route. 38
- Season
- Gated roads typically closed 1 January to 31 March, earlier in severe weather
-
Thomaston Dam trail bike area
Thomaston, the Naugatuck River valley
Corps of Engineers ground on the Naugatuck River, where a trail area was formally designated on the west side of the reservoir in 1975 and a trail management agreement with a local club has run since 1979. The park covers over 800 acres of public land and the Corps records 849 acres of federal land there. The basin floods: at a pool stage of 12 feet the trail system closes, and at 26 feet parts of the paved basin road flood and access is restricted. Several days of drying and repair follow a closure. 31
- Vehicle
- Two-wheel trail bikes only, with the state registration plate attached and the registration shown on entry. Three and four wheeled vehicles are prohibited
- Season
- 1 May to 14 October, weather permitting
-
Meshomasic State Forest roads, Mountain Block
8 miles
East Hampton, Portland, Glastonbury, Marlborough
Eight miles of forest road open to the public through the 6,270-acre Mountain Block of Connecticut’s first state forest: Woodchopper Road, South Mulford Road, North Mulford Road, Del Reeves Road and Cox Road. The same survey found the roads short of gravel for proper drainage and 51 of 132 culverts without enough fill for safe passage, so expect soft edges and rough crossings. Off-road riding and all-terrain vehicles are not permitted anywhere in the forest. 19
- Vehicle
- A 2008 survey found the roads passable by a two wheel drive vehicle
- Season
- Posted closed after the first snowfall until the spring thaw has drained; not maintained in winter
-
Cockaponset State Forest, Turkey Hill Block
Haddam, Chester and nine other towns
Over 17,000 acres scattered across two counties and eleven towns west of the Connecticut River. The state describes its winter route as unplowed forest roads through deciduous and evergreen woodland with occasional views of Turkey Hill and Pattaconk Reservoirs, easy going and wide enough for two-way traffic, which is also a fair description of the driving surface the rest of the year. 39
-
Housatonic State Forest block roads
Sharon, Cornwall, West Cornwall, Canaan
Over 10,000 acres of ridge, gorge and river ground in five separate blocks, each with its own way in. Sharon Mountain is reached from the Route 7 and Route 128 junction at West Cornwall, north on Route 7 then immediately left on West Cornwall Road for 3.6 miles. Cream Hill is reached by River Road and Music Mountain Road. Canaan Mountain is entered through Beckley Furnace, Gold’s Pines from Route 128, and Mine Mountain only on foot from the Appalachian Trail. The forest’s snowmobile route runs 10.6 miles from a trailhead on Mount Easter Road, the gravel road off West Cornwall Road. 40
-
Natchaug State Forest access roads
Eastford, Ashford, Pomfret, Chaplin, Hampton, Mansfield, Brooklyn
Over 13,200 acres in seven towns, entered from Route 44 and Route 74 by named town roads rather than by a forest through route. The secondary forest roads beyond them exist for management access, fire protection and low-impact recreation, are maintained by the Division of State Parks, and the forest’s own plan says limited staffing has left most maintenance reactive to serious storms. 20
-
Mohawk State Park and Forest road
Goshen, Cornwall
Four thousand acres on the ridge above Route 4, with a forest road in from a point 1.5 miles east of the Routes 4, 43 and 128 junction, running 1.5 miles to a T intersection and then a short distance to parking. Ten and a half miles of trail climb toward the communications tower on the 1,683-foot summit, shared two ways in winter because of the narrow shape of the property. The black spruce bog below it is a glacial sink about 40 feet deep and is reached by trail and boardwalk. 42
- Season
- Open daily April to November, 8 a.m. to sunset
-
Haystack Mountain park roadPaved
2 miles
Norfolk, Route 272
A twisting paved park road that climbs halfway up Haystack Mountain to a parking area, with the upper trailhead for the 34-foot stone tower at the end of it. The tower was built in 1929. Out of season the gate closes and the same road becomes the walk in. 43
- Season
- Open to vehicles late April to November; road closed and walk-in only November to late April
-
Dennis Hill summit roadPaved
Norfolk, Litchfield Road
A gently sloping road to the summit pavilion on a 240-acre estate given to the state in 1935, with views north and west from a building that has been a summer residence and a wartime lookout. Parking at the top is limited to about 40 vehicles, and buses seating 30 or more are not allowed in the park at all. 44
- Season
- Road open late April to November; walk-in facility November to late April
-
Regicide Drive, West Rock RidgePaved
1.6 miles
Hamden, New Haven
The park road from Wintergreen Avenue to the South Overlook and Judges Cave, on a six-mile traprock ridge that rises from 400 feet at the south summit in New Haven to High Rock in Bethany, which the park page puts at 715 feet in its introduction and 700 feet in its hiking notes. The ridge road proper, Baldwin Drive, was built as a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s, runs 5.6 miles and is closed to cars, so the drivable part is the short climb and the overlook. 45
- Season
- Memorial Day weekend to the last weekend in October, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
-
Connecticut State Route 169Paved
32 miles
Northeastern Connecticut towns on Route 169
One of the two National Scenic Byways in the state, through what the Federal Highway Administration calls one of the last unspoiled areas in the northeastern United States: colonial homesteads, churches, stone walls, meeting houses and private schools between classic New England towns, with maple and pine stands and glacial boulders strewn through the fields. An hour to drive without stopping, or a full day to visit what is along it. 30
- Season
- Year round
-
The Last Green Valley corridor
Northeastern Connecticut and south-central Massachusetts
The Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor, 1,100 square miles across 35 towns in two states, still 77 percent forests and farms by the Park Service’s account. It is the landscape Route 169 runs through and the reason the northeast corner feels emptier than the rest of the state. There is no single road through it and no entrance gate; it is a designation over a working countryside of mill villages and town centres. 35
-
Merritt ParkwayPaved
37 miles
Greenwich to Milford on Route 15
The other National Scenic Byway, and the one most likely to catch out a loaded vehicle. The Federal Highway Administration praises the Art Deco and Art Moderne bridges of the 1920s and 1930s, and those bridges are exactly why the size limits exist. Allow an hour to drive it in something that fits, and route around it in anything that does not. 30
- Vehicle
- Nothing over 8 feet tall, 24 feet long or 7 feet 6 inches wide. No trailers, recreational vehicles, campers or rental trucks
-
Rocky Hill to Glastonbury ferry
Rocky Hill and Glastonbury across the Connecticut River
A state-operated crossing the Department of Transportation calls the oldest continuously operational ferry in the United States, with origins dating back to 1655. Weekdays 7:00 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. and weekends 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., five dollars a vehicle on a weekday and six at the weekend, two dollars on foot or by bicycle. It runs on demand rather than to a timetable. 28
- Season
- 1 April to 30 November, closed Thanksgiving
-
Chester and Hadlyme across the lower Connecticut River
The second state ferry, running since 1769 under the Department of Transportation, on the same hours and the same fares as the upper crossing. It saves a long loop around the lower river and lands you under the bluff at Gillette Castle. No vehicle weight or length limit is published for either boat, so none is stated here. 29
- Season
- 1 April to 30 November, closed Thanksgiving
Rules worth knowing
- There is nowhere in Connecticut to ride a quad
- The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection states that Connecticut does not have any public areas open to quads, and that since 1 January 2006, except where specifically allowed, riding an all-terrain vehicle on state or municipal property may result in charges of criminal trespass. The only exception it describes on state forests and wildlife management areas is for paraplegic riders with the proper permit, on ungated roads. Riding on private land that is not your own needs the landowner’s written permission and a Department of Motor Vehicles registration. 10
- The statute describes a certificate the state does not issue
- Chapter 447 of the General Statutes defines an all-terrain vehicle for state land as no more than fifty inches wide, no more than six hundred pounds dry, on two or more tires made for unimproved terrain, with a straddle seat and an engine over fifty cubic centimetres. Section 23-26b then says no person shall operate one on state land without first obtaining a certificate from the Commissioner and without registration under section 14-380, and section 23-26c directs the Commissioner to evaluate state property and make some of it available. Nobody under twelve may ride on state land at all. 24
- DEEP says the policy waits on the legislature
- The department’s own ATV policy page states that it is still illegal to operate an ATV on state land, and that the policy it describes, with registration of every machine ridden in Connecticut, a dedicated account inside DEEP and a rider certificate requiring a safety and ethics course, will only become effective when supporting legislation is passed by the General Assembly. Read that before you trailer a machine here on the strength of a map that shows state forest. 11
- Registration, and written permission you carry on you
- Chapter 255 requires a valid registration for any snowmobile or all-terrain vehicle unless it is operated on premises the owner owns or leases, at thirty dollars for a three-year registration, with the number displayed in reflective characters at least three inches high on each side of the front and the certificate carried on the machine. Section 14-387 bars operation on any public highway except a square crossing at a full stop by a licensed driver, never on a limited access highway, and bars operation on any land without the written permission of the owner or, on state land, of the agency in control, which must be carried by the operator. 23
- In a state park or forest, a vehicle stays on the road
- The state park rules restrict motor vehicles, including motorcycles and motorised bicycles, to roads, parking lots, campsites and other areas posted for them, and prohibit the use of all other motor vehicles except motorised wheelchairs. Speed is twenty miles an hour unless posted otherwise, parking is limited to the places and hours marked, and no all-terrain vehicle or snowmobile may be used on any state park or forest land except in areas posted for that use. 22
- Park hours and forest hours are different
- State parks and state forest recreation areas are open for public use daily between sunrise and sunset, state parks are open to public vehicular traffic between 8:00 a.m. and sunset unless the department authorises otherwise, and other state forest areas are open from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset. Those three windows are not the same length and the gate you are behind decides which applies to you. 22
- Camping is a permit, a marked site and a footprint
- Camping is restricted to the places and times the department designates, and anyone wishing to camp in a state park or forest campground must secure a permit and be eighteen or older. Equipment on a single site may not cover more than four hundred square feet of ground, a maximum of two motor vehicles is allowed per campsite unless posted otherwise, and six is the limit on occupants except for a parent with their own children. Lights out by 11:00 p.m., nothing added to a fire after 11:00 p.m., quiet hours from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., and a permit is forfeited if the site is not occupied in the first twenty-four hours. 22
- Fourteen nights, two at a time
- Connecticut offers more than 1,400 campsites including 38 rustic cabins. Every reservation carries a two-night minimum and a nine dollar reservation fee, and the maximum stay is 14 consecutive days everywhere except Hammonasset Beach and Rocky Neck, where it is 21. Bookings are taken up to eleven months ahead through the state’s reservation service or by telephone, and cancelling costs the same nine dollars. 37
- The camping season is April to Columbus Day
- The Austin F. Hawes Memorial Campground in the 1,245-acre American Legion State Forest at Barkhamsted sets the pattern: 30 campsites and six rustic cabins beside the West Branch of the Farmington, a season that begins in mid-April and ends on Columbus Day, a six-person maximum per site and a 14-day maximum stay. Sites run seventeen dollars a night for a Connecticut resident and twenty-seven otherwise, plus a processing fee; cabins fifty and sixty. Rustic camping is permitted in the off season. 48
- Some campgrounds take no walk-ins and have no water
- Macedonia Brook in Kent is the one to read before you drive there. The 2,300-acre park has 51 tent and RV sites at fourteen dollars for a resident and seventeen otherwise, and it states plainly that advance reservations are required and walk-ins are not allowed. There are no bathrooms, no showers and no running water, only portable toilets; pets are not allowed and alcohol is prohibited; and cell phone service is described as extremely limited. 47
- Some forests allow no camping and no ground fire at all
- Shenipsit State Forest spreads 7,170 acres over Ellington, Somers and Stafford and carries the Soapstone Mountain tower and the state’s only surviving Civilian Conservation Corps barracks, and its page says there is no camping or ground fires permitted within the forest. Its hours are also its own, half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset. A Connecticut state forest is not a general permission; each property publishes what it allows. 41
- Gated forest roads shut for the first quarter of the year
- At Pachaug the gated roads within the forest are typically closed from the first of January through the thirty-first of March each year, and closures may come earlier if severe weather arrives. That is the standing pattern across the system rather than a Pachaug peculiarity, and it is the single most useful date to plan around. Buses seating more than 30 passengers are not allowed, and an alcohol ban applies across the forest. 38
- A state forest may have no public forest road at all
- Nassahegon State Forest in Burlington covers 1,148 acres and its management plan records that there are no state forest roads used for public or log truck access. What exists are harvest roads and trails not suitable for anything but logging equipment, and drivable roads are largely short spurs from town roads to landings. About 4.6 miles of town roads abut or pass through it, 3.9 of them paved. Check the plan or the property page before assuming a green patch on the map carries a road. 21
- Roads are open to vehicles, trails are not
- Public roadways in state parks and forests are open to registered motor vehicles, including registered dirt bikes, and to non-motorised uses, unless posted closed. Trails and service, logging and other roads are open to foot travel, mountain biking and horses, not to vehicles, unless posted closed. The Connecticut Blue-Blazed hiking trails and the National Park Service Appalachian Trail are limited to hiking except where they overlap a multiple use trail. 12
- Snowmobiles: eleven forests, six inches, and nowhere else
- Snowmobiling is available on eleven named state forests: American Legion, Cockaponset, Housatonic, Mohawk, Natchaug, Naugatuck, Nipmuck, Pachaug, Peoples, Pootatuck and Shenipsit. A six-inch minimum snow depth is required, hours are 8 a.m. to sunset, the speed limit is twenty miles an hour as posted, machines must be registered to run on public land, and operators must be over sixteen and properly licensed except on private land. Snowmobiling is prohibited on all other land DEEP manages, parks, forests and wildlife management areas alike. 13
- The parkways will turn a tall rig around
- Three roads carry the restriction: the Merritt Parkway on Route 15 from the New York line at Greenwich to Exit 54 in Milford, the Wilbur Cross Parkway from Exit 54 to the I-91 overpass in Meriden, and the Milford Parkway on SR 796. Nothing over eight feet tall, 24 feet long or seven feet six inches wide may use them. All trailers are prohibited, recreational vehicles and campers are prohibited, every rental truck is prohibited, and a combination-plated vehicle is allowed only at 7,500 pounds gross or less within the size limits. If you find yourself on one in a prohibited vehicle, the state’s instruction is hazard lights, get fully off the travel way and call 911 for help getting off. 26
- Thirteen feet six inches is the statewide ceiling
- Section 14-264 of the General Statutes says no vehicle whose height with its load exceeds thirteen feet six inches may be operated on any highway or bridge without a special written permit from the Commissioner of Transportation, and sets the fine for a violation at one thousand five hundred dollars. Roof tents, boxes and racks all count toward that figure, and Connecticut has a great many old bridges lower than it. 25
- Clear the snow off the roof before you drive
- Section 14-252a requires the operator of a noncommercial vehicle to remove accumulated ice or snow from the hood, trunk and roof so that it does not threaten people or property, on any street or highway in the state. Failing to do so is an infraction with a seventy-five dollar fine, and if dislodged snow or ice causes injury or damage the fine runs from two hundred to one thousand dollars, or five hundred to twelve hundred and fifty for a commercial vehicle. The section does not apply while it is actually snowing or while the vehicle is parked. 25
- Parking is free on Connecticut plates and priced by park otherwise
- Under Passport to the Parks, vehicles registered in Connecticut pay no parking fee at state park and forest recreation areas. Out-of-state vehicles pay at designated parks from the first of April to the thirty-first of October, and the amount is set property by property: Peoples State Forest lists ten dollars on a weekday and fifteen at the weekend, while Mohawk lists fifteen and twenty-two, with a season pass at 112. Fees are due by 10 p.m. on the day of the visit. 15
- Open burning needs a permit from the town, and it lapses
- Anyone burning in Connecticut must hold a valid and signed permit from their local Open Burning Official. Open burning is not allowed if the Air Quality Index is forecast at 100 or higher anywhere in the state, if the Forest Fire Danger Index is rated High, Very High or Extreme, if ambient air quality standards may be exceeded, if a hazardous health condition might be created, or if DEEP has issued an air pollution episode advisory. The danger rating is posted on the department’s own forest fire danger report. 16
- A campfire outside a campground is a town matter
- DEEP states that campfires and bonfires are not defined by state statute or regulation, and that towns may set their own requirements: the size of the fire, setbacks from structures and property lines, lot size, and whether a permit is needed at all. Burn only clean, non-processed wood, and a fire that creates a nuisance for neighbours or breaks a local restriction is prohibited. Ask the town’s Open Burning Official or fire marshal, because there is no statewide answer to give you. 17
- There is no county government to call
- Connecticut’s eight counties ceased to function as governmental and administrative entities in 1960, and in 2022 the Census Bureau adopted the state’s nine Councils of Governments, which also serve as planning regions, as its county-equivalent geography. That is why a federal dataset now files Connecticut places under Northwest Hills or Capitol rather than Litchfield or Hartford, and why every practical question here, from a burn permit to a road restriction, goes to the town. 6
- One rulebook covers 142 properties
- The state park and forest system runs to 142 state parks and forests, and the same regulations, hours and camping rules apply across all of them unless a property posts something stricter. That is a help and a trap: the general rule is easy to learn, and the exceptions that matter, an alcohol ban, a no-pets campground, a forest that forbids ground fires, live on the individual property pages rather than in the regulation. 9
- The only federal campground is a Corps of Engineers site
- West Thompson Lake in the northeast corner is the whole of federal drive-in camping in Connecticut: 24 sites made up of 11 basic, 11 with electric and water hookups and two lean-to shelters, on level gravel pads that the Corps says suit anything from a truck-back pop-up to a 45-foot camper, with flush toilets, hot showers, a dump station and firewood on site. The Corps posts the campground’s operating status on that page and has had it out of the reservation system for repairs, so check it before you plan a night there. 32
- The national park unit is small and closes at dusk
- Weir Farm National Historical Park at Ridgefield and Wilton is more than 60 acres of woods, fields and waterways around a painter’s house and studio, and it is open daily from sunrise to sunset, year round. It is a half-day stop rather than a base, with no camping and no road system of its own. 33
- Most of the federal presence here is a line on a map
- The Park Service lists five things in Connecticut and three of them are trails or routes rather than places: the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the New England National Scenic Trail running 235 miles from Long Island Sound across long ridges into Massachusetts, and the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail, 680 miles of the 1781 march. The other two are Weir Farm and Coltsville National Historical Park in Hartford. None of them gives you ground to drive or camp on. 34
- The refuge is ten units strung along the coast
- Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge is made up of ten units spread across 70 miles of Connecticut coastline, well over 1,000 acres of forest, barrier beach, tidal wetland and island habitat at Salt Meadow in Westbrook, Falkner Island off Guilford, Great Meadows at Stratford, Sheffield and Chimon Islands at Norwalk and elsewhere. Several units are islands, so a vehicle gets you to a parking area and no further, and the Congressional Research Service counts 2,425 Fish and Wildlife acres in the state across all holdings. 36
- A Connecticut scenic road is a local designation, not a byway
- The Department of Transportation runs a state scenic road programme with its own test: a candidate road must abut significant natural or cultural features such as farmland or buildings on the National or State Register of Historic Places, or give views of marshes, shoreline or forest, must run at least a mile, and must carry development that does not detract from its character. That designation is about protecting a road’s character, not about marking a touring route, and only Route 169 and the Merritt Parkway carry the federal byway label. 27
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment
Road
Primitive Road
Road
Primitive Road
Trail
Roads open to all Vehicles, Yearlong
Roads open to all Vehicles, Seasonal
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Yearlong
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Seasonal
Special Designation, Yearlong
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails open to all vehicles, Yearlong
Trails open to all vehicles, Seasonal
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Yearlong
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Seasonal
Trails open to motorcycles, Yearlong
Trails open to motorcycles, Seasonal
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" in Width, Yearlong
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" or Less in Width, Seasonal
Wilderness Area
Wilderness Study Area
