Hiking Sunnybrook State Park in Connecticut

Our adventure to Sunnybrook State Park is a prime example of why it helps to do a bit of research on your destination before you just take off and go. 🙂 As mentioned in the video, we planned on heading to a state park near White Pines Campground called Stillwater Pond State Park.

After glancing over the name, of course you expect to have a pond somewhere in the state park, but we didn’t realize it solely consisted of a pond. Luckily in that portion of Connecticut there are literally 3-4 other places to go hiking within a 20 minute drive of the Stillwater Pond State Park.

As we were driving to Stillwater, we actually drove by a sign pointing to Sunnybrook State Park so we decided to hit that up instead.

NOT A BAD CHOICE!

Turns out, it wasn’t such a bad choice. I have a feeling we wouldn’t have gone wrong with any of the places we decided to go in this portion of the state. If you get up and away from the suburbia that is southwest Connecticut, there are quite a few woodsy scenic areas the further north you travel.

SATELLITE IMAGE FROM ABOVE (courtesy of google maps)

When we first got to Sunnybrook State Park we were a bit confused on what it had to offer. Looking on Google maps it seemed as if you could just drive all the way down a road and park near a circular shaped pond.

However, when we got there we just saw a small gravel parking lot with the road going to the pond closed off. Turns out there are bunch of little trails shooting off of that main road that vine throughout the park.

BEAUTIFUL WILDFLOWERS

After making our way down this seemingly abandoned road, we arrived at our original goal, the pond in the google maps photo. It wasn’t the most beautiful day with quite a bit of cloud cover, but Deanna still managed to get some pretty awesome photos of the wild flowers surrounding the pond.

GRASSY PATH LEADING TOWARDS THE WOODS

We gazed around the pond for a while and then decided to see what the wooded area had to offer as far as trails go. The nearest trail we saw was labeled light blue and headed off into the adjacent woods.

It is amazing how the scenery can change so drastically between a few feet of open area to wooded canopies. It immediately felt cooler in the shade from the trees and we heard a variety of birds chirping away in the distance.

DEFINITELY PRINT A TRAIL MAP

–> Sunnybrook State Park Trail Map <–

I am pretty glad I took a picture of the park’s map at the entrance on my phone. Otherwise it would have been quite a bit difficult navigating through this wooded area.

The trails twist and turn and can definitely throw off your sense of direction. We do bring a compass with us every time we hike just in case, but maps are always quite handy.

FANTASTIC WATER FEATURES

After hiking through what seemed like most of the park, we got on a trail that was surrounded by water on either side of us. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the park because well, I really like water features.

It is always so relaxing hearing water bubbling down a stream with a gentle breeze blowing in your face. This park didn’t offer any overlooking vistas of mountains in the distance or vast valleys, but it did bring us a relaxing and peaceful hike through nature.

OTHER NEARBY HIKES

Peoples State Forest

Kent Falls State Park

Macedonia Brook State Park

Mt Tom State Park

White Memorial Conservation Center

NOTE FROM WRITER

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Adventure On!