Trail Tour
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Trail Tour |
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East Branch
West Branch North Branch
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West Branch: Connecticut This section utilizes urban and suburban greenspaces and parks. It loosely follows a group of traprock outcrops from Long Island Sound to the Quinnipiac River. No contiguous established trail currently
exists in this section. The proposed route can be followed by piecing together
smaller trails, parkland, and residential streets. For detailed information on
how to follow this route, and for information on the New England Trail proposal
for linking the parkland in this section together, see HERE. W-1.0: Lighthouse Point The proposed terminus of the West Branch of the New England Trail would
begin at the base of the 30 foot high New Haven Light House at Lighthouse Point Park in
New Haven, Connecticut. The park features rocky coastline with tidal pools, picnic facilities,
lighthouse, and a historic grand carousel. A small, sandy beach near the mouth of New Haven Harbor. Pardee Seawall Park is a narrow green parkway bordering the north side of Morris Cove. It features park benches and a paved footpath. W-1.3: Black Rock Park , Forbes Bluff, and Black Rock. Black Rock and Forbes Bluff are precipitous sea cliffs overlooking New Haven Harbor. They are contained within New Haven's Black Rock Park. A trail ascends the bluffs and passes through the park. Picnic facilities are available. W-1.4: Black Rock Fort and the site of Fort Nathan Hale. Two historic fort sites active from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War. The parks include ruins, a fishing pier, a drawbridge, band shelter, and picnic facilities. A small U.S. Coast Guard station located in the center of the park is closed to the public, but Coast Guard vessels may be viewed easily from the Black Rock Fort site. W-1.5: East Shore Park East Shore Park features recreation fields, tennis courts, picnic areas, and green frontage along New Haven Harbor. W-1.6: Fort Wooster Park Another historic fort site, Fort Wooster is
located in Fort Wooster Park, a wooded traprock hill. A number of footpaths
cross the park. Quarry Park Preserve is a wooded brownstone ridge located on the border of
East Haven and New Haven. A marked loop trail currently circles through the
park, traversing the terrain of the old, shallow brownstone quarry. Quarry Park is part of a
larger wooded municipal property that extends from Warwick Street to East Grand
Avenue. Fairmont Park, located on the same ridgeline that Quarry Park occupies, offers
views of New Haven Harbor, woodlands, fields, and a community garden. Several
unmarked trails traverse it. The Quinnipiac River runs 38 miles from central Connecticut to New Haven Harbor at Long Island Sound. Much of the salt-marsh at the mouth of the river has been protected as the Quinnipiac Meadow-Eugene Fargeorge Preserve and Hemingway Creek preserve. The New England Trail Proposal envisions a combination trail and boardwalk through the marsh edge from Hemmingway Creek north to Middletown Avenue (passing under the I-91 overpass on the concrete bridge buttress along the edge of the river). An interpretive trail currently passes through two-thirds of this area.
Resource list City
of New Haven: Lighthouse Point Park
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