Chatfield Hollow

There is no logical reason why Chatfield Hollow State Park in Killingworth is one of my favorite places in Connecticut.

I'm not into rock-climbing.

I don't fish.

I don't mountain bike; in fact, I don't bike at all.

I don't swim in ponds.

I'm slightly disconcerted by beaches that freeze in winter, and sand surrounded by pine trees seems to me a sort of alien landscape.

I don't picnic very often - in fact I picnic so infrequently that I'm now questioning whether or not picnic is actually a verb.

I do love to walk and hike, but I typically prefer trails designed for lazy people, not the kind where you suddenly find yourself at the top of a massive rock formation with no idea how to get down. 

But despite all that, there is something I love about this park.

It could be the way every view looks different in every season.

Or the way the man-made structures, like the covered bridge and the dam, blend so nicely into the natural environment, almost as if they were here all along.

Maybe it's that this park has history, and by that I mean 1930s history, when the Civilian Conservation Corps built a dam across Chatfield Hollow Brook, and 1630s history, when the Chatfield brothers came from England and built what is believed to have been a gristmill. And then there's the history before that, when what is now the main park road was an Indian trail.

Perhaps it's that you can feel alone here, but you're never really too far from another person walking a dog or pushing a stroller or admiring the way the boardwalk winds above the swamp. 

Of course, you don't need a good reason to like a place. You can like it simply because it has a water wheel, or because there's a stairway carved into the forest floor.

If you go to Chatfield Hollow, be aware that in-season, you can drive through the park and leave your car in one of several lots close to most trail-heads and points of interest; off-season, you have to park near the entrance and walk in.

Killingworth Schoolhouses, Take Two

Back in early December, I found a rare green schoolhouse in Killingworth, and noted that it was one of seven (or eight) that still exist in the town. They're not all as special as the green one. One is part of the Resident State Trooper's house at the traffic circle where Route 81 meets Route 80. One is unrecognizable as a portion of the VFW hall. One (the Black Rock School, above) belongs to the Killingworth Historical Society.

One is an antique store, open by appointment only, located on private property (and currently half-obscured by a lovely mid-February dirty snow mound.)

But this one is a little different.

The former Pine Orchard School is located on the grounds of Parmelee Farm, a historic property now owned by the town. A little cracked and peeling, it seems to have been abandoned here, like a puppy someone stole and couldn't care for. (It wasn't; it was moved to this location on purpose.)

Had I not been looking for it, I would have been surprised to come across it here, in a clearing on a sheet of ice near the start of a nature trail. Though I should know by now that in Connecticut, schoolhouses can show up anywhere.

A Schoolhouse Of a Different Color

Killingworth has had enough of your red schoolhouses, which are cute as heck, but - let's face it - practically a dime a dozen. And your white schoolhouses, almost indistinguishable from churches and town halls, those are getting boring too. Killingworth will see your common old schoolhouses in your tired old New England colors, and raise you a schoolhouse that's green.

The Union District Schoolhouse is one of either eight or seven (sources conflict) former schools that still stand in the town. Whatever the exact count, that's somewhat of a schoolhouse bonanza. And don't think I'm not going back to find the rest of them.

The entire population of Killingworth is something like 6,500, so that's like...well, way too many people to fit in eight one-room schoolhouses. But still.

Perhaps I wouldn't normally take pictures of a relatively unremarkable door...

...or a privy. But they, too, are green.

And if you find this place, on the superbly named Roast Meat Hill Road, you also get a bonus corn crib. Which is not green, but you can't have everything.

Outdoorsy

In some parts of Connecticut, boardwalks are on beaches.


And beaches are on coastlines.


And wheels are on cars.

At Chatfield Hollow State Park, this is not the case. Read more about my trip to this lovely spot in Killingworth here.