Saugatuck Falls Natural Area

"I woke up at my mother's house on Thanksgiving morning remembering that I had a 10K step challenge to tackle before I began consuming wine and turkey. I've never been hiking or even gone for a walk in this area, so I decided to wing it and quickly did an AllTrails search in the nearby vicinity for something slightly more challenging than a flat gravel path. (Note: I'm not a huge fan of AllTrails for a number of reasons, but it 's not a bad resource for finding a hike and being able to track where you are on said hike - you can't trust the ratings and the alleged difficultly levels AT ALL though.) I did the 3.2-mile Saugatuck Falls and Hardwood Trail Loop, which was a lollipop hike starting from the main entrance across the street from John Read Middle School up, then going right on the Falls Trail to and past the Saugatuck Falls, up the Hardwood Trail, then descending on the Burn Trail skirting the archery area before heading back on the Knapp Way/Hemlock Trail to the entrance again. I was a little apprehensive about the parking situation; everyone seemed to be parking at the middle school, which definitely had plenty of spaces to go around when I was there. Regardless, the idea that a local authority would be heartless enough to tow a car 20 yards from a hiking trail entrance on Thanksgiving morning seemed unlikely and there were no issues. Your enjoyment level of this hike (and this is true of most of them, in my experience) is likely going to be dependent on the time of year and weather. This was a gloomy, late fall morning, and it showed. I have zero trouble believing that this is a very pleasant optic in warmer weather with more foliage to play around with, but what I saw was a lot of murky wetlands and blah surroundings. It looks like there might be a rhododendron tunnel toward the tail-end of the hike, but in late November, it's a bunch of bare, skeletal branches. It rained within the past 24 hours, so the lower elevation areas (notably on Hemlock) were pretty muddy, and some light rock-hopping was required. It wasn't too slippery, thankfully, but you definitely had to be careful. My favorite part was likely the stretch of Falls Trail that ran along the Saugatuck River. It wasn't too damp, with a lot of trees and rocks to easily scamper up and down, coupled with some solid rapids. I'm not totally sure which part was considered the Saugatuck Falls (I was expecting a more dramatic waterfall situation), but that whole area had some decent babbling brook action that called back to some scenes from The River Wild. The trail maintenance itself wasn't too bad - I don't recall any required bushwhacking, for instance - but some of the markers were pretty rough. It also looked to me like whomever had been in charge of painting the markers on the trees didn't actually know the basic placement utilization of the blazes. For instance, if the trail is changing direction, you're supposed to have two blazes, with the top one either being to the left or right to indicate that direction. These just had two markers directly on top of one another, so you had to do some extra navigation to figure out where the trail was actually going. That's trail blazes 101, and it's odd to me that the group or people in charge of maintaining this area aren't aware of that. I wouldn't mind taking a stroll through here again in warmer weather, but nothing about this adventure blew me away. I did appreciate making a little more room for some stuffing though."

"Fun way to pass the day but it is not an easy flat path. Lots of tree roots and rocks. Wear hiking boots for stability. Your ankles will appreciate that. You still need to jump up and down on a rocky path. And the path is narrow. At times there was room for only one person. Thankfully it was not crowded when we went. Took the white trail to the falls. Might try the other trail and go up at the beginning of the trek."

"Nice for a short hike: 1-1.5 hr. The White trail has a lot of stones and tree roots near the fall but the rest is pretty easy. Blue and white trails and well identified. You may park in the school during weekends."

"Nice trail. Buggy, so take lots of spray. The falls trail is difficult, climbing over roots and rocks. Take one of the other trails and then down to the falls."

"Wonderful little park. It makes you forget you are in CT...and it feels like you are in the middle of the mountains. With the recent rain the falls were just delightful!"