Bigger Hikes

7 adventures tagged Bigger Hikes.

Berlin, CT

Ragged Mountain

The biggest challenge on my list. A rugged traprock loop with real rock scrambles and bare-cliff views down onto Wassel Reservoir and Hart Ponds, in Berlin. About 35 minutes away. Next up.

🚗 About 35 min🥾 Challenging, the toughest on my list so far. A roughly 5.5-mile blue/red-blazed loop over rocky traprock with real rock scrambles, cliff edges, and some steep pitches. Sturdy footing required.

Bigger Hikes

Hamden, CT

West Rock Ridge

My favorite hike, just ahead of Mount Higby, and it's the closest real ridge to home. A busy family pond at the bottom with fishing and a bathroom, then you climb and the ridge is all yours, quiet enough to hear the chickadees. About 20 minutes away.

🚗 About 20 min (the closest real ridge hike)🥾 Moderate, and it earns it. A real climb up from the pond to the ridge, a good workout, then rocky, rolling ridge-top footing with cliff edges. The flat loop down by the water is easy on its own if that's all you want.★★★★☆

Bigger Hikes

Bethany, CT

Mount Sanford

Easy and super quiet, all woods with rolling ups and downs until one climb opens up a big overlook across the central valley. More Bluff Head than Higby, but the calm and the view are the draw.

🚗 About 30 min🥾 Easy. A rolling woods trail with ups and downs, then a climb up to the overlook.

Bigger Hikes

Guilford, CT

Bluff Head

The quiet southern end of the same blue-blazed ridge as Mount Higby. No views on the wooded climb, then two great viewpoints over the pond at the top. Easy, empty, and worth it.

🚗 About 35 min (I hit an hour once thanks to construction, so check the roads)🥾 Easy. A short, gentle climb that barely registered. The easiest of my ridge hikes so far.

Bigger Hikes

Meriden, CT

Chauncey Peak

The next traprock ridge over from Mount Higby, and it delivered. An easy hike with a climb you barely notice, ending at open cliffs over Bradley Hubbard Reservoir, a golf course, and a row of peaks. Higby's awesome little cousin.

🚗 About 35 min🥾 Easy. The climb is so gradual you barely notice it. The one real caution is the steep, unrailed cliff edge at the top.

Bigger Hikes

Middlefield / Meriden, CT

Mount Higby

A rocky traprock ridge over Meriden with peekaboo views the whole way up and open ledges to sit on and catch the wind. I hiked it solo to scout it. Easier climb than I expected, and a keeper.

🚗 About 35 min🥾 Moderate, mostly for the distance. The climb is a steady, easygoing uphill to the cliffs and ledges, not a gnarly scramble.

Waterfalls

Cheshire, CT

Roaring Brook Falls

The tallest single-drop waterfall in Connecticut, sitting at the top of a steep, barely-marked climb in Cheshire. I hiked it solo to scout it first. Big payoff, but this one's for older kids, not the stroller crew.

🚗 About 35 min🥾 Moderate to strenuous. Steep, and with almost no trail markings.