Black Rock State Park and more

George has mentioned in the past that we should go for picnics. He has also said that he would like to see every state park in Connecticut. I thought, "we can do that". Then we found out there are 139 state parks. Sounds a little intimidating. Today we decided to check one off the list and did not want to travel too far. As we looked at the list, we realized that some local spots we had been to, we did not know were referred to as state parks--for example, Satan's Kingdom in New Hartford. I still don't know if a trip to all 139 is a goal, but we plan on visiting some new ones we've never seen.

Today we went to Black Rock State Park in Watertown. The picture above was our view from our picnic table.

This picnic table was submerged in water-it doesn't look that way from the picture, but those leaves are all under water. This is where we ate--not. Though George did offer to take off his shoes and socks and roll up his pants to wade out there for a photo op. I just wasn't sure what was under those leaves and told him that was okay.

After we ate, we went for a nice walk along the trail.

We soon came to numbered sites for the state forest camp ground. Then we found these cute cabin rentals.

Here are some more shots from our little walk.

 

This is the picnic table where we ate. I loved the two trees which grew parallel and then at the top they became entwined and attached. George said they were married.

 

A few parting shots....

 

From here we drove up the road to the Black Rock Lake Dam. These are pictures taken from the top of the dam.

This is a view of the lake we had just come from at Black Rock State Park.

 

After this I needed a bathroom and we found one at a convenience store/gas station. While there we talked to the worker who kindly told us of the Thomaston Dam, not far from here. This time we could drive over the dam. We didn't have the energy for the walking trails, but did enjoy seeing the railroad built right along side the dam. I had forgotten that we actually rode the train along this dam. I just checked my old blogs and it was in 2008. There are a couple of pictures from the train if you look for that blog post along the side of this blog. It's under June 2008 "How I Spent My Summer Vacation."

 



I thought this was a neat shot from the picnic area near the dam


 

Thus ends our day. We can cross another state park off the list. Sorry we could not do it complete justice.

 

Please note that you can click on any of the pictures for a closer view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Okay, now you may be sorry that I learned how to post pictures.

It looks like once again we won't be going on a vacation, but we will do day trips. We took off a day this week to go to the Naugatuck Railroad Museum and to ride the train. It's starts at the historic Thomaston Station in Thomaston, CT which was built in 1881.

The train ride is an hour long. It rides along the Naugatuck River. The pamphlet shows it as a pretty blue river--it is quite muddy and not so beautiful. The ride is not very scenic, but nice if you like train rides. At the end we got a nice view of the Thomaston Dam. I imagine it would be beautiful in the fall.

My goal for each trip we go on is to find a piece trivia or interesting fact (last blog was the "you're fired" trivia). Well, this time it was interesting but sad to hear that Alfred Bishop was the one who dreamed of this railroad. I don't know exactly his accomplishments to achieve that dream, but he died the day before the first trip. :(

Another very interesting fact is that the railroad is run completely by volunteers. It is amazing that they can keep it going with just volunteers. They obviously love the railroad.

He hasn't made it a goal, but I think George's thing is to meet and talk to a new stranger on every trip. He always does. Maybe between the two of us--his talking and my trivia and picture taking, we should take a video camera and make a documentary.
Don't worry, we won't bore you with that.

Reminder, you can click on a photo to enlarge it. You may see someone you know in the first one--gee, he's not talking to anyone in that picture.