Hidden Valley Preserve ( Hiking Washington, Connecticut )

Hiking at Hidden Valley Preserve in Washington, Connecticut. Proceed to the parking area identified on the AllTrails directions. There’s plenty of parking at the trail head on both sides of the Shepaug River. We started on the north side of the river and proceeded immediately across a small bridge. The hike proceeds along the Shepaug River for quite a while heading upwards. Along the way there are several places where you can stop and get a really good look at the river and the flowing water. A very large foot suspension bridge is also near the beginning of this section. The hike continued on the north side of the river until a large set of stairs led you down to another bridge across the Shepaug River. This is a very picturesque hike with plenty of water views. The hike continued along the river this time on the south side still heading further out from the parking area. Eventually there’s a trail no the right which starts to head away from the river and up a larger hill. This section of the trail takes you past a quartz mine and a really nice rock formation. You will see in the several photos from the quartz mine area. This is definitely a steeper section in Hidden Valley Preserve. The return trip has a couple of nice overlooks especially if you take a few extra side trail excursions. The excursions I took added about a mile onto the hike but it was well worth it. On the return trip, we went over the large suspension footbridge on the way back to where we parked. Hike Statistics: 4.3 miles, 505 feet elevation AllTrails: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/co... #Hiking