East Granby - Cowles Park to Metacomet to Tariffville Gorge

Date Hiked:  Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Number in Group: 8
Estimated distance round-trip: 2+ miles
Weather: 60°F and sunny
Resources:  FVHH previous hike, Along the New England Trail
Highlights of the trip: View from Metacomet, Farmington River


With foliage season in full swing, it was time to climb up high somewhere for a view.  This week, we ventured back to Cowles Park.  We had visited Cowles Park in the spring, but hadn't climbed up to the Metacomet Ridge and the lookout over Tariffville Gorge and the Farmington River.

We hiked through Cowles Park and crossed the power lines to get to the Metacomet.  Sitting on one of the power lines as we came out of the woods was some sort of hawk.  It was very light colored, at least from the front.  It flew away as one of the large dump trucks working on CL&P's power line project rumbled by.

Going out on a limb (sorry) and saying Immature Red-Tailed Hawk?

I had just read the blog post by Teresa on Along the New England Trail of what she ran into when she was about to take the trail across the power line cut.  CL&P was stringing the cables on the new towers and the cables were whizzing along the ground - with no warning that they were there!  Scary.  We stopped for a moment just to make sure all was clear (and to let two dump trucks pass) and then we headed across.

The new towers (on the right) and a dump truck that just went by.

We climbed up to the Metacomet and headed left/south to the view point over the gorge.  Fabulous!

Overlooking Farmington River.

After a few minutes taking in the view, we hiked down the somewhat confusing trail to Tunxis Avenue and walked to the end.  The ridge we had just been on was just above us.

Looking north along Farmington River.

No kayakers today.

We walked back along the road to the area where the old Spoonville Dam had been.  The dam had been damaged in the flood of 1955 and was in two pieces.  The river was forced to flow between the broken end of the dam and the shore and the volume of water it made it hard for fish to navigate upriver to spawn.  The dam was removed this summer.

Area near the old Spoonville Dam.

We left the river and crossed the street to the orange trail leading us back into Cowles Park.  This was a great hike to do on a beautiful fall day.