Windsor - Northwest Park

Date Hiked:  Friday, November 9, 2012
Number in Group: 6
Estimated distance round-trip: 3 miles
Weather: 54°F and sunny
Resources:  Northwest Park, Trail Map
Highlights of the trip: Views of Rainbow Reservoir, farm animals, nature center

We had a beautiful day for our hike at Northwest Park.  In fact, some of the kids even wore shorts.  Do they know it is November?

Northwest Park is a beautiful park with varied and well maintained trails.  Today, we decided to hike along Rainbow Reservoir.  We started at the nature center and headed west along a farm road until we came to the reservoir.  We were standing on a concrete structure  (An old dam or bridge?  Old topo maps didn't provide any clues) that juts out into the reservoir and we were surprised to see a bunch of people canoeing.

Canoes on the reservoir.

Across the reservoir is the Mandell JCC's Camp Shalom.

As we backtracked to the yellow Wetland Forest Trail, we went by a pond.  The trail here is pretty wet, but solid enough that we were able to cross.  On the far side of the pond, we could see a beaver lodge.

Hard to see beaver lodge on the far side.

We turned north on to the yellow trail and then continued north along the edge of the reservoir on the pink-blazed Rainbow Reservoir Trail  There were several areas that we could get down to the water again and the kids enjoyed practicing their rock-skipping skills.  We were at one of these spots when a plane took off from nearby Bradley International Airport.  The reservoir is nearly at the end of the runway, or at least it seemed that way, as a very large jet roared by overhead.  We could also see the public boat launch where the canoes were being taken out.

Erratic.

Poor tree.

Rainbow Reservoir Dam.

We came to the end of the pink trail and took the short (and kind of hard to see) black-blazed Triassic Trail through the woods toward a farm road that would lead us back to where we started.

One of the fields.

After we got back to the nature center, we went to the animal barn.  We all enjoyed looking at the animals.  There were sheep, goats, a turkey, and a donkey.  There were also cows in a nearby enclosure.

Hey!  Don't stick your tongue out at us!

One of the Billy Goats Gruff?

The nature center has quite a few nice displays.  The only thing that was a little bothersome was that most of the mammals were not labeled.  This is generally not a problem because I can tell a bear from a porcupine, but when it came to the fox and coyote, it would have been helpful.  Plus, just having a little placard with extra information about range, habitat, etc. is always nice. 

Two coyotes and a gray fox (I think).

Black bear and a porcupine.

Bobcat.

One of the displays that I should have spent more time on was the one titled "Birds of Prey from Below".  There was a nice board showing the different birds and how to distinguish them, and then when you look up, there are painted birds for you to identify.

In the pond display, there were a couple of live turtles (Box turtles and Painted turtles) and a stuffed beaver and heron.

Northwest Park has a lot to offer.  In addition to hiking, the animals, and the nature museum, there is also a tobacco museum.  They offer summer camp, classes, and other nature activities (there was an owl prowl this weekend), as well as a coffee house concert series.  In the winter, you can rent skis and snowshoes (or bring your own) and enjoy the trails. 

Check out Steve Wood's very informative page on the Northwest Park Nature Center and the tobacco museum at his CT Museum Quest website (my go-to guide for all things CT).