Weekend Wanderings - Part One!

We had quite the weekend, beautiful weather and lots of traveling and lots of walking, so I will do day one, today and part two on Wednesday. The foliage maps said the foliage was best at the upper corners of Connecticut, so we went up from RI and crossed over from there.

Since we were at the upper end of Rhode Island, I wanted to visit a campground I had seen online. It is a state park and they are just putting in real bathrooms and showers this year, so I wasn't sure how nice it was. I was surprised at how beautiful the campground was, large sites and a beautiful wooded area on a lake. We will definitely try a weekend next year.

They have a beautiful beach area, lots of sand but the dry season really lowered the lake. Of course Bean was happy to get out and enjoy some beach time. This would be a wonderful place to paddle, as well.

From there we crossed into Connecticut and I saw the sign for Quaddick State Park. Another area I have wanted to see and I was not disappointed. The park is beautiful, lots of picnic areas and a nice place to launch the kayak, we will be returning here.

We continued on and enjoyed the beautiful foliage and headed down to Putnam, our main destination. I always go online and looks for fun things to do in areas, we are traveling in and the Putnam River Trail looked like the perfect place to go for a walk. There are various places to park, so we took the one, closest to the falls.

The falls are amazing and this is with a lower water level.

We walked down the trail a bit further and I took a photo looking back up to where the falls come out to the river. The river has several old mills along the banks.

I saw several interesting building across the river, and the bridges were narrow, so I decided to drive around, since I was nervous about walking Bean on a narrow sidewalk. The first building that caught my attention was this old stone, Baptist church, framed by the beautiful foliage. It was on the corner of two streets, so it was hard to get all of it in a photo.

We found a park and walked a bit down the river, to another mill and waterfall. It is a beautiful area, and there are also a lot of antique stores and art studios, but we skipped that, on this trip.

Another area that I wanted to visit was Old Furnace State Park in Killingly. It was later in the day and I wasn't sure if I was up to another hike, but I wanted to at least visit to see what it was like and maybe enjoy some views from the lake.

We got there and found a nice parking area, and a trail that led up from the backside of the cliff. I couldn't pass up a view from the top, so up we went. The trail was not that bad, but it was all climb, the good thing is, it was a short hike and the view from the top, was well worth it.

No photos with Bean at the top, I wouldn't let him near the edge, he doesn't comprehend heights and is always trying to pull towards water, so not this time.

When we came down, we walked along a path at the bottom of the lake, and found an opening so we could look out at the pond and see the ledge, where we were standing. It was a long day, lots of walking and hiking, but rejuvenating. When we got home, the kids were here, so they visited and had some dinner with us and I crashed. And instead of staying home and resting, we took off on Sunday, stay tuned for part two, coming Wednesday.