Fun Hikes Around Glastonbury

With the weather warming up, now is the perfect time to get outside and hit the trails. Hiking is a great way to get in your cardio, but walking outside also comes with other benefits. Hiking also helps to clear the mind, makes us more mindful, increases happiness, and improves energy. Walking on uneven surfaces, like hiking trails, helps to increase core strength, balance, and overall proprioception (your body’s ability to determine its position in space). Luckily, Glastonbury has a ton of parks to choose from if you want to get out into nature for a nice walk. My first piece of advice is to wear deet, wear light colored clothing, and tuck your pants into your socks to help prevent ticks. Also, ticks like to hang onto long pieces of grass and weeds, so try sticking to well beaten paths.

The first great park in Glastonbury is J.B. Williams Park, located at 705 Neipsic Rd, Glastonbury, CT 06033. This park has a pavilion, pond, softball fields, children's playground, and hiking trails. The convenient thing about this park is that most trails look back to the parking lot so you don’t have to worry about getting lost. A trail map is available online, and this park is rated 4.6 out of 5 stars on google.

The second place to hike in Glastonbury is Black Ledge Falls, located at 3874 Hebron Ave, Glastonbury, CT 06033. This is a largely wooded parcel of land that has some marked walking paths. You can either make this hike and out and back to look at Black Ledge Falls, or there are trails if you wanted to make a loop back to the small parking lot. You can find the trail map online at glastonbury’s town website.

Another great place to walk in Glastonbury is Buckingham Park located at 1285 Manchester Road, Glastonbury, CT 06033. This park has a half mile, well-marked loop that starts at some athletic fields, then goes into the woods where it follows Meyers Brook, and then pops back out at the athletic fields. This walk would be perfect for someone who only has 30 minutes for some exercise.

One last place to check out this spring is Great Pond Preserve located at 451 Great Pond Road, Glastonbury, CT 06033. This preserve is about 70 acres, and offers multiple marked hiking trails. One leads to the Great Pond itself, which is a 12 acre glacial drawdown pond. The pond trail also leads to the largest red cedar tree in New England with a circumference of 10’. You can also participate in a self-guided Tree Walk of the Great Pond Preserve which was created by Brendan O’Connor of Boy Scout Troop 540 as his Eagle Scout Project. The links for both the trail map and the tree walk are located at Glastonbury’s town website.

I hope everyone is able to check out some of these cool hikes, and gets outside to enjoy some fresh spring sun before it gets too hot out. Remember to protect yourself from ticks, and always bring a water bottle along in case you happen to be out longer than intended.