Wadsworth Falls State Park

PLEASE NOTE: This post was written in 2014, and while it should still give you a good overview of the experience, it is also possible that it may contain some outdated information. Please check their website for the most current information, especially about things like hours and pricing.

You can also see some updated pics of our adventures in Wadsworth Falls State Park in this post about the CT DEEP Sky’s The Limit Hiking Challenge from 2019.

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2014 Post:

Cut to the chase. Take me to the Momsense.

I spent my college years at the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) and enjoyed many great things during my time there.  My first three years were spent studying (of course), going to sporting events, enjoying the fabulous music scene and more.  But my last year at school, when the thrill of late night parties was starting to wear off, I began to enjoy another wonderful feature of my college town, the great outdoors.

Now I certainly wasn’t a huge outdoors woman, but I enjoyed going on hikes in the beautiful North Georgia woods and my favorite type of hike was one that ended with a waterfall!

But these days, going on a long hike with my mini-crew to find a new waterfall is not usually a feasible outing.  So when I heard that there was a waterfall in Connecticut that you could see without enduring a long hike, I was excited to check it out.

Wadsworth Falls State Park is located in Middletown, Connecticut and includes an easily accessible waterfall, a pond for swimming, and plenty of trails for hiking.

Last week, during this string of beautiful August weather we have been experiencing, we decided to go on a family outing to check out this new-to-us destination.

We followed the directions to the main entrance of the park but realized this was the parking area for swimming and not the parking area for the falls themselves.  I wanted our first stop to be the waterfall, so we found directions for that location and continued on our way.  To get there we continued past the main entrance and down Route 157 about a mile, then we made a left on Cherry Hill Road, and saw the waterfall parking area on our left hand side.

From the parking area, there was a ramp that led us down to a large grassy area.  There we found the park and trail map.  We also found lots of signs indicating that picnicking is not allowed in this area.  It is such a beautiful space that it would be tempting to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy it there, but it isn’t allowed.

We didn’t need a map to find the waterfall, but we knew we wanted to also check out the trails nearby.  So I snapped a picture of the map with my phone for future reference.

From the parking lot, you can actually hear the sound of the waterfall, so you know it is close by.

There are two main paths in this area that lead to the waterfall.  One is ramp-like and the other is stairs.  We took the ramp-like path.

After a short walk, there it was — the beautiful Wadsworth Falls.  What a peaceful place.

We took a brief rest on the bench nearby.

But soon the kids were off exploring the waterfall and the rest of the area.

My husband even decided to give them an up front view of the waterfall.  {You can get a good perspective of the fall’s size compared to them.}

We also took them up the stairs nearby which leds to a viewing area above the falls.  I was a little nervous about them being up there, but it looked fairly safe.  Well, safe except for the giant hole in one side of the fencing.  Watch out for that.

The view from the top.

The hole in the fence.  Not cool when you are like me and scared of heights.  My heart is racing just looking at this picture.  In reality, though, it wasn’t an issue for us.

After the falls, we headed back across the park and in search of the trails.  My husband is the official map reader in our family, so he informed me that the trails started over the bridge.

This bridge.  He said we had to walk a little ways along the road, over a railroad track, and then would see the starting spot.  

I told him multiple times that he definitely had read the map wrong and there was no way that we were supposed to walk on the side of a busy road up to the trails.  But I was wrong and he was right (oh I hope my husband doesn’t read that!).  It was not an easy route to take with little kids, but we were only walking on the side of the road for a short distance and then we saw the trails ahead.

After looking at the map, we decided to follow the orangeish trail to the blue trail to the Little Falls.  If you look at the map below, you can find our path by following the pink arrows.

It was a nice leisurely walk.  There was one hill along the way that required the kids to work a little harder than normal, but nothing too challenging.  The only hard part was the blue trail detour we took to get to the Little Falls.  But that was only a short part of the hike and could easily be skipped.  I think you could also feasibly bring a jogging stroller with you on this outing.  There was one small rocky area that you would need to get over, but that was it.

We “hiked” for a bit.  Along the way the kids found places to rest and plenty of things to explore.

My husband says that all of my pictures are of his backside. Looks like he is right again! At least it is a cute backside 🙂

Here are a few pictures of the short cut down to the Little Falls.  You can see that it was a bit steep.

And this was the Little Falls.  The day we were there they really were little.  Not much water was running down this baby.

But my kids didn’t seem to care about the lack of water flowing down the rocks, they decided to create a little stage and put on a show.  Whatever keeps them entertained!

And they made a few rock formations.

Then it was back up the blue trail and back home.  Keeping them motivated for the second half of our hike was a bit more challenging, but we finally made it.

Outside of the trails, we had to make that detour again back down Cherry Hill Road and back to the Wadsworth Falls parking lot.

But our adventure wasn’t quite finished.  We had one more stop on our Wadsworth Falls State Park outing, we wanted to try out the swimming area.

So we got in the car and headed back down Cherry Hill Road towards Route 157.  Made a right on Route 157 and the entrance to the swimming area was about a mile down on the right.

We were visiting on a weekday so there was no charge to park, but on weekends and holidays there is a parking fee.

The parking area and the beach area were very close to each other which made this an easy outing with our little ones.  I attempted to get a few shots of the parking area’s proximity to the swimming area below.

The beach was small but nice.  There was a lifeguard stand, but no lifeguard on duty (and the signage stated that there was no lifeguard at this location).  Correction – A reader let me know that there are lifeguards on the weekends during the summer.

 

My kiddos swam in the water and dug in the sand while I attempted to relax on the beach.

A full restroom facility and changing areas were nearby which was nice.  We had to walk over this sweet covered bridge to get there.

There were plenty of picnicking spots here as well and more trails nearby.

We didn’t stay at the beach area long because, well, the kids were super worn out.  I guess we had already hiked to a waterfall and hiked the trail!  I was tired 🙂

We really enjoyed this outing and I was so thankful that I found out about it from a mom that had already visited and shared her experience with our local moms group — that is how I learn about some of the best places!

If you have visited a great waterfall in the state, please tell me about it in the comments below.  I’d love to check out another one!

Wadsworth Falls State Park

721 Wadsworth Street, Middletown, Connecticut

The address above is for the main park entrance, which is the location of the swimming area.  If you are looking for the parking area for the waterfalls, that is off of Cherry Hill Road.  Get directions here.

Hours:

Open daily from sunrise to sunset.

Pricing:

Waterfall parking (Cherry Hill Road)

• FREE

Swimming area parking (off of Route 157/Wadsworth Street)

• Weekdays: FREE
• Weekends and Holidays:  $9 for residents of CT and $15 for non-residents of CT
• Having a state park season pass would get you in for free
• If visiting on the weekends, check out your local library’s museum pass program to see if they offer a state park pass that you can use.

Details:

• Stroller Friendly: Sort of. For the waterfalls, there is a ramp from the parking area down to the waterfall.  Part of it is a dirt ramp, but you could make it with a stroller.  The trails were not hilly and were a dirt path.  You could use a jogging stroller on the length of trail that we went on but would find it difficult to use on the blue trail.  You could definitely use a stroller at the swimming area.
• Coffee Mug Friendly: YES.
• Restroom: YES.  There is a port-a-potty in the parking lot for the waterfalls.  There are full restroom facilities at the main parking/swimming area.
• Baby Changing Station:  NO.
• Parking: YES. There are two parking locations:  (1) for the waterfalls off of Cherry Hill Road and (2) for the swimming area off of Route 157/Wadsworth Street.
• Food for Sale: No.  At least I didn’t see any.
• Outside Food Allowed: YES. It is only allowed in the designated picnicking areas which are near the main entrance/swimming area.
• Cash Required: YES.  But only on the weekends/holidays for parking at the main gate.
• Dress Code: NO.  But I would recommend wearing comfortable clothes and shoes.  I would also bring swimming items if you plan to visit the pond.
• Evening/Weekend Hours: YES. 

Tips & Things to Bring:

• Don’t bring food to the waterfalls.  No picnicking is allowed in that area.  There are picnicking locations at the main/swimming area.
• No swimming is allowed in the waterfall area.
• Bring your dog.  Dogs on a leash are allowed in all areas of the park except the beach.
• For any non-walkers in your crew, you could bring a baby carrier or a jogging stroller.
• Bring the outdoor essentials:  water, suntan lotion, bug spray, hats, sunglasses, etc.
• No glass, pets or alcohol are allowed in the beach area.

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