Sessions Woods Falls

Falls so Cool They be Ice
Sessions Woods Falls, Burlington

February 1, 2014

[Note: For my Waterfalls pages, I’m using the town designation used by the Connecticut Waterfalls 2013 guidebook. Because sometimes it’s fun. But not really now, except it notes that they are “south of Burlington, which would mean Bristol. And they are not in Bristol, I promise. Anyway, this falls are as far away from the visitor center as possible, which means you need to hike over a mile to the. Good.]

fallsMy comment above isn’t a knock on Bristol at all. It’s more of a, “Hey, this really great and scenic wildlife management area is mere minutes up Route 69 from downtown Bristol and I think that’s really great.”

And Sessions Woods IS pretty great. Other than the confounding fact that the nature center isn’t open on weekends, the trails are great for families and they all provide educational signage along the way. They have a bunch of events throughout the year and I highly recommend you make it part of your life.

It’s a been a big part of my life for a few reasons. The nature center, the Tunxis Trail system snakes through here, the Burlington Trail Master Challenge, these falls, an observation tower… big fan, big fan.

The waterfall is found down a short but steep spur trail off of the main Beaver Dam Trail (which is really a dirt road). I just read this on another site: “This is one of the most rewarding easy hikes in the entire state.”

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That’s a bold statement. I guess I agree with it to some degree. Anyway, from the visitor center lot, you need to find the main Beaver Dam Trail. If you go right, you’ll have more downhill and it’s about 1.4 miles to the falls.

fallzThe day I took these pictures wasn’t as cold as it looks, but it was still the dead of winter. There were people on the main trail, but I must admit that I was a bit surprised to find a Granddad and grandson down at the falls. The pathway down is a steep set of stairs and with the snow and ice, they weren’t exactly easy to navigate. The little kid seemed fascinated by the frozen falls and that warmed my heart.

Now get out of the way so I can take some terrible pictures already. Thanks. (Actually, here’s a fun challenge – can you find the little kid? He’s in one of the pictures, but is sort of camouflaged, which I think is pretty cool.)

The falls only fall 15 feet or so, but they are quite pretty. By the way, the original (and long-standing) name of the stream here is Negro Hill Brook. The name is still retained here and there in Burlington, but it is being phased out. (These falls were the Negro Hill Brook Falls until recently. The name of the brook now is Falls Brook. Which is just boring.)

Oh, and my man Justin Coleman has a nice shot of the falls actually falling.

fallss

Back to CTMQ’s Waterfalls
My page on hiking at Sessions Woods
Trail Map of Sessions Woods

One response to “Sessions Woods Falls”

  1. Linda says:

    That is indeed a cool photo of the falls falling by Mr. Coleman – he had to be in quite the interesting position to get that particular angle. Which is not to say that your rockesque-looking photo of the child in the falls above is not cool also … just not quite as cool. :-)

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