Farmington Canal Heritage Trail Intro

Farmington Canal Heritage Trail
Massachusetts border (Suffield) to New Haven

The summer of 2020 – the pandemic summer of 2020 – sort of forced my son Calvin and I to begin riding Connecticut’s rails-to-trails in earnest. Nothing was open for visits in any normal way, so why not ride our bikes. Unfortunately, Calvin grew quite a bit and his little BMX bike was suddenly too small for him. And one of the surprising shortages during the pandemic was… bikes. This hampered our grand plans quite a bit, but he soldiered valiantly on his too-small bike – until he couldn’t anymore.

The full Farmington Canal Heritage Trail is about 84 miles long and extends up to Northampton, Massachusetts. In addition to that, there’s also the 18-mile Farmington River Trail extension that loops west of the canal trail. Some gaps still exist in 2020, notably in Plainville, but the trail still exists there on roads and sidewalks.

There is history along the way, in addition to the beautiful woodland and wetland scenery. I’ll explain some of it in the links below. Let’s roll.

Farmington Canal Heritage Trail

Section 1: Massachusetts border to Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury
Section 2: Hopmeadow Street to Red Oak Hill Drive, Farmington
Farmington River Trail Loop: Red Oak Hill Drive to Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury
Section 3: Red Oak Hill Drive to Canal Street, Southington
Section 4: Canal Street to Temple Street, New Haven
Section 5: Temple Street to Long Wharf Nature Preserve, New Haven

Farmington Canal Heritage Trail