Mill Woods Park

Run of the Mill Stuff?
Mill Woods Park, Wethersfield
October 2024

Several years ago I found myself at Mill Woods Park to watch my son’s mighty West Hartford travel soccer team crush the Wethersfield boys. I remember that day not for the soccer game, but because it was the first time I had an Italian chicken cutlet grinder at Wethersfield Pizza House.

You never forget your first time.

Anyway, I never ventured beyond the little kids’ soccer field at the time, and had no idea the wonders Mill Wood Park contains. Wethersfield has a gem of a park here.

Mill Woods is the town’s main recreation park. The Heritage Bike Path runs through here and there is a hiking trail. There’s a dog park, a skate park, bocce courts, swimming, baseball fields, playscape and a picnic pavilion. And heck, The Eleanor Buck Wolf Nature Center is located near the entrance to the park.

I had no idea how large this place was when I came here in the middle of some errands on lovely early fall day. I also had no idea where the hiking trail was an in fact, didn’t know if it was a real trail or just some sort of walk around an athletic field.

The first two areas I walked around left me even more doubtful and I was about to cross Mill Woods off my legitimate trails list. As I was leaving, I decided to turn right instead of left towards the exit.

Oh.

There’s the skate park. And the little league fields. and the town-wide bike path. And the playscape.

I parked again and walked down the Heritage Bike Trail for a minute, thinking this was it. “It” was still very nice.

Then I saw a sign.

No, I mean a real, tangible, wooden sign. The kind that usually denote a trailhead. And that’s exactly what it was!

My persistance paid off and I’d found the woodland hiking trail. (Note that I’m not a complete idiot, I don’t think the location of the trail in noted on any Wethersfield website.)

Off I went into the woods.

The trail is flat and rather featureless, but it very well cleared and blazed for a town trail. It’s also impressively quiet, considering it’s surrounded by Wethersfield suburbia.

Blazes for short and really tall people?

It allowed me to organize my thoughts for other, more important, things going on in my life. After a while I came to the blue spur trail that promised to take me to “Goff Brook View.” After spending a lot of time with Goff Brook east of here in Rocky Hill, I was eager to be done with it and all the visions of Brooke Goff baggage it holds in the 2020’s in Connecticut. (Deep future readers: she’s a multimedia-saturating ambulance chasing lawyer in Connecticut.)

The spur trail was not as nice as the rest of the park and I have no idea why it exists. It dumped me behind an aparment complex with very limited views of Goff Brook, which actually flows through a little gully here.

Goff Brook View

Back to the main yellow-blazed trail and around the eastern end of the property and whoa. What’s this?

Another little pond and an old dam. Goff Brook has a more exciting life than I ever gave it credit for. It starts west of here in the middle of Wethersfield and travels through some pretty areas in its short, winding life.

After the dam, the map suggested I would be spit out at a the little league field to make my way back to my car. However, someone realized that wasn’t ideal and has cleared a newer (not mapped) white-blazed trail that allowed me to stay in the woods a bit longer.

It still took me ultimately out to the field, but behind home plate and from there I was able to see my car across the playscape.

I’d guess I walked a tad over a mile here, and don’t regret it for a second. If I had a little leaguer, I’d probably wander this trail during every endless game I had to attend. (Yes, I realized I started this page mentioning a youth soccer game and I’m fully aware many little league parents would say the same about my sport-watching life.)

Mill Woods park is as good as one can expect from a midsized town like Wethersfield – in fact, it’s more than one should expect.

Look, this trail is entirely run of the mill, but the whole park complex itself is not. I’m glad I checked it out.