Rocky Hill Refuge

Eesh
Wyndham Land Trust’s, Rocky Hill Refuge, Woodstock
November 2024

I went to the Rocky Hill Refuge on Rocky Hill Road in Rocky Hi – err, in Woodstock. (Coincidentally, I had just “completed” Rocky Hill a week or so prior.) You do not need to ever go to the Rocky Hill Refuge on Rocky Hill Road in Woodstock, however.

That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate this preserve. Though it’s kind of funny to think that there was a minor battle over a dozen new houses here in rural Woodstock.

In September of 2016, Woodstock residents Bet Zimmerman Smith and Patrick Smith donated a 58-acre property to the Wyndham Land Trust in honor of Douglas Craig Zimmerman. The land, now called the Rocky Hill Refuge, sits on the highest point of Rocky Hill Road in Woodstock and is a combination of agricultural field and forest. A 12-lot subdivision had been approved on the lot some years ago, but Bet and Patrick were able to buy the land and convert the subdivision back into open space that will be protected into perpetuity by the land trust.

I live in a town that will sell off every last blade of grass to development in a heartbeat, and here are people in Woodstock protecting some random woods in the middle of nowhere. I love them for that.

There’s a giant hillside field and some woods with a farm road though it. If you park at the ridiculously large hiker’s lot, you walk down the flat woods road through some woods until you reach the property boundary and then you turn around and go back to your car.

Or, if you’re a little more adventurous, you park at the pullout to the field and walk across that and then go into the woods and along that road/trail. In fact, no matter how you choose to experience Rocky Hill Refuge, you’ll come away with the same feeling: “why did I just do that?”

I’m sure this will change over time, but in 2024 the trees were being culled – presumably removing all the dead ash trees. As such, the hiker’s lot, which now that I think about it was likely enlarged for heavy machinery, was covered in pointy rocks so as to not get too muddy. Eesh, I didn’t enjoy driving on those pointy rocks.

I want to reiterate that I’m super happy this refuge exists. There’s a farm across the street with horses and horse riders and it’s great that the rural look and feel is preserved here rather than a bunch of ugly cookie-cutter houses.

But I’d also reiterate that you can skip this one and not lose any sleep over it.

Wyndham Land Trust
CTMQ Hikes the WLT properties