Wojan Woods

Sure, (Wo)jan
Wojan Woods, West Hartford
December 2025

This is a Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy property.

I hiked this trail in three minutes. You, too, can “hike” this trail in three minutes. You can jog it in one.

You can hike this trail in less time than it will take you to read about this trail.

Especially if I keep writing one sentence paragraphs that don’t really propel the story of this trail forward.

This trail is maybe 1/5th of a mile. It’s a loop trail in a tiny patch of suburban woods in between to dead-ends of the same road. The trail is in these woods, here:

Now, I live in West Hartford and I have been complaining for decades that my town develops every possible patch of space and has never, not once in my lifetime, preserved greenspace. As a result, there is little to no hiking in town. So this is what we end up with.

Shout out to the Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy for making the effort to clean up these woods and clear a trail. They’ve done a fantastic job and even have handsome signage at either end of the property. (In the winter, you can see through the woods from sign to sign.)

The property was donated to the Land Trust by the Wojan-Steenburgh family in 2020 and… doesn’t really feature anything. There’s li’l Rockledge Brook I guess? Believe it or not, restoration funding from the West Hartford American Rescue Plan Act allowed for study and improvements to support the natural diversity of the site. The Trust worked with many local organizations to enhance the open space and existing trail which is used by neighbors and children on their way to school.

Okay, that’s cool. The kids are using it.

The restoration project reinforced the central path and defined a new brook path by planting native plants which support wildlife. There are some signs to educate the kids about the plants and restoration work. They even put some benches in. I can imagine these woods were a mess with all sorts of garbage invasives – like my woods are behind my house… bittersweet, garlic mustard, and more. They even brought arborists in to check the tree health in this patch of urban woods.

Wojan Woods was nursed back to health by a slew of organizations: West Hartford Garden Club, West Hartford Tree Project, Nature-based Solutions Working Group of the Sustainable West Hartford Commission, Connecticut Master Gardeners, Westmoor Park Arboretum, West Hartford Public Works and Park Department and Ironwood Community Partners. Even tiny little trails like this involve a lot of hard-working people.

I can use this opportunity to shout out the West Hartford Tree Project which is amazing. If you live around here and are not familiar, Google them. I love them.

And there it is. Wojan Woods. It’s funny to me that this trail exists, that I sought it out and wrote about it, sure, but mostly because you just read about it.

Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy
CTMQ Hikes the Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy Trails