Wolcott Park & Children’s Forest

Waste Not, Wolcott
Wolcott Park & Children’s Forest, West Hartford
October 2026

For some reason, if you Google this place right now in October 2026, it says that it is “permanently closed.” I have no idea why it says that. I have read that the trails here became quite overgrown at some point several years ago, but they are currently quite nicely cleared and very easily accessible from multiple entry points.

That’s not to say anyone not from the neighborhood should make any sort of effort to get here to walk these trails, as they are not extensive or especially interesting. Some serve as cut-throughs for kids to get to school, but others are just for passive recreation, dog-walking, and time-wasting while your kid is doing something boring nearby.

I fell into the latter category, as my son Calvin was refereeing town travel soccer on the Wolcott Park soccer field. The funny part of this is that I did this same thing a year prior when Calvin was doing the same thing, but I somehow deleted all those pictures… so I did it again. Which is fine. The woods here provide a nice walk.

According to the town’s site, “Wolcott Park has been a West Hartford landmark since the early 1800’s.” Originally owned by Chester Francis, it changed hands a number of times until it was purchased by Henry A. Wolcott and his wife Annie around 1907. The Wolcott family ran the Wolcott Farm, as it was known then, until the land was sold to the Town in the mid-1950s. Wolcott Elementary School was completed in 1957. The construction of the park began in the summer of 1972… so I’m not really sure “Wolcott Park has been a town landmark since the early 1800’s.”

Today, the park itself is quite nice… new tennis, pickleball, and basketball courts, a lighted little league field, a splashpad and playground, newly paved upper and lower parking lots. There’s also a community garden as well. It’s all rather nice. But we’re here for the trails.

In the late 1990’s, the town and Wolcott Elementary worked together to create the Children’s Forest. Before then, these woods were full of trash, graffiti, and I’m sure it was just a mess. The town stepped in and helped clear large areas by removing fallen trees, donated mulch for the trails, and helped remove poison ivy. (They could stand to come back to do that last bit again.) Volunteer days helped remove tires, mattresses, and dozens and dozens of bags of assorted trash. Flash-forward to my walk-through in 2026, and…

There is a wide, mostly mulched trail that connects from Wolcott Road to the school grounds and the park. It’s clean and frequently used by locals.

There’s an “outdoor classroom” here which I hope is used by the kids and for some reason there is a rather impressive raised boardwalk over some wetlands as well. I question its necessity because two other trails will get you to the same parking lot, but it absolutely does sort of take walkers “away” – away from the school, the park, the parking lot, and the road. Now that I think about it, I love the random raised boardwalk path.

And there’s something even more awesome here: The Haunted Forest.

This is a traditional event the kids put on every year (well, every recent year anyway) where they create little scenes of terror in their woods shortly before Halloween. And I think that’s just rad. I’m happy to live in a town in a state where kids can still worship the devil, be Wiccan, and practice the dark arts without getting hassle from local fundamentalist folks.

(I kid, I kid.)

Now at the pond, a trail circles it heading west. From this point onward, I didn’t see any more people which is a little weird considering the upkeep on the trail and the fact that I was still bordering the town park. In fact, in short order a bridge took me to the basketball (2!) tennis (4!), and pickle (6!) courts.

Back into the woods and I decided to “just keep going.” Keep in mind these woods are surrounded by the school, the park, roads, and houses. It’s amazing how it really doesn’t feel like that for large stretches – not to mention busy New Britain Avenue, the whole Westfarms mall area, and I-84 are all very, very nearby.

I was happy to see a herd path through the bramble underneath powerlines out to a neighborhood. This tells me kids are walking to school through these woods. Maybe. I’ll hold out hope.

The trail isn’t as wide here, now in the western portion of the woods behind the school, but it’s still fairly well cleared all the way to its end at a paved path to the back of the school. I was a bit alarmed at a few trails towards the school that were bordered by forests of poison ivy. Kids! Be wary!

I took a different trail split on my way back to the parking lot, this time staying closer to the edge of the school grounds. Perhaps Google says these trails are “permanently closed” because of its proximity to an elementary school. Truth be told, it’s really not very close to the school but I suppose during recess it could be sketchy? I don’t know, I was here on a late Saturday afternoon.

I poked around the community garden and then made my way back through the outdoor classroom and took the boardwalk again just because it is there.

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