We were looking for a short hike with a water view and decided to check out the Quinebaug Lake State Park, and the Quinebaug Lake Loop Trail. According to Wikipedia, the Quinebaug Lake State Park comprises 181 acres in the town of Killingly, Connecticut. The state park offers fishing, hiking and non-motorized boating on the lake (aka the Wauregan Reservoir).
Google Map directions took us to a dead end street, which does offer access to the trail, but you may/may not be able to park there. There are no signs indication that you can park here. However, they park does have a large, free to park, parking lot though it can be tricky to find. Look for a paved access road off of Shepard Hill Road, which is about a half mile long, and takes you to a large gravel parking lot.
The lake trail which is a fairly easy trail and 2.1 miles long, takes about an hour to circumnavigate. Traveling clockwise, the footing is initially rocky, but gets progressively easier after the first quarter mile. We had no problem on this trail, but did notice that Camp Quinebaug is located about half way across the lake. Since it was closed, we walked through the camp and continued on the trail. There are no trespassing signs there, so we're not sure if you can cut through the camp in the summer, or if there is a longer way around it. We looked up the camp and found some interesting information:
Camp Quinebaug is a summer Day Camp in Killingly. It is a camp for children with developmental disabilities, funded and operated by the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services and The Friends of Camp Quinebaug. It provides a unique summer camp experience for school age children with developmental disabilities and has the only beach on the lake. Approximately 90-100 campers per season enjoy the benefits of this 6 week fully accessible camp environment.
We enjoyed our Quinebaug Lake Loop Trail hike though we found Pulaski State Park, which is about 20 minutes away, to have a more beautiful setting and interesting hike around their pond. Pulaski also has picnic tables and a rest room, but it's likely much busier in the summer! read more