Macedonia Brook State Park

places where you won't be able to wipe the wag off your dog's tail - Kent CT

The Park

The Scatacook Indians were the first to settle in the hills around the confluence of the Housatonic and Ten Mile rivers. Not much changed when the British founded Kent in 1738. In fact, when the American Revolution broke out in 1775, Scatacook volunteers operated a signal system up on the ridgetops. The valley around Macedonia evolved into an important early American iron center. Every tree for miles around was cut to fee the hungry forges of the Kent Iron Company. By 1848 there were none left. Not that it mattered since more productive iron mines were putting eastern forges out of business. Kent survived to the end of the Civil War before its forge went cold. The core lands for the state park came to Connecticut in 1918 from siblings Alain and May White, dispersing a family fortune made when Danbury was the fur hat capital of the world. Federal Conservation Corps workers during the Great Depression of the 1930s reforested and built the park.

The Walks

Any level of canine hiker will delight in Macedonia Brook State Park. Dogs looking for a ramble down a shady country lane can set out on dirt roads and grassy paths that run along and across Macedonia Brook. You can spend over an hour hiking in the valley and past the campground. The prize for adventurous dogs is Cobble Mountain with its splendid views to the west across the Hudson River to the Catskill Mountains. From the center of the park a short, rugged boulder scramble - maybe the state’s harshest - leads to the Cobble Mountain summit. If your dog can’t make it or you can’t lift him, retreat and access the blue-blazed Macedonia Ridge Trail that circles the park. This spirited route covers more than six miles and crosses four hilltops in a very rewarding circuit but can be shortened with connector trails if you notice your dog flagging.

Where The Paw Meets The Earth: The trails are well-marked and signed.

Workout For Your Dog - A sporty hour or so of hiking.

Swimming - Don’t bother the fly fishermen and your dog can cool off in Macedonia Brook.

Restrictions On Dogs - Dogs are allowed to hike the park trails and snack in the sreamside picnic areas but can not stay in the campground.

Something Extra

Just north of the town of Kent on Route 7 is Kent Falls, a series of water cascades tumbling 250 feet over a quarter-mile. The tallest single drop is 70 feet, just ten feet from being the state’s highest. A short trail leads up and over the falls. Make it a stop-off on your trip to Macedonia Brook; there are multiple plunge pools where your dog can play.

Phone - (860) 927-3238

Website 

Admission Fee - None

Directions - Kent; from Route 7 in the center of town take Route 341 west to Macedonia Brook Road. Turn right and stay left to the park.

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Letchworth State Park

places where you won't be able to wipe the wag off your dog's tail - Castile NY

The Park

William Pryor Letchworth entered business at the age of 15 in Auburn in 1848, working as a clerk in the saddlery and hardware trade. He soon shifted to the iron products business and was successful enough to retire at the age of 48. But he did not stop working. He became an advocate for epileptic and poor children from his post on the New York State Board of Charities, agitating tirelessly for their treatment, often with his own money. He first bought land on the Genesee River in 1859 when he started to build his Glen Iris Estate with the help of famous landscape artist William Webster. When development of the Genesee River loomed in 1906, Letchworth scrapped plans for Glen Iris to be converted into an orphanage after his death and gave it to the State of New York instead to preserve the lands forever. A year later, and three years before William Letchworth’s death, his 1,000 acres became one of the cornerstones of the New York state park system.

The Walks

The “Grand Canyon of the East” covers more than 14,000 acres and serves up about 70 miles of trails, many of the multi-use variety. Most folks, however, don’t explore much beyond the three major waterfalls at the park hub so you will have no trouble slipping away into the woods with your dog in relative solitude. If you can, bring your dog to the Gorge Trail early in the morning before the crowds arrive to gape at the hydrospectaculars and admire the stone bridges and stairways created by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression. Good places to sneak away with your dog are behind the museum, highlighted by the Mary Jemison Trail, and in the northern area of the park near the campground off Schenck Road with its gorge overlooks.

Where The Paw Meets The Earth: A combination of flagstone and natural dirt paths.

Workout For Your Dog - Full days possible.

Swimming - There are some side streams in the park for refreshing splashing.

Restrictions On Dogs - Dogs are welcome to hike and camp but are not allowed in any park building, cabin area or swimming pool area.

Something Extra

In 1743 Mary Jemison was born aboard ship, bound for the New World. Her family settled near modern-day Gettysburg on the American frontier. In 1758, in the early days of the French and Indian War, the Jemison farm was raided by French and Shawnee warriors. The raiders headed west and soon killed everyone in her family except Mary. In Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) she was sold to Seneca Indians and renamed Dehgewanus. She lived among the Senecas, married and was led back to her husband’s homeland on the Genessee River, walking 700 miles with a young son on her back. She arrived but without her husband, who fell ill and died. She would live in the valley another 70 years until the “Old White Woman of the Genesee” died in 1833 on the Buffalo Creek Reservation. Two generations later her grandchildren appealed to William Letchworth to have here remains moved to her one-time land here. He obliged, and Mary Jemison came home. You can see her grave, topped by a statue dedicated in 1910, behind the Glen Iris Inn.

Phone - (585) 493-3600

Website 

Admission Fee - Vehicle entrance fee May to November

Directions - Castile; From I-390 take Exit 7 to the park off Route 36.

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Buttermilk Falls State Park

places where you won't be able to wipe the wag off your dog's tail - Ithaca NY

The Park

The Tutelo Indians resided from the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia down to the valleys of the Mayo and Dan Rivers in North Carolina. In the 1740s, remnants of the Saponi, Tutelo, and Occaneechi Indians sought the protection of the Iroquois Confederacy after dust-ups with the Algonkians. Collectively known as the Tutelo, they settled among the Cayuga in 1753, building a small cluster of wooden cabins near the falls. Their village of Coreorgonel was one of many Iroquois towns destroyed during the Sullivan Expedition of 1779. Like their neighboring namesake park, the initial funds for Buttermilk Falls State Park came from Robert and Laura Treman in 1924.

The Walks

It takes two separate glens for the Buttermilk Creek to storm 600 feet down the Cayuga Valley. You can circle the lower gorge that climaxes in the wide curtain waterfall at the bottom on two 3/4-mile trails on either side of the gorge. The north side is natural going through a shady hemlock forest while the south side utilizes a dramatic stone staircase. After that rollick adventure the remainder of canine hiking at Buttermilk Falls is relatively tame, but nonetheless desirable. The upper section of the park (on West King Street if you are driving, not hiking) features views of the gorge and an easy trek at Lake Treman, surrounded by a 1.5-mile trail. The 25-acre lake was built in 1930. About 100 yards south of the main entrance, accessed off Sand Bank Road, you can take your dog on a gentle wetland loop on the Larch Meadow Nature Trail. This is the only trail at Buttermilk that will stay open during the winter and when ice lingers even later in the gorge.

Where The Paw Meets The Earth: A park map will take you to the assorted trailheads. The trails are blazed once you reach them.

Workout For Your Dog - It is a hearty hike up and down the falls.

Swimming - Below Buttemilk Falls when the swimming pool is closed and Lake Treman are excellent places for canine aquatics.

Restrictions On Dogs - Dogs are allowed to hike the trails around Buttermilk Falls.

Something Extra

Near the top of the Gorge Trail you’ll pass by a dark spot shaded by a ragged 40-foot pillar of shale in Buttermilk Creek known as Pinnacle Rock. The rock has stood tall while all about it, literally, has fallen victim to the powerful stream waters.

Phone Number - (607) 273-5761

Website 

Admission Fee - Vehicle entrance fee May to November

Directions - Ithaca; take Route 13 South to park entrance.

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Kellys Run Natural Area

places where you won't be able to wipe the wag off your dog's tail - Holtwood PA

The Park

The Pennsylvania Power and Light Company manages 5,000 acres of recreational land surrounding the Holtwood hydroelectric plant. You can camp, enjoy a picnic, play some ball, do a little fishing - or hike. There are 39 miles of marked trails along the lower Susquehanna, most on the long distance Mason-Dixon and Conestoga trails. Canine hikers will want to head for Kellys Run where the 6-mile trail system has been designated a National Recreation Trail.

The Walks

Starting out on the blue-blazed Kellys Run Trail you begin routinely enough at a picnic pavilion and drop quickly into airy woods of mature maples and poplar. Nothing special as you roll along. Then the trail drops abruptly and you are introduced to Kellys Run. Soon you are squeezing through thin avenues in a Wissahickon schist canyon as you follow the roiling stream down to the Susquehanna. In places where the rocks pinch the stream tightly enough, deep pools form to lure your dog in for a swim. After you reach the end of the run the character of this outing changes again. Old access roads are used

to climb relentlessly back to your car. Benches appear in the woods as if by magic in this leg of the hike. Your final steps will be through rolling farm fields and, finally, ballfields. Near the parking area, circling around Kellys Run Trail, is the 3/4-mile Oliver Patton Trail that was also named a National Recreation Trail in 1992. This lively little track, named for the original farmer on these hills, traverses a stand of Norway spruce and white pine planted by the power company.

Where The Paw Meets The Earth: Dirt woods and grass fields

Workout For Your Dog - Some major climbs lurking on these trails

Swimming - Kellys Run is mostly for splashing

Restrictions On Dogs - None

Something Extra

Several routes will take you out of the Kellys Run gorge up to the Pinnacle, a grassy picnic spot on a bluff more than 507 feet above Lake Aldred. The best route is the Conestoga Trail, carved by the Lancaster Hiking Club along the river. At the Pinnacle you can fill your dog bowl with water in season.

Phone - (800) 354-8383

Website 

Admission Fee - None

Directions - Holtwood, Lancaster County; the Holtwood Environmental Preserve stretches across both sides of the lower Susquehanna River. To reach Kellys Run turn on River Road (the first or last turn in Lancaster County) and make your first left onto Old Holtwood Road. The parking area for the preserve is on the right.

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Swallow Falls State Park

places where you won't be able to wipe the wag off your dog's tail - Oakland MD

The Park

By 1900, it was highly unusual to see any big tree in Maryland that had escaped a logger’s saw, unless it was too costly to reach. That was the case with the grove of white pines and hemlocks at Swallow Falls. The giants are the oldest in Maryland - some trees are estimated to be 360 years old. Philanthropist Henry Krug refused to allow the trees to be logged in the gorge and when a World War I plan to dam the Youghiogheny River fell through their survival was assured. America’s most famous car campers of the early 20th century - industrialists Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone camped here at Muddy Creek Falls and during the Depression the Civilian Conservation Corps created the campsite enjoyed by thousands today.

The Walks

This is the best single-trail park in Maryland. The Falls Trail is easy going for your dog through the river canyon under cool, dark hemlocks. Muddy Creek Falls, Maryland’s highest single water plunge at 53 feet, arrives quickly on your canine hike and shortly you arrive at the confluence of Muddy Creek and the Youghiogheny River. Here you’ll travel past several more hydrospectaculars before turning for home. This gorgeous loop covers about one mile. If your dog is hankering for more trail time there is a 5.5-mile out-and-back trail to Herrington Manor State Park (no dogs allowed). You’ll get more water views and more giant hemlocks - be advised that this canine hike involves a stream crossing that may not be doable in times of high water.

Where The Paw Meets The Earth: Soft pine straw/dirt

Workout For Your Dog - Moderate canine hiking

Swimming - Doggie swimming holes beneath the falls

Restrictions On Dogs - Dogs not allowed in day-use area Memorial Day through Labor Day; yes for campground

Something Extra

At the Upper Falls on the Youghiogheny River you will find the source of the park name: a rock pillar where cliff swallows once nested by the hundreds.

Phone - (301) 387-6938

Website 

Admission Fee - None

Directions - Oakland, Garrett County; from I-68 take Exit 14 at Keysers Ridge and go south on Route 219 for 19.5 miles to Mayhew Inn Road (2 miles past Deep Creek). Turn right on Mayhew Inn Road, travel 4.5 miles to end of road. At the stop sign turn left onto Oakland Sang Run Road, travel 0.3 miles to first road on the right which will be Swallow Falls Road. Turn right and travel 1.3 miles to the park.

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