Paradise Avenue Red Trail

This screenshot from Waymarked Trails shows the Paradise Avenue Red Trail. The original trail is shown as the light color dotted lines. The trail has relocations around eroded areas, plus one stretch at the northern end goes onto private property.

 Paradise Avenue Red Trail

West Rock has a newly rehabilitated trail 1.2-mile-long trail west of Paradise Avenue that was blazed Red in August 2024. This trail is a mixture of an existing woods road with single-track relocations around steep and eroded sections.

The trail consists of a 0.2 mile long “stick” that heads northwest from Paradise Avenue, leading to a 1-mile long loop. Elevation gain from Paradise Avenue to the high point is about 140 feet, while total elevation gain for the loop is 180 feet.

 

The trail consists of the original woods road, improved by assorted relocations around areas that were steep and eroded. The relocations are narrow single-track trails.

The trail access starts on one of the relocated sections by the yellow gate that was installed on Paradise Avenue by the state in August 2024. From the gate the trail follows Shepard Brook and comes out by a clearing with a brick fireplace where it soon rejoins the existing woods road.

 

The trailhead is located at 1740 Paradise Ave. (with the nearest house at 1660 Paradise Ave.) There is room for four cars in the cul-de-sac at the trailhead, but there is plenty of room along the side of Paradise Avenue to the south to park as many cars as the road is long.

There are three unconnected sections of Paradise Avenue in Hamden, and this trailhead can ONLY be accessed by Laura Road to Paradise Ave.

Directions: Rt. 15 North or South, take Exit 61, then right on Whitney Ave. for 0.2 miles, then left on (Dixwell Ave.) Rt. 10 South for 0.6 miles. Right on Sanford St. for 0.4 miles. Right on Shepard Ave. for 1.4 miles. Left on West Shepard Ave. for 0.2 miles. Right on Laura Rd. for 0.2 miles, then right on Paradise Ave. for 0.2 miles. Park in the cul-de-sac area.

I-691, Exit 7 to Route 10 South for 8.3 miles. Right on Shepard Ave. for 2.7 miles. Right on West Shepard Ave. for 0.2 miles. Right on Laura Rd. for 0.2 miles, then right on Paradise Ave. for 0.2 miles. Park in the cul-de-sac area.

 

The parking area at 1740 Paradise Avenue has fresh pavement and a new gate to block access to the dirt portion of the road in August 2024.

 

Getting the West Rock map updated to include this trail will take time, and this part of the park is not even on the state map. For now, the track is visible on Waymarked Trails, as a purple line marked with red squares. The original woods road is seen as a dotted brown line and is still accessible, but it is unblazed and eroded.

https://hiking.waymarkedtrails.org/#?map=17.0/41.4119/-72.9337

 

At my request, fellow hiker David Reik created a GPS track of the trail, along with this report with pictures:

https://davidreikandjudithlohmanpictures.blogspot.com/2024/08/2024-8-27-red-trail-hamden-ct.html

 

As all other common trail colors are in use at West Rock, it was necessary to reuse the color of an existing trail. I suggested Red as the trail color because this is a multi-use trail like the main Red Trail at West Rock, allowing mountain biking in addition to hiking. Both trails also have sections that are wide woods roads and other sections that are narrow single tracks.

 

The limitation of the Paradise Avenue Red Trail is its geographic isolation from the trails in the main part of West Rock because it is located east of York Mountain (High Rock). At Paradise Avenue, the trail connects to the Blue-Blazed Quinnipiac Trail, which is limited to foot traffic. The Quinnipiac Trail connects to the Regicides Trail at the top of York Mountain and heading east leads to Sleeping Giant State Park.

 

Those on a bicycle have to follow Paradise Avenue to Laura Road to High Rock Road to West Shepard Avenue where they can either continue onto Baldwin Drive, or turn south at Hill Street to access the Red-White Trail and from there, the rest of the West Rock trail system.

 

Due to the cliff that forms the western and southern boundary of High Rock creating an additional trail connection between this area and the rest of the park would be difficult at best. The Regicides Trail ascends High Rock in a series of switchbacks that involve some rock scrambling, and any other connection would be just as difficult and not suitable or sustainable for mountain bikes.

 

The trail rehabilitation was a Freedom Award project for Hamden resident Caleb Schall who is a member of Trail Scout Troop CT-1635, located in Wethersfield. Trail Life USA is a Christian-affiliated scouting organization open to boys.

 

The project included construction of two trail bridges over Shepard Brook, a boardwalk through a wetlands, along with relocations around steep and eroded areas. Two other Trail Scouts who worked on this project as part of their Freedom Awards were Jack Brennan and Ben Peronace. The three were assisted by other members of their troop, along with Caleb’s father Joel and his brother Samuel.

The work was funded by a $4,500 grant from the New England Mountain Biking Association (NEMBA). As of this writing, the troop also plans to install a kiosk at Paradise Avenue. As part of the project, they also dragged large amount of trash out of the woods, including tires and appliances.

A bridge over a wet area is one of the features of the Paradise Avenue Red Trail in August 2024.