West Rock Junk Cleanup: Baldwin Drive

 Baldwin Drive Dumped Areas

Baldwin Drive was open to the public from the late 1930s to about 1982 and has been disrespected by people who used the road and left their trash behind. The areas most affected were the wide sections of the road, which were presumably places people could park to enjoy the view from the top. In any given stretch of road, it has been easy to fill a bucket or more with bottles that people tossed into the woods. They have been there a long time, as evidenced by their designs, such as the squat brown Schmidt’s beer bottles, or the seven-ounce Miller Pony bottles.

Some areas were particularly affected by trash and illegal dumping, as indicated below. The areas are presented geographically starting with the closest to the main entrance and heading north. Baldwin Drive is 5.6 miles long and had trash dumped alongside its entire length, but certain areas stand out as being particularly affected.

 

Assorted bottles and cans lie in the leaves along the shoulder of Baldwin Drive on Dec. 29, 2020, looking just as they did when they were likely tossed there in the 1970s. They were removed by volunteers and recycled or placed in the trash, depending on their condition.

East Side Overlook

The first pull-off area is located 1.2 miles north of Regicide Drive, on the east side of the road looking toward Lake Wintergreen. In 2014, two volunteers helped me remove bricks that someone had dumped over the side. We used them to fill the post holes by the road. We also hauled out a bunch of junk from the bottom of the hill, including a metal cabinet, two bed springs, a tire, some metal chair frames, and other sort of junk.  We also collected 3 buckets’ worth of old bottles and cans, plus lots of broken glass from the slope.

 

A Pontiac hubcap and a metal car part and five buckets of bottles and cans were removed from the woods off Baldwin Drive on June 29, 2018.

East Side Rocky Slope

One area that is not an overlook that had items dumped is the east side of Baldwin Drive, 1.6 miles north of Regicide Drive and a tenth of a mile south of the Blue-White Trail. This spot is located about 100 feet into the woods, which seems odd that someone would go to that much trouble to dump items, as compared to just leaving them by the side of the road. Adding to their challenge is the fact that the rocks on that side of the road are about four feet higher than the road.

I worked on this area mostly by myself in 2018 with help one day from another volunteer to cart away what I hauled out. Metal items that were removed include a torque converter, a light fixture, a car radio, part of an air cleaner, and a car horn. I also removed a load of vinyl siding, foam insulation and wires, and filled 10 buckets with trash. The largest item and the only remaining item is an engine block, which is still in the woods as of April 2025, due to its heavy weight.

Vinyl siding was scattered in the woods east of Baldwin Drive, 1.6 miles north of the main entrance, 0.1 miles south of the Blue-White Trail, as seen in July 2018, and was removed by 2020.

Vinyl siding, a piece of metal, and other trash removed from the woods east of Baldwin Drive, and brought out to the road for removal July 11, 2018.

This engine block was dumped in the woods east of Baldwin Drive, 1.6 miles north of the main entrance, 0.1 miles south of the Blue-White Trail, as seen in July 2018, and is still there as of April 2025. Removing this will be difficult due to its weight.

Glen Lake Overlook

The area most affected by dumping is the only actual pull-off on the west side of the road, located 2.8 miles north of the junction with Regicide Drive, the park’s entry road. From this overlook, there are screened views of Glen Lake in Woodbridge. The Regicides Trail crosses through the area, and the North Summit Trail descends into Woodbridge.

Summer 2008 was the one year I was a paid seasonal state employee, earning the princely sum of $12 per hour. This job allowed me to drive a state pickup truck and I was also able to get help from other seasonal employees. We filled the pickup truck five times with junk from the slope below the area, including a steel tank, a gas station sign, gas station hoses, two mattress frames, and the roof to a pickup truck.

I also removed many buckets worth of broken glass bottles. In addition, I swept the pavement closest to the viewpoint, which was challenging to do because the glass pieces drop into the uneven pavement.

Since 2008, I have revisited the area to pick up more broken glass. In August 2016, I filled three buckets with bottles and other trash. Most of the slope is clear, but the pavement remains a work in progress.

 

Old bottles and cans and bits of broken glass from the slope of the Glen Lake overlook off Baldwin Drive fill five boxes used to collect them and remove them from West Rock on Aug. 18, 2016. Note the pop-top lid in the can next to the Budweiser can in the top box, a design that clears shows the age of these cans and bottles.

Baldwin Drive, East Side Overlook, North of Yellow Trail

A multi-year group project from 2018 to 2023 has been cleaning up the east side of Baldwin Drive, four miles north of Regicide Drive, about a tenth of a mile north of the Yellow Trail at a spot where the Regicides Trail crosses the road from west to east. This wide spot in the road has few trees, probably because of the rocky slope created at this location by the widening. The entire fence line was thickly lined with invasive plants, primarily multi-flora rose and bittersweet vines. Removing the invasives allowed volunteers to reach all the trash left behind. There are still more invasives to remove, but most have been cut away.

The larger items included three metal trashcans and 55-gallon drum, which the state hauled away. Other items included a child’s fire engine with pedals, three car tires, a Pontiac wheel cover, a transmission gear, a car differential, a metal shaft, the post to a bumper jack, a porcelain sink or toilet, a child’s typewriter, a bicycle tire, and a metal post attached to a concrete base. We collected 40 buckets worth of old bottles and cans from the slope. 

There is still trash to collect from this slope, which is a challenge because it is steep with loose rock.

 

Boxes and buckets full of trash rest on Baldwin Drive after being removed from the east slope of the road, 0.1 miles north of the Yellow Trail on Dec. 7, 2019.

Baldwin Drive Northern Sections

A brief project in June 2018 was collecting tires and other junk on the west side of Baldwin Drive, 4.3 miles north of the road's start, and 0.35 miles north of the Yellow Trail. I went hundreds of feet downslope to push and carry six tires and two rims, along with a TV set, an entry rug, assorted small car parts, and 2 buckets of trash, all of which I removed from the park for proper disposal.

In the woods on the west side of the road, 4.5 miles north of Regicide Drive, just before the Regicides Trail ascent to the Lake Watrous overlook was a quantity of junk that I removed June 5, 2018. This included two bicycle handlebars, a box fan, a car radio, a small fluorescent light fixture, and plus four buckets of old bottles and cans.

 

Tires are stacked in the woods on the west side of Baldwin Drive, 4.3 miles north of the main entrance, as they were being carried upslope by a volunteer on June 21, 2018. 

The tires and other junk hauled out of the woods pose for a picture on Baldwin Drive on June 21, 2018 before being removed for off-site disposal.

Different Locations Along Baldwin Drive

Some locations along Baldwin Drive have a limited number of items that are thankfully easy to remove in one trip. These photos shows two of those areas with the details in the photo captions.

Mattress springs and other pieces of metal were removed from the woods by the third switchback curve on Baldwin Drive, 0.7 miles north of the road's start, on Nov. 10, 2020.

These old-style metal and wood milk crates and the tire were found about 100 feet in the woods west of the road near the northern end of Baldwin Drive on May 1, 2021. Volunteers loaded up a pickup truck and brought them to the main entrance for collection by the state.

Miscellaneous Areas

In the woods between Baldwin Drive and Mountain Road, I found and removed this safe in November 2017, using a hand truck to move it. On a different day prior to removing it, another volunteer and I hit the safe with a pick mattock. We broke open the side and sand poured out. Had I known that in the woods, it would have been much lighter to move. From the same location, I previously removed a car tire and rim and a torque converter from a car's transmission 

The safe in the woods off Mountain Road in November 2017.

These metal parts from perhaps a 1940s era car or truck were removed from the woods in December 2015 and left on the Red-White Trail by Farm Brook Pond. They were moved out to the Hill Street parking lot in January 2016 for removal by the state.

This 1966 Ford Country Squire station wagon is the only car that I have found still remaining in the woods at West Rock. This is on western slope leading up to Judges Cave and is off any trail. Based on research, the 1966 version is a good guess. It could be a 1967 or 1968 model as well. Removing this from the wood would be quite a challenge due to its location. This photo is from December 2016.

The side view of the Ford County Squire shows some of the fake wood siding that was a decal in this model.

The rear view of the Ford County Squire shows how little is left of the car in December 2016.

 This photo shows a 1966 Ford Country Squire wagon. This screenshot is taken in April 2025 from the website with the link below and shows what the car might have once looked like. If the link is still live when someone is viewing this post, they can see additional images of the car.
https://www.orlandoclassiccars.net/vehicles/56/1966-ford-country-squire

 

The side and rear view of the same 1966 Ford Country Squire. The car could potentially hold up to 10 people with three in the front, three in the middle, and four in the rear seat where the seats faced each other. On a practical basis, the rear could only hold two people unless they were children.