I'm back!
Life has been busy and the blog didn't have much direction before, so it fell by the wayside. However, look forward to more campsite and trail reviews as Rob and I continue camping and hiking.
Anyway, American Legion State Forest is on the western side of the Farmington River, just off Route 44 in Barkhamsted. There are 30 sites in the Austin Hawes Campground. They are set up in sort of a figure 8 pattern, with sites both inside and outside the loops. The sites are pretty well spaced out, so you don't feel like you're right next door to someone.
Most of the sites are designed for trailers and RVs, but tents are not out of place. When Rob and I camped at least half of the sited being used were using tents. Since they're designed for large vehicles, most of the sites are large as well. One site (11) is not RV accessible, and has a very sturdy lean-to. We went the first weekend the camp was open for the season, so the site was very clean, and debris from the winter was all cleared away.
There are two large bathrooms (with showers) in the middle of each loop and water pumps scattered along the road at just about every other campsite. The bathrooms were very well maintained for a state park.
The site we picked (5) was about 100 feet from the waters edge. This campground is very popular with fishermen (and we happened to go on the first day of fishing season for CT). However, if you are not a fisherman (or fisherwoman) and do not want to be disturbed, I would suggest selecting a site that isn't near one of the trails to the river. There was a steady stream of people practically walking through our site all day.
The Henry Buck trail is a short wa
lk up the road from the campground. Unfortunately, it's the only trail on the west side of the river, and since there's no pedestrian bridges in the middle of the river, you have to get in your car and drive if you want to hike the trails in People's State Forest. However, the Buck trail is gorgeous, including an idyllic stream and rock outcrops. The terrain was also a pretty good challenge, so Rob and I were satisfied with just having one option. There were a variety of spring wildflowers blooming (as you can see in my photo of a Spring Beauty at left) which was good for Rob's research and good for me photographically.Overall: Nice campsite with great facilities. Not many options for recreation unless you are a fisher. Would definitely camp there again. Here's the link to the park website where you can find a .pdf map of the campground: American Legion State Forest
Side note: The staff were very friendly there too, and gave us some matchbooks and didn't even laugh when we admitted we totally forgot any fire starting mechanism.
