Scenic Driving Connecticut and Rhode Island by Green Stewart M.;

Author:Green, Stewart M.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493022380
Publisher: Globe Pequot

Mohawk State Forest

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Mohawk State Forest, one of Connecticut’s best woodland preserves, spreads across the slopes of 1,683-foot Mohawk Mountain. The 3,351-acre parkland protects some unique ecosystems, including a 2-acre black spruce bog. Although similar bogs are common in northern New England, they are rarities this far south. A short boardwalk trail explores the bog, initially passing through a forest of tall red pines before reaching the bog’s edge. The dominant tree in the bog is black spruce, a boreal tree that reaches heights of 30 feet. These stunted, spindly trees are well adapted to the bog’s harsh and acidic peat, a mass of undecayed organic material deposited in the bog. Sphagnum moss is another common plant found here along with sheep laurel, dwarf huckleberry, and sundew, a carnivorous plant that digests insects trapped in sticky hairs on its round leaves. Other trails venture through the forest, climbing to lookouts and winding through dense woods.

Mohawk Ski Area, also in the state forest, is Connecticut’s largest ski and snowboard area. It offers 25 groomed trails and slopes, 7 ski lifts, snowmaking equipment, night skiing, and a lodge.

Past the state forest turnoff, the highway drops steeply downhill and reaches the junction of CT 4, 128, and 43. Keep left on CT 4. The road passes the turnoff to Mohawk Ski Area and drops down another hill to Cornwall Center, a township established in 1740. All the Cornwalls in the vicinity are somewhat confusing—Cornwall, Cornwall Bridge, Cornwall Center, Cornwall Hollow, West Cornwall, and East Cornwall. The area’s famed Cornwall covered bridge lies to the north in West Cornwall, not in Cornwall Bridge. (See the North Litchfield Hills Scenic Route.)

A good Cornwall side trip ventures to the famous Cathedral Pines Preserve. Turn left on Pine Street at the junction of CT 4 and CT 125 in Cornwall. The road leads to the Cathedral Pines, a once-immense old-growth white pine forest that was decimated by a rare tornado on July 10, 1989. The stand of 200-year-old pines, one of the few in all New England untouched by 19th-century land clearing and charcoal cutting, was a stunning sight before its destruction. The Nature Conservancy, which manages the 42-acre property, has allowed nature to take its course and has left the mangled trees as testimony to nature’s wild caprices.

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