Outdoor Enthusiast: Cascading Waterfalls

Kent Falls State Park is located in Kent, CT and boasts a large waterfall, which visitors can see from the park entrance, as its main attraction. The waterfall is a part of a series of waterfalls and cascades that drops 250 feet for over .25 miles and enters the Housatonic River. The park has a quarter mile trail that runs along the waterfalls. Along the trail, visitors can find a stone wall built by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. The park is also a designated Trout Park. The park's brooks and rivers are stocked with trout every week. Visitors can also enjoy scenic picnicking areas and swimming in the lower pools of the waterfall.

Visit: Kent Falls State Park was the first and only state park we visited in western Connecticut. We could see Kent Falls, the park's main attraction, from the parking lot. It is a beautiful cascade that attracts thousands of visitors throughout the year. The Department of Environmental Protection's Josh Rimmany said the park is gorgeous during the winter and receives the most visitors during autumn. The Media Lab students followed Josh on a quarter mile hike around the falls to reach a platform close to the topmost part of the falls. He explained that the waterfall is the fullest during the spring due to the melting snow at the top of the mountains and that the falls becomes nothing more than a trickle during the summer. Since we've had a lot of rain this summer, we were lucky enough to see a full waterfall. Although the park is far from Hartford, it was well worth the trip. The park has a scenic picnicking area and a river that is stocked with trout every week during the fishing season. -Julia Kwon