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Mountain Bike West Rock Ridge State Park

Hamden, Connecticut

Description

Added by Justin Ritucci

8+ miles of trails with minimal elevation gain and some of the best downhill trails in the area. Good mixture of climbing and downhill and trails for all skill levels.

West Rock Ridge State Park is a 700 ft high scenic ridge that is located on the west side of New Haven. There are tons of good mountain biking trails located all around the ridge that can satisfy all types of skill levels. The easiest place to park is the Lake Wintergreen parking lot, which sits on the east side of the ridge. From the parking lot there five different trail options thats you can take.

There is an easy trail that loops around the lake is about 2 miles long and is very mellow with some rocky sections. This is the Red trail on the western side of the lake that joins with the White trail to make the loop around the lake.

There are also a ton of good trails leading off of the top of Baldwin Rd, which runs along the top of the ridge, but is closed to cars. The easiest way to get to the top of Baldwin Rd from the parking lot would be to take the Red trail that runs along the western side of the lake and eventually intersects with the bottom of Baldwin Rd. You can take the road up until you get to the top where there are a ton of trail options along the eastern side of the ridge. There are also many scenic overlooks that run along the western side of the ridge. All of the downhill trails from the top of Baldwin are marked with different colors.

A really good downhill trail is the Yellow trail towards the northern side of Baldwin Rd. The Yellow trail is only a 1/2 mile long, but is very smooth and fast, loaded with nice mellow turns. This trail is definitely praised by the locals and argued to be the best trail in the park.

There are also tons of trails to ride along the bottom of the ridge heading north. You can either take the Red trail, which is a dirt road or you can take the White trail, which is a technical single track that runs for about 1 mile. The White trail will intersect back to the Red trail which continues along the bottom of the ridge and loops back around.

Here is a link to a map of the park. The Lake Wintergreen parking lot is the "P" on the map that is located on the northern part of the Lake Wintergreen. The Red, White, Green, Yellow, and Red-White trails are open to mountain biking.

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Features

Mountain Biking
Bathrooms
Dog Friendly
Easy Parking
Family Friendly
Forest
Lake
Picnic Area
Scenic

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