Walk Through Geologic Time LbNA #1271
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Nearby Boxes
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Add Location| Owner: | N/A |
|---|---|
| Plant date: | Apr 27, 2003 |
| Location: | |
| City: | Rocky Hill |
| County: | Hartford |
| State: | Connecticut |
| Boxes: | 3 |
| Planted by: | Rubaduc
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|---|---|
| Found by: | Mama Staggs (3) |
| Last found: | Jan 12, 2025 |
| Status: | FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF |
| Last edited: | Mar 13, 2016 |
Originally planted by spike&frogger and adopted for safekeeping by Rubaduc in May 2008. Adopted by Teeker in 2012.
Clues updated March 2016, by Teeker.
Information: The park maintains two and a half miles of nature trails. The trails are open year-round from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. The park is, however, closed on Monday. Pets are not allowed on the nature trails. This is a perfect walk that all ages can enjoy. Trails are well marked and often gravel-lined. These trails appear to be heavily traveled, stamp in and re-hide secretly.
Directions: Dinosaur State Park is located in central Connecticut,approximately 1 mile east of Exit 23, off I-91 in Rocky Hill.
Park in the designated lot and "walk through geologic time" toward the 40-foot geodesic dome of the Exhibit Center. The Exhibit Center (fee to enjoy, unless you get a pass from your local library ahead of time) houses part of an actual dinosaur trackway, unearthed in 1966 while excavating for a building. The tracks remain as they were made over 200 million years ago. While no skeletal remains of the maker of these large three-toed tracks have been found, the fossil tracks have been named Eubrontes and designated Connecticut's state fossil. You may also wish to visit the outdoor casting area where you can make plaster casts of real negative dinosaur tracks (although you must bring your own casting supplies).
Clues: To the left of the Exhibit Center is a large trail map and information booth where portable trail maps may be obtained. (Ask for trail maps in the Exhibit Center if the booth is closed.) Clues take you along a circuitous route through the trails. With the help of the trail map, one may find a more direct route to these letterboxes.
Our trek begins at the information booth behind the Amphitheater. Follow the Red Trail for a short way, passing a right-hand turn-off to a swampy observation platform (kids will want to stop and look for frogs), and bending right to pass over a bridge over a swampy stream. Continue to the intersection of Red and Yellow marked by a large fallen tree and choose Yellow. Follow Yellow to the three-way intersection of Red, Orange and Yellow, marked by large broken chunks of basaltic rock. Follow the Orange Trail on the left. Eventually, Orange will cross an access road and you will cross with it and proceed up the stairs. When Orange comes to a "T", continue to the right and pass through an open, grassy meadow. When you reach a "Y" in the trail, choose the left fork and walk along with the flow (when running) of a swampy stream through another open meadow. Shortly after rounding the bend on this clockwise Orange loop you will notice a large tree to the right of the trail and the remains of its large severed limb lying beside it. At this tree, proceed approximately 15 steps off the trail to the left (240), keeping the wood/brush pile to your right, to a small group of flat
rocks. In a crevasse behind one of the larger rocks, the Trilobite Letterbox is hidden.
After stamping in, return to the Orange Trail and continue along your original heading. At the “Y” that began this loop, choose the path to the left and stroll back through the grassy meadow. Shortly, you will encounter the familiar “T”; take the right leg. This branch of the Orange Trail ascends slightly, back to and across the access road. When you return to the Red, Orange, Yellow intersection, take the Yellow Trail to the left and travel along the traprock ridge. The next intersection is marked by a Yellow/Red sign post and a low bench (BOXER hint: "there are a lot of yellow trails, but the bench you want is on the map"). Take the Yellow Trail to the left, uphill between three large staggered maple trees. Behind the large maple on the right side of the trail you will find the Archaeopteryx Letterbox, covered with rocks (in front of a smaller tree). Please recover carefully!
Walk back downhill, past the bench and continue straight ahead on Yellow to where it joins Red at an intersection marked by a clean-cut stump and an identified red oak, turn left on to Red. The next trail junction is that of Red and Blue. If you are hiking with kids, they will probably want to detour over the Red Trail’s 300-foot boardwalk through the red maple swamp; our journey, however, is along the Blue Trail. Pass by the Yellow Trail on your left and continue for a time along the Blue Trail which parallels a traprock ridge. The basaltic rock here is evidence of the hot lava that eventually covered the watery habitat of the dinosaur. (When we planted these boxes, this ridge was covered with the beautiful drifts of wildflowers – bloodroot, trout lillies and Dutchman’s britches.) Soon you will come to a bench overlooking a valley with a rocky drop on the right side of the trail. Go past the bench with the trail turning right, go downhill and near the foot come to a tumbled down stone wall. Just before passing through it, walk right along the wall, pass a two sister tree (or is it a V tree?) and ....
OLD CLUES: "look in the top of the wall (NOT IN THE WALL, MOVE ONE ROCK) in front of the next tree to discover the Eubrontes II Letterbox (cuddled up against the tree, trail side)."
NEW CLUES: "Box #3 was moved several feet closer to the trail at some point and the original spot is overgrown. It's midway between the two largest trees on the top of the wall under sticks."
Stamp in secretly.
Continue along the rocky outcrop on Blue as it bends to the right to meet and pass through a stone wall then continues on to complete a clockwise loop. This section of the trail takes you over a planked walk through a swampy area to a grassy orchard close to West Street. Stop and check out the bat shelter. The Blue Trail continues over a small bridge and past a bench before entering another open, grassy meadow and branches left to lead to the butterfly and native plant gardens.
Clues updated March 2016, by Teeker.
Information: The park maintains two and a half miles of nature trails. The trails are open year-round from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. The park is, however, closed on Monday. Pets are not allowed on the nature trails. This is a perfect walk that all ages can enjoy. Trails are well marked and often gravel-lined. These trails appear to be heavily traveled, stamp in and re-hide secretly.
Directions: Dinosaur State Park is located in central Connecticut,approximately 1 mile east of Exit 23, off I-91 in Rocky Hill.
Park in the designated lot and "walk through geologic time" toward the 40-foot geodesic dome of the Exhibit Center. The Exhibit Center (fee to enjoy, unless you get a pass from your local library ahead of time) houses part of an actual dinosaur trackway, unearthed in 1966 while excavating for a building. The tracks remain as they were made over 200 million years ago. While no skeletal remains of the maker of these large three-toed tracks have been found, the fossil tracks have been named Eubrontes and designated Connecticut's state fossil. You may also wish to visit the outdoor casting area where you can make plaster casts of real negative dinosaur tracks (although you must bring your own casting supplies).
Clues: To the left of the Exhibit Center is a large trail map and information booth where portable trail maps may be obtained. (Ask for trail maps in the Exhibit Center if the booth is closed.) Clues take you along a circuitous route through the trails. With the help of the trail map, one may find a more direct route to these letterboxes.
Our trek begins at the information booth behind the Amphitheater. Follow the Red Trail for a short way, passing a right-hand turn-off to a swampy observation platform (kids will want to stop and look for frogs), and bending right to pass over a bridge over a swampy stream. Continue to the intersection of Red and Yellow marked by a large fallen tree and choose Yellow. Follow Yellow to the three-way intersection of Red, Orange and Yellow, marked by large broken chunks of basaltic rock. Follow the Orange Trail on the left. Eventually, Orange will cross an access road and you will cross with it and proceed up the stairs. When Orange comes to a "T", continue to the right and pass through an open, grassy meadow. When you reach a "Y" in the trail, choose the left fork and walk along with the flow (when running) of a swampy stream through another open meadow. Shortly after rounding the bend on this clockwise Orange loop you will notice a large tree to the right of the trail and the remains of its large severed limb lying beside it. At this tree, proceed approximately 15 steps off the trail to the left (240), keeping the wood/brush pile to your right, to a small group of flat
rocks. In a crevasse behind one of the larger rocks, the Trilobite Letterbox is hidden.
After stamping in, return to the Orange Trail and continue along your original heading. At the “Y” that began this loop, choose the path to the left and stroll back through the grassy meadow. Shortly, you will encounter the familiar “T”; take the right leg. This branch of the Orange Trail ascends slightly, back to and across the access road. When you return to the Red, Orange, Yellow intersection, take the Yellow Trail to the left and travel along the traprock ridge. The next intersection is marked by a Yellow/Red sign post and a low bench (BOXER hint: "there are a lot of yellow trails, but the bench you want is on the map"). Take the Yellow Trail to the left, uphill between three large staggered maple trees. Behind the large maple on the right side of the trail you will find the Archaeopteryx Letterbox, covered with rocks (in front of a smaller tree). Please recover carefully!
Walk back downhill, past the bench and continue straight ahead on Yellow to where it joins Red at an intersection marked by a clean-cut stump and an identified red oak, turn left on to Red. The next trail junction is that of Red and Blue. If you are hiking with kids, they will probably want to detour over the Red Trail’s 300-foot boardwalk through the red maple swamp; our journey, however, is along the Blue Trail. Pass by the Yellow Trail on your left and continue for a time along the Blue Trail which parallels a traprock ridge. The basaltic rock here is evidence of the hot lava that eventually covered the watery habitat of the dinosaur. (When we planted these boxes, this ridge was covered with the beautiful drifts of wildflowers – bloodroot, trout lillies and Dutchman’s britches.) Soon you will come to a bench overlooking a valley with a rocky drop on the right side of the trail. Go past the bench with the trail turning right, go downhill and near the foot come to a tumbled down stone wall. Just before passing through it, walk right along the wall, pass a two sister tree (or is it a V tree?) and ....
OLD CLUES: "look in the top of the wall (NOT IN THE WALL, MOVE ONE ROCK) in front of the next tree to discover the Eubrontes II Letterbox (cuddled up against the tree, trail side)."
NEW CLUES: "Box #3 was moved several feet closer to the trail at some point and the original spot is overgrown. It's midway between the two largest trees on the top of the wall under sticks."
Stamp in secretly.
Continue along the rocky outcrop on Blue as it bends to the right to meet and pass through a stone wall then continues on to complete a clockwise loop. This section of the trail takes you over a planked walk through a swampy area to a grassy orchard close to West Street. Stop and check out the bat shelter. The Blue Trail continues over a small bridge and past a bench before entering another open, grassy meadow and branches left to lead to the butterfly and native plant gardens.