Penwood State Park Trail

Good hike, 5 miles and back in the rain

Great hike, we did a little over four miles in and out. Used the yellow trail, easy to follow, with a great view at the top.

yellow trail is awesome with nice views

Loved it. Rain and all!

A moderate trail with a view of Hublein tower to the south if on the metacomet. Some loose rock areas...watch out on the stone staircase passing the wildlife sanctuary. The new england trail dumps out on mountain rd heading north.

Hiked it today with our 13 year old,9 year old and 1 year old puppy!! Great trail, not for the novice hiker. Unlike many of the reviews we did not find the trail to be poorly marked, but rather the opposite. We went on the hike to go geocaching and found 3 out of the 4 we were looking for. We hiked about 4 miles total and we were primarily on the Blue Trail.

Close to home, and I'm a novice. Will be back, looking forward to conquering all of the trails.

This was an awesome hike, done as a loop from the Rt 185 parking lot area. Headed north on the Yellow blazed trail continuing north on the Orange blazed trail to Wintonbury Rd. U-Turn and return south on the Blue blazed Metacomet Trail. Awesome views to the west as you run up and down this ridge line, especially from the Pinnacle, on the Metacomet. I gained a great appreciation and understanding for what Traprock is, and hence the term "Traprock Ridge" all makes sense to me now. A strong recommend. 1033' vertical gain, 6.4 miles RT, approx 3 hrs 15 mins. with a few stops for lunch and photo ops.

Great easy to moderate trail, we did the blue and orange trails. Only downside is the trees are poorly marked at some areas making it difficult to stay on path. We hiked for a total of 4 hours and I would definitely do it again and recommend it to hikers at all levels. The view is much better than Talcott too!! 5 stars.

I did a 4 mile hike and on way back hiked portion of Metacomet trail. The blue blazed trails are well marked. However the trails are not marked. Would love doing it again.

challenging but awesome

Great experience! We did the blue trail. The peek at the end was well worth it! And loved the option for the road walk on the way back.

Blue trail (Metacomet) is a moderate hike. A few hills to climb. If you hike north past Lake Louise you get the best scenery overlooking the valley.

I have done this hike with a friend, who had a baby in a backpack. We ended up hiking over 4 miles. The only reason I gave it 4 starts and not 5, is the trails aren't always clearly marked and you almost feel as if you are lost. Now that I have done the trail once, it should make the next time easier. The views are beautiful once you get higher up.

Great for exploring through the woods with kids. great balance of challenge and ease.

Really good mountain a lot of side trails somewhat challenging with a lot of climbs

I thought the view on the yellow trail was beautiful. The birch trees on the Metacomet are lovely too. Worth visiting again!

Nothing spectacular but not a bad hike

Starting from the parking lot off Rt 185, I took the yellow to orange to blue. GPS says it was 6.31 miles. It was a good hike with some nice views and some strenuous parts but don't think I would do it again. I was a little disappointed at how short the trail was and the "lake" was a disappointment. I've seen puddles bigger than that. It was pretty but definitely not what I expected.
Yellow and orange were easy forest walking. Yellow had one or two nice lookout points to the mountains in the west. The map I had was slightly misleading as it showed a white trail that connected yellow and orange, but that white didn't exist and yellow connected right to orange. There is also a gravel trail that runs from the parking lot to the lake and at times it is so close to the yellow trail you could touch it. Orange trail ends at the beginning of Wolcox Park and here blue Metacomet has a rather steep but relatively short incline up. My biggest complaint with the northern part of the blue is that there are many unmarked trails that intersect it and blue is not clearly marked at these intersections. But a little effort and sense and you can follow blue without much difficultly.
At one point the Metacomet has a great vista where you can see a long way and can even see Hublien Tower. I saw a couple people but at the parking lots at both ends, no one on the trails. I saw a decent amount of wildlife which added a nice touch. However if your looking for quiet this is not the place. The airport is not to far away and there were constantly low flying aircraft overhead drowning out the forest sounds.

July 3, 2015. Hiked from the parking lot, took the Yellow Trail to the Orange to the very end, then came back entirely on the Blue Metacomet Trail to the parking lot. Used MapMyHike, gps recorded it as 7.13 miles. Yellow/Orange trail is easy/moderate. Blue trail is a bit more strenuous especially the beginning when coming off the orange to turn back. Took in Lake Louise and a side trail that contained numerous cairn's in one location.

This can be done under two hours for those who are seasoned hikers. Several option for choosing which trail to hike. I did the yellow and crossed over to the blue at the end of it, then looped back to the parking lot. The other way is to start with blue go all the way to the end and cross over to the yellow or just turn around and go back the way you came -- this is more challenging since the blue trail is definitely harder -- a lot of steep inclines, right from the get go. There are a couple nice spots -- i loved the stone staircase, you will feel that one climbing up:). The little lake is also pretty scenic and there is a nice lookout little after you've climbed up those stairs. Overall a great hike! Keep going back there!

Followed the yellow trail up. Beautiful views most of the way. Very easy terrain. We ended up somehow on an old road then on the blue Metacomet. Up a set of rock steps to a beautiful overlook. Well worth it. We started to continue on blue but decided to turn back. We followed blue to a road which brought us down to Lake Louise and a hiker kiosk. The lake with the foliage was beautiful. We then followed blue down. A nice wooded trail, a few interesting ruins just off trail. Ended up back at a road by a lake/body of water. Nice hike. Map was a bit confusing. Trails aren't well blazed but well maintained.

It was a good hike. I thought some of the trails weren't marked too well. There's a purple trail that doesn't exist on the map that was published in 2009. The lookout at the top of the Metocomet Trail (blue trail) was beautiful. The yellow trail had amazing lookouts as well. Went on a Sunday morning at around 9 a.m. in the fall - place started getting busier around 11.

Very rocky and technical,if you want to ride your going to need to be prepared.