Wooster Mountain State Park

Danbury, Fairfield County, CT

Directions:

Saw Mill River Parkway north to US 684 north to US 84 east; get off at the exit for Rt. 7 south; turn right into the Wooster Mountain Shooting Range. Park outside the gate; do not go into the shooting range parking area. Caution: Don’t hike northward when the police are shooting on the range.

History:

Major General Wooster led his men over Wooster Mountain in an attempt to cut off the retreat of General Tryon’s forces after the British raid on the military stores at Danbury.

Trails:

The top priority is to create the Ives Trail  (previously recommended in the City’s newly adopted Plan of Conservation and Development) by linking Tarrywile Park with Wooster Mountain State Park and the Pierpoint Park in Ridgefield on the west and Rogers Park Pond and Old Quarry Nature Center on the east.

2/21/2002.  I walked primarily southwest away from the very noisy shooting range. There are no blazed trails. I followed some almost dry stream beds upwards. There is a nice brook coming down from the mountain with a lot of little water cascades. But I soon turn left and followed the dry stream beds going primarily southwest at 220 degrees. At two forks in the streams I chose the right hand forks.

Arrived at an open valley area with two large ridges on both sides. I walked through a narrow opening between the two ridges. The very rough trail(?) led downwards to a swampy area with lots of hemlocks and yellow birch. Still going southwest at 220 degrees, you come to a vernal pond. On the other side of it is an old woods road. Walking south on this brings you to a sign that says No Trespassing, Property of IBM or something like that. So I turned around and came back. But if you walk to the west around and up a ridge you can see west towards Bennett Ponds (threatened by developers) as well as some other lakes.

PLANT LIST:

Dr. Patrick L. Cooney

February 21, 2002

Trees:

Acer pensylvanicum (striped maple)

Acer rubrum (red maple)

Amelanchier arborea (shadbush)

Betula alleghaniensis (yellow birch)

Betula lenta (black birch)

Carya glabra (pignut hickory)

Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)

Carya tomentosa (mockernut hickory)

Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)

Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)

Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)

Pinus strobus (white pine)

Populus grandidentata (big toothed aspen)

Prunus serotina (black cherry)

Quercus alba (white oak)

Quercus coccinea (scarlet oak)?

Quercus prinus (chestnut oak)

Quercus rubra (red oak)

Quercus velutina (black oak)

Sassafras albidum (sassafras)

Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)

Shrubs:

Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)

Chimaphila maculata (spotted wintergreen)

Clethra alnifolia (sweet pepperbush)

Gaylussacia baccata (black huckleberry)

Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)

Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)

Lindera benzoin (spicebush)

Lonicera morrowii (Morrow’s honeysuckle)

Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)

Rhododendron viscosum (swamp azalea)?

Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)

Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)

Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)

Rubus sp. (blackberry)

Vaccinium corymbosum (high-bush blueberry)

Vaccinium sp. (a low-bush blueberry)

Vines:

Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)

Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)

Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:

Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)

Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort)

Aster sp. (aster)

Daucus carota (Queen Anne’s lace)

Goodyera pubescens (downy rattlesnake plantain)

Monotropa uniflora (Indian pipe)

Rudbeckia hirta var. pulcherrima (black-eyed Susan)

Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)

Verbascum thapsus (common mullein)

Sedges:

Carex laxiflora type (sedge)

Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)

Grasses:

Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass)

Schizachyrium scoparium (little blue stem grass)

Setaria sp. (foxtail grass)

Tridens flavus (purple top grass)

Ferns:

Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern)?

Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)

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