D&D Travel's New England Photo Series - Little-known Treasures in Connecticut's Northwest Corner!    [HOME]

images c. 2013, Dennis A. Hubbs, D&D Travel Services, LLC

A drive through Connecticut's Northwest corner may yield a number of surprises, for residents and visitors alike! For example, a blast from the past: (above and next 4 images below) -  one of  only two remaining drive-in movie theaters still operating regularly in the state - The Pleasant Valley Drive-in at 47 River Road (Route 181), just up from Route 44 in Barkhamsted, CT.

The ticket booth...

The posts are still here, but gone are the car speakers... Audio is routed to your car radio using a vacant FM channel and the drive-in shows first run movies all season! Click here for more info!

...the concession stand...

and the projection booth... The local drive-ins that remain around the US (as well as indoor theaters with older equipment) are having to deal with the eventual demise of the studios' 35mm film prints and the necessity to convert to digital projectors, which doesn't help the survivability of these American icons!

For a great picnic spot...and gorgeous views of the Litchfield Hills, especially in autumn, you might visit Dennis Hill State Park, on Route 272 - a few miles south of the center of Norfolk, CT. There is a lovely stone picnic pavilion at the mountain top (1627 feet) in this 240-acre, no-charge state park! Above is one of the beautiful New England stone walls lining the road to the summit...

Above and immediately below: August wildflowers help to color the view of the Litchfield Hills from atop Dennis Hill...

A close-up photo of some of the folded schist and gneiss, exposed on top of Dennis Hill. Glacial striations were ground into the surface by the glaciers. This is some of the oldest rock on Earth!

Great Falls, the 50-foot natural part of the cascades, fed by a spillway on the Housatonic River in the Falls Village section of Canaan, CT...

The spillway above the main portion of the falls...

Images above and below: Lovely farmland along CT Route 112, east of Lime Rock

What a surprise! A gorgeous (and huge!) field of Sunflowers basking in the sunshine along the eastern edge of CT Route 41 just north of Sharon...New England offers many such treasures along its country roads!

Another pretty view - a bright red barn along CT Route 343 near Sharon.

Above and immediately below: during a brief sun shower, we found this marshy area - part of the Housatonic River along Schaghticoke Road, just over the covered bridge at Bull's Bridge, CT. The bright green verdant growth and cloudy-bright lighting made for some lovely shots... The road itself was virtually at water-level!!

Bulls Bridge, in the town of South Kent, spans the Housatonic River directly off CT Route 7 at Bulls Bridge Road. This treasure is 109 feet long and was built in 1842 with a Town-with-queenpost construction. There is an excellent parking lot just before the entrance, where you may park and walk, both over the bridge and along the trail to the spillway and falls just upstream...The bridge still carries vehicular traffic over its one-way deck.

Above: Firstlight Power Resources operates the hydroelectric power plant on a canal adjacent to the Housatonic River at Bulls Bridge...Its 6 generators provide 8400 Kilowatts of clean electricity

Over the eons, water has carved potholes in the rocks along this stretch of the river...

This is St. Bridget Catholic Church, established in 1883, at 7 River Road in Sharon, CT, just off Route 7. Lovely in summer, it can offer even-more colorful and dramatic photo ops in the fall!!! It's easily spotted from the bridge at the junctions of Routes 7 and 4, traveling along 7...