Bigelow Hollow State Park

Recently they started to enforce trailer parking spots. Used to be you come there with a boat trailer and there are 3 cars parked in the trailer-​designated spots. Now they have them blocked off until you drive in and they open one for you. Awesome!

I love this place. Haven’t been here in years but I have so many great childhood memories. I’m definitely ready nm to check it out asap

Bigelow Hollow is nice.
There are no loop trails. But a complete loop around Breakneck Pond is 6 miles. For hikers desiring trails that start and end in the same place, the trails west of the park road both form loops and cover less of a distance than the trails leading to Breakneck.
Picnic tables, pit toilets, and a boat lunch — Bigelow Hollow is buzzing with activity during the warmer months. Park land surrounded by state forest — Bigelow offers pond boating, fishing (in non-​swimming areas), hiking & picnicking, kayaking & canoeing, cross-​country skiing & snowshoeing. With crystal-​clear water and no lifeguards, swimming is probably most popular. There are picnic areas and grill pits scattered about if you want to bring charcoal and grill lunch or have an afternoon picnic!
A great day-​trip, Bigelow Hollow is no-​charge during the week, on weekends its $ 9 for CT residents and $ 15 for nonresidents. Also you’ll need to haul out any trash that you bring in as there aren’t any trash cans.

Bigelow Hollow State Park and the surrounding Nipmuck State Forest are a hidden gem in northeast CT. Combined, the area covers more than 9000 acres and has 3 separate ponds.
*Tip for hikers: on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day, they charge a fee at the main gate, but there is a parking area directly before the gate that is free (if you’re going for a long hike anyway)
The hiking trails are beautiful and varied, ranging from short and easy to long and difficult. There are really nice loops of 5 – 10 miles that can be done from the main entrance up around Breakneck pond and back down, and a 5 mile loop from the parking area at the top of Bigelow Pond that meanders through the forest and wraps around the southwest shoreline of Mashapaug Pond. The CT Nipmuck trail also starts at the north end of the park and travels 30+ miles down to Mansfield Hollow State Park. Yale-​Myers forest, just south of Bigelow, is a privately-​owned nature preserve open to the public and has many miles of trails as well.
The one downside to this place is the weekend crowds at the picnic and swimming areas of Mashapaug Pond, and the picnic area at the north end of Bigelow Pond. I live nearby and go here almost every week, and I am appalled at they way people treat a state park… basically a lot of trashy, disrespectful people come here on summer weekend days and I have seen litter all over the place, signs and rocks spray painted on, fires built in the middle of the trail and left unattended (not kidding), and other sad things. I wish the DEP had the money to enforce the rules better.
Basically, a beautiful place to hike short or long distance hiking, fishing, camping, canoeing or any other outdoor recreation you could imagine, as long as you avoid the small crowded areas on summer weekends.

When I was a teenager, I visited Bigelow probably once a week. It was a great place to get together with friends and hang out on the water.

Great swim spot. Literally the warmest water around. I stop here a few times every summer. Its only an hr and a half from Boston so its not a bad drive.
They have a few little grills and some picnick tables, although they usually get claimed early in the day. On a nice day this place gets packed… so I usually come earlier or later in the day and avoid the crowds.

Great picnic spot for a special summer date.
Quiet, clean, free on weekdays, beautiful lake after a short hike through the woods,
perfect spot to spend quality time alone with that certain someone

Surprised at how loud it was at the lake area even when we hiked in a bit. Our walk around Bigalow pond was very nice but was quite disappointed at the party atmosphere around the larger lake.

For a quiet winter hike with the pooch, this spot is perfect. Trails are well marked and really just plain cool with the rocks left haphazardly by glaciers long ago. The lake is also beautiful making me long for warmer days & my kayak. I look forward to more trips here throughout the seasons.

Great little winter hiking spot — have been a couple times in January/​February and there’s a nice 6-​mile loop. Trailhead parking with a nearby outhouse. Microspikes are recommended to have on hand but you may not need them!

Is it fair to judge an expansive recreation area based on one lake experience? I think so. So here’s the deal. Bigelow Hollow State Park is home to the lovely Lake Mashapaug. The lake is clean and has so much potential to be a summer delight. Maybe it is, most of the time. It’s a little hike to get out to the better spots, which is great because the large groups of families tend not to want to hike in with their 50 pounds of beach gear. Maybe I should’ve hiked in a few more miles.
I guess I was expecting something serene, since this place is in the middle of nowhere CT. For an urban beach, it was pretty decent I guess. But being this far away from a city, I thought there would be less obnoxiousness. When I went (a hot Saturday at noonish), it might as well have been Revere Beach at its worst. No, it wasn’t as crowded as that place, though parking was pretty tight. But there was a group of young teen boys running around unsupervised and wreaking complete havoc on everyone else’s fun. I’m not some old fart who can’t laugh at kids being silly. There were plenty of families with shrieking children playing in the water. No big deal. But these particular kids were infringing on others’ peace and being a menace. They had a canoe, which they were flipping over and over (it’s extremely loud) and steering way too close to rocks and sunbathers in an attempt to look badass and intimidate others. Well done, youngsters! I imagine they were part of some kind of camp being held out here, but they definitely didn’t have any adult supervision. Whatever camp was supposed to be mentoring these kids failed miserably. In addition to this group, there was a sizable contingent of college bros, but they were mostly keeping to themselves while smoking and listening to relatively loud classic rock. In comparison, not so bad.
Fifteen bucks to get in the gate seems borderline expensive, but for a whole day at the beach, I can be ok with that. For an hour and a half of dealing with unsupervised asshole middle school boys, hell no.