3.2 miles | 469 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★

After our trip to the Adirondacks, we took a few weeks off from hiking. Partly to recover, partly to make way for Hurricanes Henri and Ida’s wrath. We had a great camping trip planned for Labor Day weekend at Rudd Pond in Taconic State Park. And some big plans, including the highest point in Connecticut and the NY-CT-MA tripoint. Unfortunately the consistent rain on Sunday forced us to pack up a day early. Luckily we still got a quick loop in on Saturday, leaving right from our campsite.

My motivation for camping is to wake up and be at the trailhead. Often, there’s still a short drive ahead, but when we can just walk out of our tent onto a trail…it’s magic.

From our tent, we wandered to the end of park area, past the dumpsters, and were immediately on a wide forest path. We followed the South Taconic trail for a bit. We could have made a hard left and stayed on trail, but instead we opted for the lighter left, taking us down the waterfall trail. The rain this summer has made waterfalls magical. We rock hopped a bit around and across to Iron Mine Pond, essentially, an old mine that was later filled in.

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After taking some time to enjoy the views we backtracked and climbed steeply up a social trail, that intersected again with the Taconic trail. After the first mile, the trail became significantly less interesting. Mostly a wide carriage path, but still a lovely walk in the woods. We wove our way counterclockwise along the backside of the campground, eventually emerging into a large lawn leading out to Rudd pond.

Not the most scenic hike of the summer, but who can resist a hike that only requires a few steps to the trailhead.