Nearby Lake Shaftsbury State Park

August 3, 2021                                                     Most Recent Posts:
Camping on the Battenkill                        Camping on the Battenkill
Arlington, Vermont                    Hunting for the Connecticut and Owl’s Head

If you haven’t seen the previous post on my new campground in southern Vermont, you might want to use the first link above to take a look.

My first excursions from the campground were to state parks to check out the hiking and kayaking.  I had previously purchased a state park pass and had already gotten plenty of use out of it.  I was about to get some more.

Lake Shaftsbury State Park was only a little over 5 miles south on Route 7a so it was my first venture.

Families were out on the beach in the swimming section of the lake.

There is a boat rental with peddle boats and other types but no public put in.

The beach is wide with coarse sand and I was told I could put my kayak in the water right off the beach but getting it there is quite a hike for me to drag it from the parking lot without someone to help carry it.

After doing that information gathering, I set out to hike the trail around the lake.

I suppose when they put this bench in, the cat tails and other tall plants didn’t block the view.

The trail has a very long boardwalk going through the wetlands at the edge of the lake.

The trail then climbs up above the lake and becomes rocky as you can see.

I crossed this land bridge

and several wooden bridges.

The view from the bridge above.

The bridge ended in a rocky rooty area.

There were a lot of bridges on this trail.  I would like to have seen a map of the lake to see if these were islands being connected.

At points the trail was quite narrow

I thought I’d give this tree a hug to show its size which is not so apparent in the picture above.

Eventually I had come all the way around to this private home.  I’m not sure if it belongs to the park manager or if it is just a little parcel that somehow is not part of the park but is on the lake trail.  Great views of the water for sure.

I thought I was going to be able to walk across the dam and end up at the beach just beyond it.

But no such luck.  I had to get off the dam wall at this point and walk down to the road you can see on the left of the picture above and walk around to the beach.  An uninspiring end to a nice trail in a sweet state park.

I’ve collected all of Paul’s mushroom pictures and put them at the end.  There is quite a variety as you can see.  I wish I knew my fungi better so I’d know if it was safe to eat any of these.  I love mushrooms.