Polar Vortex

The highs in parts of Connecticut on Saturday were in the single digits. Most of the lows were in the double digits below zero. 

So we bundled up and went looking for frozen waterfalls. 

I don't always mind seeing people when I'm out. One of today's highlights was the woman on the trail around Southford Falls State Park, singing at a very confident volume, who added maybe a two-count rest to acknowledge our presence. But when I saw the headlines about "dangerously cold" temperatures, I definitely thought more about the other people that might stay home because of the weather than I did about, you know, staying home because of the weather. 

Saturday #1:

That map isn't in the order we did these things, but it would be fun this way: 

Breakfast at the Laurel Diner in Southbury. They're open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. It was super busy when we were there for lunch but the cook, who also owns the place, still had time to walk over and make sure his mods to the signature corned beef hash met Bettie's needs. 

Southford Falls State Park. Ten minutes up the road from the diner is Southford Falls. Pretty cascades, a frozen pond, a covered bridge and a 1.5-mile loop to a fire tower. The pond, which would have been liquid Friday morning, was frozen hard enough that I couldn't find a rock big enough to break through, but the ice was still pretty clear. And the river was making ice sculptures for us. 

Spruce Brook Falls. We actually went here first so it was still very cold. It didn't take too many gloves-off photos for the fingertips to protest. And Bettie's phone froze and stopped working until we got home. But we got what we came for, a different view of a pretty waterfall. 

We drove in on the Cold Springs Road access to the Naugatuck State Forest West Block. Cold Springs Road is kind of rough dirt for almost the last mile. We passed the trailhead for the 0.7-mile blue trail, crossed Spruce Brook and parked on the other side, just outside a gate that is closed for the winter. We walked about a half-mile up the road to where the 0.2-mile white trail leads to the falls. Then we took the red trail to a cliff-top view of the Naugatuck River and the freeway that follows the bottom of the valley. 

On the way home, we tried to visit Sweet Claude's Ice Cream. It's incredible, we went there in December, they make their own really great ice cream. And Cheshire is a cute town, especially South Main Street. But Sweet Claude's is closed for the season. So we persevered and made our way to Sweet Cream's Ice Cream, 20 minutes away, which sells Ashley's Ice Cream, another good Connecticut creamery. 

Not on the map, but other cool things we saw on the way:

Snowman sculptures in Hebron.

A beast of an eagle painted on a huge roadside rock.

Downtown Portland, CT, and the Arrigoni Bridge.