Self Guided Nature Hike
Oak Valley Trail

The Oak Valley Trailhead is located on Nell's Rock Road, on the south end of Hope Lake (formerly called "Nell's Rock Reservoir"), near Oak Valley Road. Total length of this hike is roughly 2 miles. There are a variety of ecosystems along the trail, as well as some geologic features and history. The trail is rated easy, but it's not a sidewalk (there are some ankle twisters). Parts of the trail can be muddy.

Important:  Oak Valley trail is blazed WHITE.  There are other trails in the area that are blazed yellow and orange, and there are unmarked paths as well.  Be sure to follow the white blazes! 

The best times to hike are fall and spring. In October, there are no bugs, heat, poison ivy or baby deer ticks, and the leaves are beautiful. Spring is also nice until the black flies arrive. Mid-May is the best time for seeing wildflowers. Winter is underrated for hiking. Summer is the worst time!

For general information on this trail and directions, visit Oak Valley Trail.

Let's begin our tour:

Stop 1. Hope Lake (formerly "Nell's Rock Reservoir"). The reservoir is a popular fishing spot for trout (stocked) and largemouth bass, although the trout are usually fished out by summer.   Land that is now under water was once a wooded valley until a small stream was dammed and the valley flooded for drinking water. The reservoir is no longer needed for drinking water, and it was given to the City of Shelton for recreational use by the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company (BHC).

Little sunfish hugging the shoreline are hiding from big bass lurking nearby.  In June you may see sunfish nests on the bottom of the lake. They are usually a few inches deep and maybe a foot wide and are often found in colonies.   If you watch closely you will see a sunfish guarding each nest.  Bass also make nests like these but they are bigger and in somewhat deeper water.  The fish guarding these nest do not eat and you're not likely to catch them fishing. 

In summer you may also see a lot of dragonflies and damselflies.  These insects spend most of their lives in the water as aggressive, predatory larvae.  Their familiar adult (winged) stage is really just for breeding.   You see them hovering over the water because they lay their eggs in the water.   I have seen fish jump over a foot out of the water at Hope Lake trying to catch the dragonflies.

Notice all the white pines growing along the shore, probably planted by the water company. The pines are over crowded and stressed because they are competing for sunlight. White pines need full sun, unlike hemlocks which can grow in dark ravines. Eventually these coniferous trees will be replaced by shade-tolerant trees like oak and maple, but it may take a few hundred years.  Water companies planted pines around their reservoirs to prevent falling leaves from collecting in the water each fall.

People have been collecting and eating basketfuls of mushrooms in this area for years. This is a very dangerous practice, since a slight mistake can result in an agonizing death!

Stop 2. The Point. As you near the far end of the reservoir, you will see a low rocky point jutting into the water. You can walk onto this point from the trail. At the base of the point is a damp boggy area which contains peat moss and, if you look closely, some very, very tiny insect-eating plants called sundews (pictured). These types of plants grow in wetlands with very acidic soil. Because sundews eat bugs, they can out-compete many other types of plants on such poor soil. True bogs are rare in Connecticut. There is also an iris here in the bog called Yellow Flag.  While Blue Flag is native to this area, Yellow Flag was introduced.  

As you walk to the end of the point, you will pass through a few shrubs. These are wild highbush blueberries, and during a good year the shrubs are just full of delicious berries. A great place to bring the kids or to fish.

Bullfrogs live in the marshy areas here. They're very big frogs with bright yellow undersides, and they make quite a racket in the evening. Bull frog legs are sometimes found on the menus of expensive restaurants ("taste like chicken!").

Continue on along the trail, crossing the small stream over a wooden bridge. Be sure to turn left immediately after the bridge following the white blazes and leaving the reservoir.  In April you might see salamander eggs in this stream.

Stop 3. Mountain Laurel Thicket. Immediately after crossing the big powerlines, you will enter into a laurel thicket. If it's late spring, first check the grass at the edge of the thicket where Pink Lady's Slippers may be in bloom (pictured). Please do not pick! These are wild orchids.

The trail becomes like a tunnel as you enter the thicket. Mountain laurel is the Connecticut state flower.

Stop 4. Old Oak Valley Road. After you come out of the thicket you will be on an old road. This isn't just another logging road; it was once a wagon route shown on a map of Huntington dated 1867. Chances are good it predates that map and may easily go back to the 1700's, when it could have been used by people traveling from Huntington Center down to Well's Hollow Turnpike (now called Bridgeport Avenue). We have a chronic problem with off-road vehicles here and you can see the damage they have done to the road bed.

Stop 5. Colonial Quarry. Not far along Old Oak Valley Road there is trail going off to the right blazed yellow. This is the Rec Path.  Go up this trail for about a 100 yards, and you will see a pile of milky white quartz from an old (and very small) quarry. Please don't take any home! You can see the route where the quarry wagons were used to get the rock out of the woods and onto the old road. Go back to Oak Valley Trail and as you continue walking down the road, keep your eye out for little pieces of white quartz which spilled off the wagons.  

Just after the quarry and before the gas pipeline clearing, there is a vernal pool on your left. This pool is sometimes dry, especially in late summer. Amphibians such as wood frogs and spotted salamanders breed in vernal pools, and ducks may nest on its shores. Another resident is the spotted turtle, who feasts on the amphibian eggs in the spring. If you look closely, you will see that the pool drains under the old road. A nearly invisible culvert was constructed long ago using nothing but large rocks, probably during the time of wagons.

Stop 6. Geology. Notice how little evidence of farming there is in much of the park, such as stone walls. That's because the alternating swamps and ridges made it too difficult: there was little worth farming. It also made it too expensive to build suburban houses, which is why it is undeveloped today. In fact, an area bounded by Route 108, Nell's Rock Road and Buddington Avenue is the most rugged area of Shelton. The USGS geologic quadrangle report even described the area as "uninhabitable."

The cliffs and swamps in the region are the result of an ancient fold in the bedrock which stressed and weakened the rock, especially along the crest of the fold. The Nells Rock/Buddington region is the crest of the fold. The topography is now a series of parallel and perpendicular linear features, such as swamps and cliffs, reflecting the many joints and fractures along this crest. Even Hope Lake is part of this system of linear features. Interestingly, geologist have found that such areas often have more ground water than other areas, because there are so many bedrock fractures to contain the water.

Stop 7. Iroquois Pipeline. The old road crosses the pipeline (don't turn onto the pipeline or you'll be lost). On the left side of the trail, in the middle of the clearing, is a spring accidentally formed when the pipeline was put in. Normally it is dry, but after a season of heavy rain groundwater bubbles up from the rock. At one time the spot was surrounded by a small circle of rocks. 

Stop 8. Mixed Deciduous Forest. As you continue along the old road, the forest you are walking through is a typical mixed deciduous forest for southern Connecticut. (Deciduous means the leaves fall off in the winter). Common trees in are: Red oak, black birch, sugar maple, hickory, red maple, black cherry, tulip poplar, and white oak. Red oaks have pointy leaves and white oaks have rounded leaves.

The trail turns right off of the old road and circles around a large swamp towards Rt. 108, then parallels 108 for about 1/2 mile.

Stop 9. Red Maple Swamp. By far the most common type of swamp in this region is the classic 'red maple swamp.' As you walk the trail along Rt. 108, the swamp is on your right. In early spring, it is easy to see why this type of swamp got its name. The red maple are full of bright red flowers, creating a reddish haze in the treetops. Below the maples, a yellow haze from flowering spicebush, or "forsythia of the wild" fills the swamp. And below that, skunk cabbage has unfurled. Remember these three plants and you can spot a red maple swamp even from the highway during the spring. In the fall, red maple leaves turn bright red (pictured).

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1. red maple (reddish tinge)
2. spice bush (shrub with yellow flowers)
3. skunk cabbage

By the way, the difference between a swamp and a marsh is this: swamps have trees or shrubs, and marshes don't. Marshes usually have cattails, reeds, bulrushes, sedges or some other type of grassy looking plant.

This swamp is wet in the spring and early summer, and there are usually some nesting ducks. It may also qualify as a vernal pool because there is often standing water in the swamp. Later in the season it often dries out. Some other plants you are likely to see are sweet pepperbush and blue flag iris.

Stop 10. Pipeline / Powerlines. You've now returned to the pipeline and powerlines, which are located next to each other at Rt. 108. Your chances of seeing wildlife and wildflowers are best along this open "corridor". One type of song bird common here that you may not see in your back yard is the rufous sided towhee, a robin-sized bird (pictured).

Other animals you may see here are rabbits, turkey, deer, box turtle, hawks (especially red-tail and red-shouldered), Baltimore orioles, mockingbirds and other songbirds.

Proceed directly across the utility easements and head into the woods on an dirt road.  If it's wet, note the standing water in the tire ruts.   Salamanders use these puddles for breeding in the spring, and you can see the gelatin-like egg masses in April. 

Stop 11. Hill Top. This is part of the large "Shelton Lakes" property which the City purchased from the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company in 1997.  A section of this road is surrounded by mountain laurel, which blooms in May. As you climb up the small hill, you can see an area on your right where a laurel thicket burned in 1996. Can you see any signs of the fire now? These fires can be difficult to put out, since the soil can burn beneath the surface undetected.

Since you are nearing the top of a hill, the plant species have changed somewhat. It's drier here, and the soil is shallower. A tree typical of rocky hilltops, often found with mountain laurel, is the chestnut oak. Its bark is very knobby and the leaves look like chestnut leaves except with rounded lobes (pictured). Another tree common on dry hilltops is the red maple, the same tree found in swamps. The red maple is well adapted to stressful conditions.

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Follow the road back to the beginning of the Oak Valley loop, and take a left back to the reservoir.

Some wildflowers you may see in the park during April:

• trout lily
• spice bush (forsythia of the wild)

In Mid-May (these flowers were all in bloom along the trail on May 21, 2000):

Along the sunny powerlines:
Pale or Pink Corydalis (pink and yellow flowers)    
Cinquefoil  (yellow) 
Pink Ladyslipper (large pink flower at edge of trees)
Chokeberry  (white)
Yellow Stargrass
Blackberry (white)
Racemed Milkwort (blue/violet)
Field Hawkweed (yellow, hairy leaves and stems)
One Flowered Cancerroot ("Ghost Pipe") (A parasitic plant with no leaves, pale-lavendar to white flowers, feeds off of clover roots.)
[Mountain Laurel was almost in bloom]

At the reservoir:
Lance Leaved Violet (white, in boggy area at reservoir)
Highbush Blueberry (white)
[Blueflag Iris was almost in bloom]

In the woods:
Canada Mayflower (small white flowers, abundant)
Dogwood (tree) 
Pink Azalea ("Pinxter Flower")
Wild Geranium (purple)
Celandine (yellow)

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Early June species (were spotted on June 4, 2000 along the powerlines north and south of Route 108), organized by height:

Mountain Laurel
Rose (white to pink)
Blackberry (white)
Maple Leaved Viburnum (small white, in clusters, shrub)
Bittersweet Nightshade (Blue bells with yellow center)
Sulfur Cinquefoil (2 ft, yellow, leaves like Cannibis)
Field Hawkweed (2 ft, yellow, long stem)
Yarrow (white clusters, feathery leaves)
Wild Geranium (1" lavendar bloom, 1-2 ft tall)
Oxeye Daisy
Birdsfoot Trefoil (yellow, pea-like, 1 ft tall)
Clover (white and purple)
Racemed Milkwort (small blue)
Bluets (small blue, yellow ctr, 4 petals)
Slender Blue-Eyed Grass (small blue, iris family)
Common Speedwell (small purple, groundcover)
Common Cinquefoil (low vine, yellow blossoms)

Ecosystems or vegetation zones:

Upland

• mixed deciduous forest
• coniferous forest (white pine)
• rocky hilltop / laurel thicket
• edge habitat (powerlines)

Wetland

• red maple swamp
• lake (reservoir)
• boggy marsh
• vernal pool
• stream

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This guide was written by Teresa Gallagher, environmental scientist. It may be reproduced without permission.