Exploring New England's Most Charming Corner: the Litchfield Hills

A Hidden Getaway in Connecticut:

Urban dwellers from New York City keep seeing articles in The New York Times about how great it is in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut.  Connecticut is a great deal.  It's close, scenic and sophisticated.  Drive a short way and you've escaped the City in many respects - rock walls, farmland, livestock, and a canopy of sacred stars after dark (you can't see stars at night in the City because of the lights).  And there are still quiet corners of Connecticut.  You can still pass around the name “Lake Waramaug” among New Yorkers without too much risk of recognition.  

Lake Waramaug is an s-curve of a lake just north of New Preston, about 22 miles north of Danbury on Route 202.  It would appear that this area is protected by an unseen sentinel that allowed inside all of the prerequisites of graceful living, but then screened out the top half of an over capacity crowd. 

What is the attraction of Lake Waramaug?  Consider the Hopkins Inn.  Serving guests since 1847, the Hopkins Inn is a three-story guesthouse on a bluff overlooking the lake.  There are three fireplaces downstairs with a dining room and a rustic breakfast room that has hardwood floors and exposed beams overhead.  The restaurant serves Austrian cuisine, entertaining dinner guests in a wide stone courtyard under the canopy of stately hardwood trees and a soaring Norfolk pine.  Every weekend during fair weather visitors park up and down Bliss Road to enjoy a relaxed dinner under lights mounted overhead in a gruff chestnut tree. Within a hundred yards of the restaurant are a vineyard and winery that produce quality local product.

Of course, there are a few license plates from New York or Massachusetts or New Jersey mounted on out-of-state cars making the circuit around Lake Waramaug.  Sometimes there is the lilt of a foreign accent heard in the breakfast room at the Hopkins Inn.  But Lake Waramaug holds its local character, and more revealingly, it holds its local visitors.  The inns and restaurants around the lake have the feel of hometown weekend relaxation.  It is a place where the locals drive to enjoy what is best about the region. 

As much as anywhere else in the Litchfield Hills, the New Preston area has a hilly topography, with steep slopes bunched around Lake Waramaug.  A number of homes are at water level, but many more frequently they are set higher with their lawns rolling down to the lakeside. State highway signs designate this a “scenic drive” around six-mile periphery of the lake and there is a popular lakeside park to the west along Lake Waramaug Road.

Lake Waramaug has four-season charm.  During autumn the ghostlike glow of the maple trees is arresting, particularly with the cold blue lake and sky contrasted behind.  In the midst of winter, with ice fishermen out on the lake, the scenery is hungry with contrasts from a different palette of traditional New England colors. Spring and summer bring a breezy, green-leaf richness.  The warmer seasons, with sailboats and canoes on the lake, lends a satisfied sense of tranquility.  

New Preston is nearby to modest but serviceable skiing facilities (Mohawk Mountain), as well as parks offering hiking, fishing, swimming canoeing and picnicking (some include Lake Waramaug State Park, Macedonia Brook State Park, Kent Falls State Park and Mohawk Mountain State Park).  The nearby town of Kent has an antique shops, restaurants, and a number of well-regarded art galleries.

Serving the Lake Waramaug area survive two hotel/restaurants (where there were dozens a hundred years ago).

Located near the Hopkins Inn on the north shore of the lake, the Boulders Inn is an impressive, stone-built property with gambrel roofs and a community of luxury guest cabins spread behind.  The Boulders is nearer to the lake than either of the other properties and manages to strike a more refined pose than its immediate competitors.  The main building glows with varnished maple paneling.  There is space for outside dining as well as a fireplace for drinks and dessert.  The dinner served here has a graceful allure that many consider the finest in the area.  Some of the specialty dishes include a marvelously prepared cassoulet topped with a crispy confit duck leg, as well as a lush pepper-crusted tuna steak. 

Most of the 15 guest rooms at the Boulders are behind the main building beneath a canopy of trees in the beautifully appointed carriage houses.  For accommodation the Boulders consistently out prices its Lake Waramaug neighbors.  Dinner entrees are priced between $20-$30 at all three of the lakeside restaurants.

Neither the Boulders nor the Birches can match the populist appeal of the Hopkins Inn.  Aided by vast outside dining areas, and the Hopkins Vineyard across the street, lunch and dinner at the Hopkins Inn brings large numbers of relaxed guests, a good percentage of them from nearby areas.  The wait staff is energetic and accommodating (dressed as they are in Austrian costumes).

Something about the Lake Waramaug brings a sense of deserved satisfaction.  Most weekends you will find families out for a special dinner at the restaurants around the lake, and groups of old friends who have found a setting to share the best moments that recreation offers. 

Travel Logistics:

From Interstate 84 (from Hartford or via I-684 from New York) take exit 7 in Danbury to Route 7 north (to New Milford).  From New Milford take Route 202 across the bridge.  Be careful to watch for the surprise left turn that is needed to follow Route 202 to New Preston.  At New Preston take Route 45 through town to the sight of Lake Waramaug.  At the lake take a left turn on West Shore Road to reach the Birches, or continue on Route 45 (East Shore Road) along the lake to the Boulders.  Half a mile past the Boulders take a left turn on Lake Road to reach the Hopkins Inn.  Off of Lake Road turn left onto Bliss Road to reach Hopkins Road and the Inn.

The Hopkins Inn – 22 Hopkins Road, New Preston, CT 06777-1016 (tel. 860-868-7295, fax 860-868-7464). www.thehopkinsinn.com.

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© Copyright 2006 Chris Cloud. Last update: 9/5/2006; 8:33:12 PM.