Mendell’s Folly, 125-acre tract of land Bethany and Beacon Falls, remains the “crown jewel” among the preserves in the Land Trust’s portfolio. As the centerpiece in Bethany’s northwest corner greenway, Mendell’s Folly provides hiking opportunities with trails that connect with three other preserves and is part of an area identified as a “Nature’s Network Connector” that resides between terrestrial and wetland core areas.
The largest property belonging to the Bethany Land Trust, Mendell’s Folly was given to the Trust in 1971 by Elizabeth “Tibby” Mendell. One of the original incorporators of the Land Trust, Tibby and her husband Clarence Mendell, the former Dean of Yale College and Sterling Professor of Classics at Yale, had purchased the property and adjoining pieces in 1936.
In all, the Mendells acquired 190 acres. Some of the land had been a cow pasture, some an apple orchard, some just plain Bethany woods. It’s been said that one of Clarence Mendell’s students, on seeing this wilderness of muddy fields and rocky hillsides, called it Mendell’s Folly, a play on the name Seward’s Folly given to the U.S. purchase of Alaska. After Clarence Mendell died, Tibby remained in Bethany on her “Folly.”
Mendell’s Folly includes heavily wooded hills, rocky outcrops and ridges, a charming brook, a marsh, beaver lodges and a dam, a ravine, and lots of wildlife and wildflowers. Hockanum Brook, or Lebanon Brook as it is sometimes called, flows into the wetlands westward from Bethany’s Veterans Memorial Park, then through a magnificent gorge below the beaver dam toward Beacon Falls and eventually the Naugatuck River. The stream widens into a marsh in the middle of the property, where beaver have felled many trees and created a small pond behind a dam.
Trails:
Mendell’s Folly provides hiking on moderate to difficult trails that course through wetlands, pass the beaver pond and dam, climb up ridges and pass through other natural features on the property.
- From the parking area on Route 42, a trail (0.5 miles; moderate) begins across Beacon Road along the wetlands edge starts out easy but presents some difficult passages near the beaver pond and Hockanum Brook crossing.
- Tibby’s Trail (0.7 miles; moderate) begins at the Hockanum Brook crossing and also offers good views of the marshland with its beaver lodges before its ends at the bottom of the abandoned portion of Northrup Road.
- A short spur trail (0.05 miles; easy) leads to a wildlife viewing platform constructed by local Scouts.
- The West Ridge Loop Trail (0.7 miles, difficult) starts near Beacon Road and climbs over 100 feet to a ridge overlooking the wetlands. It courses through the forested western uplands before it loops back. A spur drops down to the beaver dam.
- The White Birches Trail (0.5 miles; difficult) has some steep, rocky inclines and rises to 560 feet. It connects with the Green Grobe Gadabout Trail (0.15 miles; moderate) that then passes into the Grobe Preserve and the Red Trail (0.2 miles; moderate) which climbs into the Woodward Nature Preserve and its trails.
Address: 337 Beacon Road (Route 42), Bethany CT
Size: 125 acres
Parking: Roadside parking is available along Beacon Road (Route 42) at the Van Epps Preserve. Trail entrance is across Beacon Road by the wetlands. Another entrance is located off Route 42 in Beacon Falls, with limited parking (1 or 2 cars) by the side of the road. Access is also available by hiking through adjacent open space parcels whose trails connect with those in Mendell’s Folly.
Grobe Preserve
The Grobe Preserve is a natural area of 25.2 acres in the northwestern Bethany greenway purchased from the Mendell/Grobe family. It is an important conservation tract because of its continuous forested habitats, wildlife utility, aesthetics, protected network connectivity, landscape position, and provision of ecosystem services. It is a topographically complex parcel with steep to moderate slopes, valley features, and at least three summits ranging to about 700’ above sea level.
The Grobe Preserve is part of continuous forest block of 186 acres, whose geometry fosters sensitive forest-interior-dwelling wildlife and whose size serves as both reservoirs of diversity and as sources for wildlife that will range beyond the preserve’s borders. The Grobe Preserve’s complex terrain provides a wide range of growing conditions from drier hilltops to mesic lowland valley locales. The woodland is in the understory reinitiation stage of forest succession, and past logging activity (ca. 20 years ago) has generated additional diversity in the realms of light regimes, age classes, and structural elements. The primary cover type is deciduous forest growing on a stony substrate. Oak, maple, birch, hickory, black cherry, and tulip poplar are the most common tree species with an occasional eastern white pine seen.
Trails:
- The Green Grobe Gadabout Trail (0.36 miles; moderate) begins at the White Birches Trail in Mendell’s Folly, passes through forested areas blanketed in ferns during the summer and climbs over a ridge where an abandoned foundation can be seen, eventually connecting with the Woodward Nature Preserve.
- A trail (0.51 miles, difficult) climbs the abandoned portion of Northrup Road along the preserve’s eastern border up to a parking area at the end of the paved section of Northrup Road.
Address: 339 Beacon Road (Route 42), Bethany CT (for access, see parking)
Size: 25.2 acres
Parking: Being surrounded by other open space, the Grobe Preserve is accessed via trails connecting form other parcels including Mendell’s Folly and the Woodward Nature Preserve. The closest access point is through an entrance to the Woodward Nature Preserve at the end of the paved portion of Northrup Road, where roadside parking is available. It is about 0.2 miles from this parking area to the Green Grobe Gadabout Trail.
Woodward Nature Preserve
The 36.4-acre Woodward Nature Preserve, an important part of the Bethany’s northwest corner greenway, was obtained by the Land Trust as a subdivision set-aside. Natural features include rocky ridges, vernal pools, and an extensive wetlands with an outlet stream that empties into the beaver pond in Mendell’s Folly. The wooded areas are in an understory reinitiation stage of forest succession following activity related to gravel extraction.
The Woodland Nature Preserve is part of continuous forest block of 186 acres, whose geometry fosters sensitive forest-interior-dwelling wildlife and whose size serves as both reservoirs of diversity and as sources for wildlife that will range beyond the preserve’s borders. Like the adjacent Grobe Preserve, the primary cover type is deciduous forest of mainly oak, maple, birch, hickory, black cherry, and tulip poplar with an occasional small groves of eastern hemlock seen.
The wetlands area provides extensive habitat for amphibians and other species. In addition to the outlet stream, it has been suggested that a subsuface groundwater connection exists with the wetlands in Mendell’s Folly.
Trails:
The Woodward Trail (1 mile; difficult) from Mesa drive passes through a narrow access corridor and climbs over 100 feet past a vernal pool up to the top of a ridge. From there, it descends to some dirt paths around the wetlands back to the Northrup Road entrance. Connections exist from this trail with Mendell’s Folly via the Red Trail (0.2 miles; moderate) and the Grobe Preserve via the Green Grobe Gadabout Trail.
Address: Mesa Drive, Bethany CT (adjacent to 46 Mesa Drive)
Size: 36.4 acres
Parking: Roadside parking is available on Mesa Drive; trail entrance is adjacent to 46 Mesa Drive. Another entrance is at the end of the paved portion of Northrup Road, with access through a gate onto the abandoned portion of the road.