Hartland, Connecticut: A Valley Flooded for Hartford's Water

Hartland has no rail station and no transit — visitors drive, almost always via Route 20, the scenic two-lane road running the length of the town, connecting west to Route 8 in Winchester and east to I-91 at Windsor Locks via the Bradley Airport Connector. Route 181 meets Route 20 at the reference junction for Tunxis State Forest, and Route 179 runs east of the Barkhamsted Reservoir. The nearest passenger rail is the CTrail Hartford Line station in Windsor Locks, reached by driving Route 20 east; Metro-North and Shore Line East do not reach this part of the state.

Tunxis State Forest, whose first land purchase came in 1923, covers most of northern Hartland, with DEEP's own directions to Howell's Pond, the Falls Brook Trail and a CCC-era ski area all measured from the Route 20/Route 181 junction in Hartland. The Gaylord House Museum, a six-room 1845 house built by architect Elias Gilman, was nearly demolished after the Metropolitan District Commission bought it in 1930; local advocates saved it, and the Hartland Historical Society has run it as a museum since restoring it in the 1980s, with a standing schedule of first-Sunday openings, May through October. The Mill District Preserve, a 117-acre North Woods Land Conservancy property in West Hartland, sits between two branches of the Farmington River, adjoining several other conserved tracts for longer linked walks.