Celebrate! West Hartford is a highly attended, annual tradition that promotes, embraces and celebrates community life.

Attracting well over 30,000 people each year, Celebrate! also provides festival attendees with a wide range of wholesome family activities – an award winning juried arts & crafts show, great food, entertainment, games, rides, a certified 5K road race – as the saying goes, "something for everyone".

The event offers civic, service, sports, schools and charitable organizations a way to increase community awareness and an opportunity to raise funds for their worthy causes.

This adventure will begin at the trolley stop for the horse drawn trolley rides.  The dogs will be surrounded by people and see the horses pulling the trolley.  Over to the Town Hall Commons area to see all the activity around the amusement rides with lots of amusement ride noises and kids squeeling and lots of activity.  There will be bands playing and between the switching of the bands, there will be hula hoop demonstrations.  Walk over to 50 South Main Street to see the Juried Arts & Crafts Show and for a little less activity.

Walk around the parking area / picnic area on both sides of the ferry.  The dogs should properly greet people as well as leave all food, ducks and geese included!  On the Glastonbury side, walk along the road with the dogs in heel position.  You'll come to several horse farms where hopefully the dogs will have an opportunity to watch the horses romping in the fields from a distance ... they may even see some horses walking along the road.

The nation's oldest continuously operating ferry service crosses the Connecticut River between Rocky Hill and Glastonbury.

The original ferry, which dates back to 1655, was a small raft pushed across the river using long poles.  Under State charter, the ferry service was operated by local families throughout most of its existence. The ferry service was such a vital transportation link within the region that crossing would cease only during the most adverse conditions.

When river flood levels escalated, the ferry would use alternate landings such as the old coal dock in South Glastonbury, or the ferry operator would skid the craft across inundated meadows to an old dock near Tryon Street. Today the ferry is temporarily closed if the river reaches flood stage.

At one time, a horse on a treadmill in the center of the craft supplied the power to propel the craft across the river. In 1876, the ferry was "modernized" into a steam driven craft.  Today's craft is an open flatboat named the "Hollister III".  The three-car barge is towed back and forth by the "Cumberland," a diesel powered towboat. The ferry provides a convenient, direct link between Rocky Hill and Glastonbury at Route 160.

Rails to Trails Conservancy transforms old rail lines across the country into routes for walking.

Thanks to skilled engineers with the former Hartford, Providence, & Fishkill Railroad, this pretty trail network overlooks ravines and streams and passes between rock walls verdant with ferns and lichen. Crossing a wooded terrain of hills and wetlands, it also provides a wonderful introduction to Vernon's varied neighborhoods. You may spot deer, and you'll surely notice the line of railroad-era telephone poles amid the trees. The Connecticut Army National Guard laid down the stone dust surface as a training exercise.

From the main trailhead hub on Church Street, the Vernon Rails-to-Trails Park offers three trail segments. Stretching west and then south, a 1.8-mile spur of the Hop River State Park Trail leads to the Manchester/Vernon town line. There is no formal trailhead at the end. The park also claims a 3.9-mile eastbound stretch of the Hop River State Park Trail. From Church Street, you'll quickly pass the turnoff for the Rockville Spur on your left. The first mile links residential neighborhoods. Beyond Tunnel Road, the Vernon section of the trail leads through thick woods to the Bolton town line. The 4-mile Rockville Spur negotiates a varied surface, sharing a sidewalk early on and crossing several roads. A half mile from the turnoff, you'll reach a trail highlight: a bridge crossing of the Tankerhoosen River. Just shy of Vernon Avenue, the spur comes to an abrupt halt at a large earthen mound atop an old bridge abutment.

Click here for a map of the trail.

Northwest Park also features an interpretive Nature Center, animal barn, gardens, The Luddy-Taylor Connecticut Valley Tobacco Archives Museum, picnic pavilions, a gift shop and an operational maple sugar house during February and March.  They even have a Coffee House Concert Series.  Throughout the year, live animal exhibits and demonstrations are also scheduled.

Our visit will begin with a hike around the Bog Loop keeping the dogs on a short leash and out of the bog!  (The Bog Loop is the red trail on the lower left side of the trail map.)  After completing the loop, head over to the Animal Barn.  The dogs are not allowed in the barn, so take turns holding each others dogs so everyone can have an opportunity to walk through the barn.  While holding someone else''s dog, insure that your dog interacts appropriately with this new friend and that both dogs remain calm at all times.  They need to understand when it is appropriate to play and when it is not.  Then take a walk around the barn with the dogs.  Some of the animals may be in the pens outside the barn so the dogs need to remain calm and focused (on you) while walking around the animal enclosures.

Dogs must remain on leash at all times.  There is a dog tie-up area if you want to visit the Nature Center as well.

Click here to visit the Northwest Park website.  And please click here to download a trail map to take with you