Heublein Tower Open Through Sunday For Foliage

SIMSBURY — During a normal year, the Heublein Tower closes by the end of October, with peak foliage season well past and a bare November view setting in. Not this year.

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will keep the tower open through Sunday due to the delayed fall foliage season and “wanting to do everything possible to ensure that leaf peepers have a positive experience while visiting our state,” according to Tom Tyler, director of state parks.

Here’s a look at the park and what visitors can expect.

Weather Report

The peak foliage might be knocked back a bit with wind and rain Friday night and early Saturday. But the sun returns by

Sunday for leaf peepers.

How To Get There

The entrance to the park is along Route 185 on the Bloomfield/Simsbury border. The hike to the tower is 1.25 miles from the parking area. Those who like to live on the edge — literally — can take the trail marked with yellow blazes. The path runs along the mountain’s ridge, with several overlooks. Those who don’t want to be that close can take the Connecticut Forest And Park Association’s Metacomet Trail, which runs a bit farther inland away from the edge. It is marked with blue blazes.

Tower Hours

The 165-foot-high tower will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. There is no admission fee.

Tower History

A1 Steak Sauce and the tower have something in common: Gilbert Heublein. Heublein was the man whose family brought A1, Smirnoff Vodka and the first bottled cocktails to the U.S. The tower was visited by two presidents — Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.

The View

Sprawled before you is a vast chunk of the Farmington Valley in all its autumn splendor, with white clapboard church steeples pointing heavenward and miles of forested hillsides, rivers, ponds and meadows filling your vision.

It is said that on a clear day, those with sharp vision can see an area of 1,200 square miles. Visitors with such vision might see Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire to the north, or the Berkshires to the west and the Hanging Hills of Meriden and Long Island Sound to the south.