Hartford, Connecticut: Elizabeth Park, oldest rose garden in US

On my way down the coastline, I decided to make a stop in Connecticut somewhere because it was the only remaining state in the Northeast that I had not visited. Of course, I didn’t research very much ahead of time and while I was in Portland waiting on a response from my host in Boston, I researched places to stay in Connecticut. And wouldn’t you believe it, there are no hostels to speak of in the entire tiny state! Also, the majority of the Airbnb rooms on the coast were out of my price range or poorly located. So by default I ended up in Hartford.

It ended up being a good choice, though, as I discovered later that there were a number of old, beautiful gardens and parks surrounding the city (who knew?). Since I spent a while in Rhode Island, I arrived in Hartford a little after dark and decided to stay in for the night. The next day I headed to Elizabeth Park, the oldest (and one of the largest) municipal rose garden in the country. Check out my pictures below. (Keep in mind that it was mid-September and had been raining all week, so just imagine how the garden must look in the summertime!)

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Afterwards, I wasn’t feeling too great so I skipped the other parks on my list and headed to White Plains, NY where I parked my car and hopped a train to NYC.