Located in Haddam Connecticut the Devils Hopyard, also known as Chapman Falls is a place where history seems to have mixed with legend. The land surrounding the falls was used by early settlers to grow hops for the production of beer, and the falls having a stepped appearance with many round holes has born the tales. The story I saw first was that as the Devil was passing through the valley his tail got wet, he got upset and stomped or bounded up the falls leaving the cloven marks.
Where the Devil walks
It’s interesting to see the way the marks are on each of the flat spot on the falls. Unlike Devils foot rock in N. Kingstown Rhode Island, the cloven shaped marks are two or three feet across at Devils Hopyard. At Devils foot rock they are about the size of actual hoof prints. I only saw four myself in several different spots, but according to this website there are many of varying sizes.
There’s never enough time
When I went to Chapman falls I didn’t have time to explore much more than the falls before sunset, I spent about fifteen minutes on the falls trying to find all the prints I could. Some of these holes were full of the autumn foliage that had been recently dropping.
More than just legend
The very boring and scientific explanation is that rocks settle on the flat spot of the rocks and spin from the current, this causes the circular erosion. As the holes get larger, bigger rocks land in the holes from heavy current and increase the size of the holes. As is typical with early civilizations, see Greek mythology, when people don’t understand how something happens we just make up stories to tell each other.
Why so mad bro?
Personally I like the idea that the Devil was just casually walking through the area and was upset with getting his tail wet. It’s definitely a good way to show other people that being temperamental and getting upset at something trivial is a trait exemplified by the Devil. At the same time showing the power of anger to be so destructive.
On to the next adventure
Whatever way you want to see it, Chapman falls is definitely a great place to stop and enjoy the outdoors. I hope to get back there soon and hike the rest of the trails in the park, and find out the legends about the Devils oven, a rock formation in the park. Find ideas of for this and other haunted destinations here.
Devils Oven
There’s something fun about going back again and exploring more, the orange trail heads along the river from the covered bridge, maybe a half mile or so you come across a sign for the Devils oven. The trail up to the devil’s oven is extremely steep, use caution climbing up and down again. But getting up to the oven is worth the small excursion.
A hole in the cliff
Once you’ve climbed up to the base of the cliff face, you’ll find the oven, a hole in the rock deep enough for a man to lay inside, but that’s it. There’s some paint bearing the name but I honestly didn’t notice until I was looking at the photos later. From the oven we climbed up to the top of the cliff as that’s the way the orange trail connects and looped back around. There’s a lot of trails in the area that aren’t on the map but will lead back to the actual trails if you can figure a good way to get there. The cliffs can be very steep in places and treacherous if proper caution isn’t taken.
White and Orange trail
The white trail leads left from the covered bridge and around through the woods, there’s a laurel thicket along a creek, it eventually connects to the orange trail and takes you along the top of the cliffs. If you follow the sign to the vista, you find this clearing with a bunch of flat rocks and stone cairns and then a rocky point overlooking the valley below. It was a gorgeous view and I took some videos for youtube proclaiming it as my new favorite trail.
