Cockaponset State Forest

This is just up Rt 9 from Old Lyme, a bit east of Killingworth in Connecticut.

On the way up Hoopole Hill Rd. I spotted a small pile about twenty yards into the woods at 'C', but my plan was to drive to 'A', then try to walk around the hill. No way. The loggers had decimated the hill around 'A'.

Nevertheless:

Sorry about the audio. I comment on the scrappy woods, finding a rock pile just before giving up. There were five or so other piles hiding in the bushes. I'll skip the photos, they were cobble on support-style piles. All in pretty bad shape. You would be too, after the EPA front-loaders get done with you. It was very tough going - roses, raspberries, and saplings. 

So we bailed on the hill. The result was that, later, we got to our destination early and had an extra hike at the end of the day. 

On this first hike, as we walk back to the car, around 'B', I saw something worth photo'ing:

I figured it was some kind of viewing platform.

I did not give this much thought [I am afraid this is going to be the refrain: rushing from place to place, grabbing photos, and moving on. No understanding, just recording.] but noticed something later, when I was looking for examples of small circles on the ground [more later on this]. Look at the first of these two pictures. When you look for it, you notice a circle of larger rocks. It reminds me that many "random" rocks are, in fact, deliberately placed. But you have to be looking hard - and there are just too many rocks to check.

Being disappointed with the top of the hill, we drove back down and stopped the car where I had spotted the small pile. [Another refrain is going to be apologizing for low volume audio .]

So let me show you some pictures from the "iceberg". At first I noticed the usual small piles, going off into the distance. Perhaps evenly spaced?

A few of particular interest:

The main feature that caught my eye was a spring with the "usual suspects" all around:

Looking closer at the boulder group in the background:

The boulder on the left looks like a donation pile. One notes the rusted buckets. This is enough for the conventional thinkers to dismiss this site around this spring. Since buckets have been identified as typical ceremonial offerings, I'll go with that. This is a site that was in use in the last fifty years.