The ‘Whitestone Cliffs Trail’ is a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) Blue-Blazedhiking trail in the Waterbury area in Thomaston and Plymouth, Litchfield County, Connecticut. It is contained almost entirely in a section of the Mattatuck State Forest. The mainline (official “Blue” “non-dot”) trail is a loop trail with one connector trail (Blue-Blazed with yellow dot) to the Jericho Blue-Blazed Trail.Notable features include a 750 foot summit and several overlook views. The trail goes near, but does not summit Mount Tobe.[2] The trail is maintained largely through the efforts of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. The trail is named for high stone cliffs which appear white when viewed from the Naugatuck River and Connecticut Route 8
In the early 1840s the Naugatuck Railroad laid track parallel to the Naugatuck River near the Whitestone Cliffs western border. This line connected Winsted Connecticut to New Haven Connecticut with several stops in between including Thomaston and Waterbury Connecticut.[ The company built a spur rail line to their quarrying operation on the western edge of the white cliffs to produce stone material for railroad bridge abutments. The pavilion near the trail head and parking lot was erected for an archery group which conducted target practice in this area of Mattatuck State Forest in the latter half of the twentieth century. There were once archery range markers in the woods close to the pavilion
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