Robinson State Park

Finding out that there was a state park by any name in the Agawam/Feeding Hills area was a big surprise to me. I never even knew where Feeding Hills was. I always imagined it as a back water hillbilly type small town but that was judging purely by the one old firetruck I always saw at our yearly parades. They never had more than a handful of firemen accompanying their truck either. And for the most part I don't feel I was that far off in my guesstimating of Feeding Hills. The town has a distinct flavor of tired and worn out something....old, used up and not refreshed....can't really put any certain name to it.

I felt the same way when I saw the park. Something about it seems like any other state park but other parts feel like it's seen better days...like it's well past it's heyday. And the lack of water being so obvious may be contributing to a general feeling of sadness as well. It has plenty of hiking trails, some of them look to be quite challenging. But I saw some signs saying the trails were closed because of the tornadoes last June. I'm not sure if that applied to all of the trails but I believe a big part of them are still in need of some serious clean up work. And certain areas of the park were closed off completely...not sure what I was missing in those areas. It seemed like everywhere I went there were signs saying the park closes at 8pm. So many of them (a lot of them hand written in bold letters) that I began to feel alright already! And one sign (wish I got a picture of it) said the park closes at 8pm and that means you must be in your car and leaving the park!

As I drove into the park there were two men working on the rangers box (where they collect the money) and one of them flagged me down. I was going all of about 3 miles an hour so I just coasted to a stop near him. I said Hi and he said ok, you can go. What the hell was that about?? He didn't seem actually unfriendly...rather more suspicious or distrustful and harassed...definitely harassed. I will assume I have an honest face or he at least couldn't see me with a spray paint can making elaborate 'tags' or profanity all over the trees and buildings. I didn't see any of that by the way..I'm just assuming the unfriendly feeling had something to do with teenagers and their uncanny ability to get into places after hours to have the kind of fun that keeps their parents awake at night. I get the feeling this small town has trouble with their teenagers. I grew up in a small town. Small towns are hell for teenagers.

So I took a few pictures and strolled around a bit. I interrupted a young couple playing kissy-face near the waters edge. Freaked out the girl when I took a picture over her head. I'm sure she thought I took a picture of them together. I smiled and turned to walk away.....let her worry. I was smiling because she reminded me of myself and memories of playing kissy-face by the lake in my younger days. But then the mommy gene kicked in a bit too and I thought she looked way to young to have that adoring and trusting look on her face when she looked up at him. And he looked way too green; naive and untried to even begin to be worthy of her adoration. I looked back again and wondered what their lives would have in store for them...hoping it wouldn't be ruined by the wrong choices. I was on the brink of wandering down memory lane again and I didn't want to go there so I decided it was time to go check out that tough looking trail over there.

I will go back to this park again but not until enough time has passed for the ravages of the tornadoes to have softened. And I won't go back until we've had enough rain or snow to fill the streams to make them pretty again. I really think this place is probably very pretty when it's not struggling so much. It's worth another look for sure.

I know most of these pictures make the place look very nice but the water shots have water that is very shallow. I saw kids in an area that is marked off for swimming (has an empty lifeguard seat) trying to swim in water that was no more than knee deep at best. Luckily they were young enough to probably have fun playing in a bucket of water.