Codington Woods has forty five hilltop wooded acres; a working farm and woodlot from before 1742 (when the adjoining historic farmstead was begun) until the 1960’s when cultivation yielded to re-vegetation , in 2003 still occupied by descendents of the original Codington family. In 1998 Lora Codington (b.1910), avoided development pressures by selling the house, farmland, furnishings and equipment to Warren, to assure historic and natural preservation.
Rough and rocky blazed trails form two loops, together exploring the entire tract. The southern loop includes a fruit orchard of old but productive apple, pear, and cherry trees, two farm fields now overgrown with bushes and young trees, a large open grove of mature maples and oaks, and a former sheep pasture now colorful with dogwood, cedar and birch trees and flowering shrubs. The northern loop is dense with very large old hardwood groves and vines typical of a virgin piedmont forest. Throughout are rows of basalt rocks cleared from tillable farmlands, and occasional old iron farm machinery.
Parking area is located at 15 Mt. Horeb Road and additional access at cul de sacs at 19 & 29 Casale Drive and at the hydrant by #23 Mt. Horeb Rd. Terrain is dry and shady. Wildlife: Turkey, Fox, Coyote, Deer (including albino strains) all smaller mammals and many bird and insect species. This tract provides the only tree cover for wildlife movement between second & third mountain ridges when combined with Mt. Horeb Springs tract.
Take the North path at the trailhead and pass the Dragon's Den. The beginning of your quest is clear and then gets rocky, overgrown in some spots and has a tree trunk that needs stepping over. Pass Dragon's Roost then the trail turns east to get to the Dragon's Playground.
Keep an eye out for dragons because Here There Be Dragons!