The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
SkyRidge Trails Campground opens after $5M in upgrades
TORRINGTON — The new SkyRidge Trails Campground sits high on a hill, overlooking woods and open fields. Some of the RV sites are already occupied, even while the owners are still planting trees, landscaping campsites and completing the park’s many amenities.
The campground opened for business on a 365-acre farm property off Klug Hill Road in May, offering 93 sites for RV owners; a grand opening is planned for October.
Lelah Campo, who owns SkyRidge Trails with her husband, Dan Mahieu, was busy on a recent sunny day, traveling to and fro in a golf cart to speak with staff members working on tasks; truck drivers heading up her drive with loads of gravel and customers lining up at the camp store.
In the RV sites, families are settling in, some with portable dog fences around their campers, to enjoy the state’s newest campground with stunning views of northwestern Connecticut.
“Each RV site is like a subdivision pad,” Campo said. “There’s an amazing amount of electrical wiring underground here, just amazing.”
The new campground offers tent camping and RV sites, and three wooden log-style cabins are also available to rent. “I love our cabins; they’re handcrafted by the Amish,” she said.
Campo estimates the campground took about 14 months to complete, at a cost of about $5 million. The final piece of the project — landscaping — is underway. Customers who have already chosen a seasonal site for their RV are supportive and patient, she said.
“People are excited, they’re enthusiastic, but they still say, ‘Hey, where’s the trees? Where’s the landscaping?’ ” Campo said. “Today we are expecting a huge delivery of trees and plants, local, native plants that, once they are established, will be lush.”
And while the landscaping is still in the planting stage, Campo is pleased with the work she, Mahieu, staff members and Autumn Construction of Harwinton have done to get the campground open.
A long entranceway from Klug Hill Road passes an under-construction swimming pond that will feature a sandy beach, Campo said. The driveway continues to the upper level of the property, past a shingled estate, house and barns, to a paved area where large vehicles can park while visitors check in at the camp store. Behind the camp store building, campers will find a playground, outdoor picnic tables and a food truck, operated by a local restaurant, already in place.
“I love finding other businesses to partner with,” Campo said. “We didn’t want to run a restaurant here,” so putting in a food truck “was a great idea.”
The store building, with offices for staff, also features an indoor room with picnic tables and sliding doors, allowing guests to walk through to the campground’s activity areas for archery, a jump pad, laser tag, pickleball and basketball.
Campo said a fire pit is planned, and there is a hayloft in an adjacent barn. Behind the playscape, a children’s game room is planned.
“We’ve been calling this the courtyard, where people can go to the play area, and there will be lots of activities,” she said.
The campground also offers a fishing pond, which is getting a new walking path. Campo also plans to allow hiking on the grounds, with a careful eye on property lines. In the fall, there will be hay rides.
The RV sites, featuring electrical and septic connections, are accessible from a loop road that leads to the individual sites, each with a fireplace and picnic table. For now, the sites are wide open, with little vegetation. But evergreens are going in, and planters filled with flowers are everywhere, Campo said. Ornamental grasses, trees and perennials are on the way.
It didn’t start out that way. The couple first proposed the campground in December 2022 and were granted approval in 2023. During the early excavation process, they discovered that a majority of the hilltop property was not soil, but rock ledge.
“Everything was ledge — just a sheet of rock,” Campo said. “We have literally removed hundreds of thousands of cubic yards. That definitely took some time.”
Despite the ongoing work, Campo was already focused on the weekend, when more guests would arrive.
“This weekend we’ve got live music, an ice cream social ... there’s always something going on,” she said. “That’s the most important thing; our customers, people who want to come here.
“When I say SkyRidge Trails is going to be like nothing else, I mean it,” she said. “People who come here want to know what there is to do, so we have to stay on top of all the things this area has to offer. We’re excited about partnering with Action Wildlife (in nearby Goshen), too. Families are always looking for things to do.”
Campo and Mahieu also own Cozy Hills Campground in Bantam, which has RV and tent sites. The couple purchased that property from the Caldwell family in 2014 for $1.9 million.
SkyRidge Trails, she said, will attract retirees enjoying their time together, perhaps traveling cross country or around the state, as well as families who enjoy the outdoors but want the comfort of a luxury recreational vehicle. And “regular” campers are always welcome, Campo said.
“Last weekend we had five tent sites; I warned them that they were going to be on a pad, but they didn’t care,” she said. “But I often recommend campers to Cozy Hills, because it’s set up for them.”