Okay, fine. With one exception, they aren’t truly hidden. But you won’t see these from your car or the parking lot.

1. Elizabeth Park’s Heritage Rose Garden: The vine-covered gazebo is one of the most photographed sites in Hartford; that and the rose garden it sits in are lovely, but if you cross the park road you’ll find the Heritage Rose Garden, a smaller, wilder rambling display. You’ll notice that these older varieties of roses are more fragrant than those in the main rose garden. Elizabeth Park Conservancy describes its Heritage Rose Garden as containing “Apothecary’s Rose, which was developed before 1240 and is thought to have been brought to France by a returning crusader. It also includes Madame Zoetman’s, Tuscany Superb, Henri Martin, Empress Josephine, Rose du Roi, and Camaieux, which are rarely grown elsewhere.” If you’re wondering when to go, now is the time. These roses bloom once per season, and this occurs in mid-June.

2. The view from Rocky Ridge Park, path accessible from Summit Street (between College Terrace and Hamilton Street). Once a nuisance to the neighborhood when it was an operating quarry, this space began its conversion to a park around 1903. The playing fields get the most use, but the actual rocks, and view from the top of the rocks, is the best part of Rocky Ridge.

3. The goats of Keney Park’s Sustainability Project: how can you not love these adorable lawn mowers?

4. Gully Brook: Most of this brook runs in a conduit from Westland Street to Bushnell Park where it joins the Park River, so it’s nice to see the few places where nature has been left well enough alone in Hartford. Gully Brook flows through the Waverly section of Keney Park; Look for the path entrance on Love Lane near Vine Street; exits on Tower Avenue.

Cemetery Brook

5. Keney Park’s zoo: Enter from Tower Avenue and take a left through (well, around) the gate. Consider visiting outside of mosquito season.

6. Riverside Park’s “island” north of the train trestle: depending on water levels, this sand bar is either accessible on foot or only by boat. Besides experiencing a sandy beach inside city limits, this spot offers a more unique skyline view.

7. Goodwin Park’s wooded paths: These are not interfered with by the golf course or the winter light show. They aren’t quite the extensive network of trails that a park should have, but if this is on your side of town and just chillin’ in the parking lot isn’t satisfying, wander off the park road for a few minutes.

If you get lost in Keney Park, you might happen upon this

8. Keney Park’s vernal pools and beaver ponds — Use the Tower Avenue or Windsor Avenue entrance and look for trails. I don’t know what urban legends are circulating, but there are folks who find the woods of Keney Park too creepy or something for them to consider stepping foot. I’d hate to see the area swarming with people like what happens at the West Hartford Reservoirs or trail to Heublein Tower, yet a handful or two more of visitors to the natural parts of Keney Park would not hurt. If you got lost on the paths in Goodwin Park, you’d find the park road again in less than five minutes. In the Ten Mile Woods part of Keney Park, you might wind up in the sand dunes of Windsor or in view of adorable cottages that feel slightly disconnected from the rest of civilization. That’s nothing to be worried about, but I’d wear junk sneakers and bring water.

9. Cemetery Brook’s ravine: Technically, this is not a park, but it absolutely should be. From the street, what you see is a grassy, vacant lot that has collected litter and is occasionally used for illegal dumping. At the back of the field is a wooded area, and through the wooded area is one of Hartford’s best kept secrets. Because this is privately owned — though there is no signage suggesting it — I am not disclosing the exact location. Get out a map and see where Cemetery Brook is, then narrow it down. Those who are trespassing averse could opt for the gorge in Keney Park instead. (Disclaimer borrowed from CTMQ: “I didn’t tell you to trespass.”)

10. Sigourney Square Park: Admittedly, “gem” isn’t quite the word for this, but the park is built over a cemetery filled with smallpox victims. So, think of it as a silent monument to vaccines. This makes the list because the story of a place is layered; there is always more than one story.