Posted By auntie on July 15, 2019

6 miles; New Haven, CT

I decided to do this 7-mile blue-blazed trail in sections after seeing how intense it was with my friend Stacy last month. VERY glad I made this decision. It’s a rugged trail and has some serious ups and downs. Interesting, though. Can’t wait to do more.

Panorama: click to embiggen

First off, last month it was foggy and rainy, and we got a great view of… fog from the overlook parking lot. Not so much today! You can see clear out to Long Island from here. Or so.

Also, for those of you perplexed, perhaps, by the name of this trail, see this link about the trail and its history.

Many structures

There were lots of interesting structures along this part of the trail, cellphone towers and fire observation towers among them. This particular building is actually the air vent? I guess? for the tunnel that the Merritt Parkway passes through that runs under this ridge. It’s called the Heroes Tunnel, and the state is making plans to blast another tunnel beside it. Check this website for info. Eeesh. I’d better get going with finishing this trail up soon!

Lowland Yellow Loosestrife, Lysimachia hybrida

I don’t recall ever having seen this before, and I had to spend a lot of time with my research assistant professor Google. But I think it’s whorled yellow loosestrife. I think.

What a View

All the climbing on this trail was certainly worth it, at least up to this point. Heck of a view!

Giant Water Tank

Another structure, this time a gigantic water tank. It looked like the mother ship had landed.

Native Rhody

I was also in time to catch at least a glimpse of the native rhododendrons in bloom.

Sleeping Giant

That’s a view of the Sleeping Giant from part way up the red trail back to the overlook. This was the worst climb I’ve done in quite a while… It was a half mile of straight UP, sometimes 4-points-of-contact climbing. At one point I was convinced that I had actually suffered a fatal heart attack and was now in hell and doomed to spend the rest of eternity climbing up the red trail in 90-degree heat. I am not even remotely kidding. This trail kept going and going. Every time I made a turn I’d think to myself, “The parking lot HAS to be just up here around this corner.” It wasn’t.

The End

Until, blessedly, there it was. The end of the red trail, the overlook parking lot, and my car. Whose internal thermometer was reading 100ºF (that’s 38ºC for my thousands of non-American readers LOL).

Track (click for details)

You can find out more about West Rock Ridge State Park and its many hiking trails from this CT DEEP website. You can read more about the vast (825 miles at last count) network of blue-blazed trails throughout Connecticut at the website of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. Be sure to check out the interactive map. As always, click on the image, above, for details about this hike and to download the GPS track.

Categories: CFPA Trails, Connecticut, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 5–7 miles, CT, New Haven CT