A Walk Across the Giant

Violet and Yellow Trails - 5.4 miles After all the snow a few days ago, it was time to get out into the woods for a couple of hours.  Head to toe on the Giant and back again.  I picked the Violet and Yellow trails since they stay off the rocks (for the most part anyway) and were likely to have the best footing.  Packed snow most of the way, with just a bit of blazing my own trail.

...he was but an extinct volcano; he had been active in his time, but his fire was out, this good while, he was only a stately ash-pile now; gentle enough, and kindly enough for my purpose, without doubt, but not usable. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain When I think of an extinct volcano, I picture something like this - a mountain peak, maybe a flat top, but there's no question it looks like a volcano. Is there an extinct volcano on Sleeping Giant?  The area's mountains were formed by massive lava flows (the traprock), tipped up after a little fault here and there shuffled the landscape.  But can you find the mouth of a volcano?  There's a spot just off the White trail on the Giant's right knee.  It is a depression surrounded by boulders, filled with water during the spring, but drying out now.  Is it a volcanic crater? 

6 miles, 3 hours. Describe the view of the Giant from the south.  After the head, you see the chest, the hip and leg, the knee, the foot...   the hills, peaks and ridges that make up the Giant's profile.  You know what else they have in common> they are the White Trail.  Up and then down the chest, up and then down the hip, along the leg, up and then down the knee... you get the idea.  This trail is a workout - sometimes hiking, sometimes hands, knees and feet climbing up the rock face.  But along the way are great views of the cliffs, and then Hamden, New Haven and the Sound to the south.