#maggievacation - Maggie Wakes the Sleeping Giant!

Hi Folks.  It's Maggie again. Remember yesterday, when we hiked up West Rock Ridge?  When we were all the way at the top, we could see all the way to Sleeping Giant State Park. Today, we got to climb all over the Giant. According to the Quinnipiac Tribe, the giant stone spirit Hobbomock, a prominent wicked figure in many stories, became enraged about the mistreatment of his people and stamped his foot down in anger, diverting the course of the Connecticut River. To prevent him from wreaking such havoc in the future, the good spirit Keitan cast a spell on Hobbomock to sleep forever as the prominent man-like form of the Sleeping Giant.

Here Grandpa and I pose at the trail head sign. I finally get it. Before hiking anywhere with Grandma and Grandpa, we must pose for a photo.  It's just what they do.

I, on the other paw, prefer to make my memories by using my nose. So many people and dogs visit this park, it is hard to keep track of them all.

In case you were wondering, these rocks are old, really old. There was a bunch of old lava under the surface. Glaciers came through and took away all the surface material, leaving the old lava exposed creating the form of the Sleeping Giant.

Conservation of the Giant began in 1924 with the creation of the Sleeping Giant Park Association (SGPA) by a group of local residents concerned with ongoing traprock quarrying on the Giant's head. They were led by Arnold Dana who, as a teenager, fell from a precipice into the quarry in 1875.  A plaque in his memory is mounted along the main trail in the park up to the watchtower.

The blasting away of what was a beloved landscape feature resulted in public outrage, well reported by local newspapers at the time. Under the leadership of James W. Toumey, a Yale University forestry professor, the SGPA undertook a ten-year struggle with the traprock operation. The property was purchased by the SGPA in 1933, during the Great Depression, for $30,000; the money was raised through private donations and the property became the Sleeping Giant State Park. The Sleeping Giant Tower was built at the top in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as part of the Connecticut State Park and Forest Depression-Era Federal Work Relief Programs Structures.

The Tower is really cool.  You can walk up stone ramps from each level until you get to the top where you can see all the way to Long Island Sound.  Here Grandpa and I are taking in the view.

If you look real close, you can see the towers on top of East Rock, which was the first place Grandpa and Grandma took me hiking. To the right of East Rock is downtown New Haven.

Having made it to the top, it was time for our reward.  Here Grandma is eating her sandwich. I just want you to know that the wet spot next to me was not an accident. I spilled water on the rock floor on purpose because water tastes better when licked off the rocks.

I had fun exploring all the different rooms in the Tower. There were also lots of dog worshipers on the trail today.  I had to stop over and over again to let them pet me. It's all in a days work.

Before long, we were back in the woods working our way around the Giant.  We has already passed the the head and chin on the way up to the Tower.  As we followed the Blue Trail down, we passed the left hip and left leg.

The Giant is very lumpy. We were either going up or going down.  The Giant was not very flat at all.  This boulder field is on the Red Circle Trail which leads from the Left Leg to the Right Knee.

Once we got to the Right Knee, it was time to follow the White Trail up the Right Leg to the Right Hip.

All along the Giant's right side there are great views looking down onto the campus of Quinnipiac University. Here I am posing with Grandpa at one of the great view spots.

Here Grandma and I hike along one of the few level flat spots in the trail.  There were so many fallen leaves already littering the trail, that it felt like late Autumn!

When we reached the intersection with the Orange Trail, we met up with a family hiking to the Tower.  The older daughter picked up a little frog and showed it to me. It smelled funny.

At the highest point in the trail, Grandma added another rock to the summit cairn. Apparently, this is something humans like to do when they reach a really high point.  As for me, I just prefer to pee on it.

Here we are at the last viewpoint before we head back down to the car. If you look carefully there is a number 5 painted on the rock.

ACCORDING TO THE GUIDE TO THE GEOLOGY OF THE SLEEPING GIANT STATE PARK: This spectacular overlook affords an excellent view of Quinnipiac University and southward towards downtown New Haven. The series of hills just to the left of the New Haven skyline is a portion of the East Rock Ridge, another diabase intrusion with a geologic history similar to that of the Sleeping Giant (note: it is a common misconception that East Rock, West Rock, and the Sleeping Giant were formed as extrusive volcanic eruptions). The Long Island Sound is visible just beyond the New Haven skyline, and on clear days the shoreline of Long Island, New York, can be seen on the horizon across the Sound.

If you had been here approximately 15,000 years ago, as the Ice Age was giving way to warmer temperatures, you would have been able to see two large freshwater lakes in the Quinnipiac and Mill River Valleys that stretch out before you. These lakes were formed as glacial meltwater flowed southward. Part of what is now the Quinnipiac River drainage basin, seasonally visible in the distance as the tan-colored marsh to the left of the East Rock Ridge had once been filled by Lake Quinnipiac. What is now the Mill River drainage basin, located directly south, had been partially submerged beneath the even larger Lake Connecticut. This extremely large lake occupied all of what is now the Long Island Sound, downtown New Haven, and the southern portion of Hamden. These two lakes eventually drained away. Saltwater filled the Long Island Sound approximately 11,000 years ago. Long Island itself is largely composed of the loose rubble that had been pushed southward by the ice. It represents the southernmost extent of the glacier’s range.

I wish we had some photos from the steep cliffs we descended, but Grandpa was too busy being the "Grandpa-vator" lowering me down the rocks that were too steep for me to jump. We finished our hike by following the Tower Trail Road back to the car. The pets I received from the adoring public were too numerous to mention.

This will probably be my last blog for this visit. Granda and Grandpa have lots of chores to do tomorrow in order to get our apartment cleaned up and ready for Mommy's return. While it has been fun hanging with the Grands, I am so looking forward to seeing Mommy again.  Bye bye for now.