Sleeping Giant - Diamond and Hexagon trails

This hike occurred on May 3, 2013

Trail Head: 
Sleeping Giant State Park, Hamden, CT - Parking: For this hike, it was early enough in the season that the state park was not yet charging for parking. We parked in the picnic loop and there was plenty of parking despite it being a lovely Friday. 

Length/Distance: 
We completed a loop hike using the north-south Diamond and Hexagon trails which according to the Sleeping Giant Park Association is 1.8 miles. The GPS tracking app had a malfunction and did not save our hike. However, we were able to replicate our approximate trail on the tracking website and our route was a bit more than 2 miles. 

Summary: 

We parked in the picnic loop and used Violet to connect up with the Diamond trail. 

The trail paralleled the river for a while. We saw people fishing and wading in the water. 

The second 1/4 mile of the trail was uphill but evened off after a bit. We crossed over the Blue trail and followed Diamond to clearing with a beautiful view of the Sleeping Giant's Head. 

Not too far down the trail from the clearing, there were two old buildings.  

 

After this, the trail continued on following the river until the Diamond trail finished at Tuttle Rd. 

From Tuttle Rd, we turned around and went back along Diamond for a bit until the trail met up with Hexagon. 

The beginning half of Hexagon was all uphill. Hexagon flattened out where it crossed over Blue again and met up with the Tower trail. 

From there, we followed parts of the Tower trail off and on as we hiked down Hexagon. We hiked Hexagon until the trail ended where it met Mount Carmel Ave. From there, we hiked on the road back to the entrance of Sleeping Giant. 

It was a beautiful day for a hike and the hike did have some good views. After this hike, we still have 1/2 Blue, 1/2 White, Green, Triangle, Circle, and Square to finish Sleeping Giant.