We had such a good time hiking up the first half of the blue trail that we wanted to come back and hike some of the other trails here. It's very easy to see why this park is so beloved by the community. This time we wanted to hike another long one and the Violet Trail at 3.2 Miles comes in as the second longest in the park.
We started at essentially the same location but followed the stream for much longer, passing by several areas where dogs were playing in the water. I was under the impression that we would be following the water for much longer then we actually did and that the hike was mostly flat. Boy, was I wrong, the first section of the trail was the trickiest part of the day! It's still not that bad but definitely something to be aware of if you have kids or dogs in tow. We had to climb several rocks and there were a lot of tripping hazards along the this route.
The entire path opens up dramatically after the first section. The Quarry and its surrounding buildings/ruins are really fun to see and explore, and are the highlight of this trail. They come very early in the hike so it's possible you may want to hike down hill from the east parking lot in order to save this as your reward at the end. There is a bit of a steep climb to get out of the first section but take your time like we did and really look around!
The next section is a very long, slow ascent that is just steep enough to make you sweat. After a fairly long stretch you will come to the top of a trap rock ridge. This area is fairly identical to west rock or the top of the sleeping giant blue trail. The map says there is a vista here but the trees have pretty much over grown the view so try not to be disappointed. There are two tricky areas descending down a rock face and a patch of loose rocks that you can see in the video before you reach the bottom of this section.
The finale of the hike is a gentle rolling series of hills through the woods that provides a relaxing finish. You have the choice of continuing on another trail to get back to the parking lot OR do what we did and park a car here at the eastern lot to simply drive back. Pretty much every trail converges here so you have lots of options. The Yellow trail, which we will post next, is the easiest by far. The other trails will provide a pretty significant amount of elevation gain so choose wisely.
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