Watch our Sleeping Giant White Trail video then read about our full trip below:
The White Hiking Trail at Sleeping Giant State Park is one of the hardest, but it provides so many views that it simply can't be missed. Unlike many of the trails, it won't matter whether you approach it from the East or West. It will be a difficult series of "ascent, descent, repeat" the entire way. That said, we would say that approaching from the east lot is a bit easier if you prefer climbing down the two trickiest sections.
We began in the East Parking lot on Chestnut Lane and found the eastern most section of the park to be a nice uphill stroll through the woods. There were a few neat sections of rock to walk over but everything here is a bit flat until you head up to the first real Vista. Hezekiah's knob, a very strange name, provides a partial view and a first taste of what this trail really has to offer.
From this point the trail gets significantly rockier, both in terms of the sharp little trap rock and actual boulders to climb over. A much longer descent\ascent takes us to the second set of view points. This long ridge line looks into the park rather then outward, providing a neat change of scenery. The girls somehow snuck up on a very large hawk, but, before I could get in range with a camera, it flew off. It circled back around just long enough to take a quick snap. Following this ridge, the most southern view point opens up to a beautiful framing of the New Haven city skyline.
The descent from this ridge is incredibly steep. If you were to come up this from the west then this would be the most difficult section. Parts require you to sit and slide to make it down and we discovered a wonderful swarm of fire ants as well! If someone wanted easy access to this section of the trail then the bottom of the descent crosses directly with Red Circle trail.
The next stretch of the White Trail feels very long. There are several nice views along the way, but a very large number of little boulders to climb over and cliffs to descend. It's all very fun but can be very time consuming and tiring. When you make it to the top of the big ridge you get a reward that makes all the work worth it, what is probably the widest view in the entire park. No photo or video can do this justice, it filled my sight from left to right and just kept going.
From here we headed to the view point we reached while doing the Green Trail. Along the way we found the foundation remains of what I assume to be one of the old Summer Cottages that used to litter the park. Also, a large pile of rocks... that may have also been a cottage?
The final view point on white is also spectacular, well worth the second visit! By this time we were exhausted and ready to head home. We quickly climbed down the trail and to the parking lot. That said, if you head to this trail from the main lot, our final descent would be your first ascent and it is steep :)
Half a trail left and we will have finish Sleeping Giant!
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