Sleeping Giant

SLEEPING GIANT IS OPEN!

Sleeping Giant – Hamden, CT

Elevation: 738′

IIRC Sleeping Giant is the most popular hike in CT. All for good reason; lots of trails, amazing views, view tower, waterfalls, and well-marked trails for all experience levels. Sleeping Giant is located across the street from Quinnipiac University so there’s always college kids at the park. There is a main tower trail that goes directly up to the tower from the parking lot. It’s a wide gravel path that’s pretty easy to hike and gets crowded. I believe it’s about 1.5 miles to the top so 3-miles round trip.

If you want a harder, longer, less crowded hike, I recommend the blue trail and loop back to the white for about 6 miles. It’s a lot harder and the blue trail quickly gains about 300ft in the beginning. Lastly, if you make a left onto the red trail right at the “left leg” area it leads you to George Cascade (about .5 miles down) which is a nice waterfall. Once you reach the Mt. Caramel tower, you get some pretty amazing views. On a clear day, you can even see Long Island!

Hiking Sleeping Giant with your pup

Sleeping Giant is a very dog-friendly park and always has a plethora of pups on its trails. Depending on what kind of difficulty level you’re looking for, you’re sure to find a trail of your preference level at Sleeping Giant. The hardest trail, I believe, is the blue trail. My pup has struggled with some of the steeper sections on the hard part of the blue trail as he doesn’t like going down steep sections. There’s one spot with about a 3ft drop down that we always have to take an off-trail route to get around cause he won’t do the jump down. Other than that one section though he’s fine on the rest of the blue trail. We also have seen many pups hike the blue trail who have been fine with the steepness. The easiest trail is the one up to the tower. It’s a wide, well-marked trail with no steep sections or rock scrambles, perfect for pups of all fitness levels.

Parking

There is a large lot for parking in the main entrance to Sleeping Giant. Cars with CT plates get to park for free but non-Connecticut residence have to pay $15 to park.