West Rock Ridge or West Rock of south-central Connecticut, is a long trap rock mountain ridge located on the west side of New Haven with a high point of . The ridge forms a continuous line of exposed cliffs visible from metropolitan New Haven and points west. West Rock Ridge is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge which extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. West Rock Ridge is popular for recreation and known for its microclimate ecosystems, rare plant communities, and expansive views from cliffs that tower up to above the surrounding landscape. The ridge is traversed by a network of hiking trails including the Regicides Trail, whose northern terminus begins as a spur off the Quinnipiac Trail. History Judges' Cave and the Regicides Trail receive their names from judges Edward Whalley and his son-in-law William Goffe, who had signed the death warrant of Charles I of England in 1649. His son Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, and the two judges fled to the area to avoid arrest. They hid in a boulder cave on the crest of the ridge intermittently over the summer of that year. Nineteenth-century landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church portrayed the ridge in 1849, and George Henry Durrie painted it numerous times. The Connecticut General Assembly established the park in 1975 when the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) purchased from New Haven. This act gives the DEP the right of first refusal to purchase private land within the West Rock Ridge conservation area and to permit increasing the size of the park, which is about . Geography West Rock Ridge, located in the Connecticut municipalities of New Haven, Hamden, Woodbridge, and Bethany, is wide at its widest point. Notable peaks on the ridge include the high point, alternately called High Rock or York Mountain, est. , at the north terminus of the ridge; the southern prominence with a summit parking lot, picnic tables, and observation area, usually referred to as West Rock, , and popularly known as the South Overlook; and several knobs in between those two points. Judges Cave is also located at the southern end of the ridge. West Rock Ridge is an important aquifer. The ridge is bordered on the west by property owned by the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority; reservoirs