Nice little place and very secluded . I love the fact that even tho you're basically in the middle of nowhere , they have WiFi , nice bathrooms with air conditioner , large tables with umbrellas and everything is very organized . Good vibes . The only downside for me is the amount of bugs ..arghhh , I understand we're outdoors but Jesus you better have tons of bug spray . I was bit and stung by every single bug on earth for the rest of my life hahaha and there are creatures in the water , needless to say I didn't even go in . read more

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Highlands Natural Pool has definitely blown up on social media lately, which is what put it on my radar. While it's a nice enough spot and the setting is scenic, the pictures floating around don't quite tell the full story. Yes, it's spring-fed and chemical-free, which gives it more of a forest pond feel than a traditional pool. That might be a plus for some people, but there are downsides. The water feels heavier than a normal pool, and there's no true shallow end--so treading water for long stretches can get tiring. If you go, I'd honestly recommend bringing a float to hang out more comfortably in the water. The facilities are basic. There are very few pool chairs--mostly just park benches scattered around a small paved deck. Seating is limited, and it was hard to find a place to set up. I'd recommend bringing your own beach chair if you have one. There are plenty of picnic tables farther back from the pool, which I assume is their way of keeping food out of the swim area. We arrived around 3 PM and that timing was probably my biggest gripe. The parking lot was full, so we had to find a random lot down the road and then walk back and hunt for the entrance. Not the easiest arrival. The $20 day pass would be fine if the setup matched the price, but for what it is, it felt a little steep. Also worth noting--cell service is spotty, and while they say there's Wi-Fi, it didn't work well for us. Overall, it's not a bad experience, but it didn't quite live up to the online buzz. If you go in with the right expectations (and a float, a chair, and some patience), you'll probably enjoy it more than we did. read more

Highlands Natural Pool - Swimming Pools Near Me - Ringwood, New Jersey

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I'm not a natural pool/lake girl but this place is pretty beautiful, just be prepared for a lot of bugs and no cell reception (they do offer free wifi). It's small and probably packed on the weekends but they offer bbqs and a snack stand. read more

Such a beautiful location, cute decorations at the pool, good for kids (although the kids part was a bit slimey on the ground and you can slip) read more

Everything is decent mostly because the water is very "not friendly looking" and that the end of the pool that is shallow is extremely small meaning it gets really crowded also some of the food is moldy read more

I drove 35 minutes to get there to see a tiny little white board propped up on a piece of wood by the parking lot saying they were at capacity. Before walking up and wasting my time, I called them and asked if they were actually at capacity. They said they were and didn't think that it would get any better. But since I had driven almost 40 minutes to get there, I decided I'd walk up and see. When I walked up, they didn't say anything about being at capacity and let me right in. Horrible communication. I almost drove all the way home because the lady on the phone told me that it was at capacity when it really wasn't. I would've wasted gas and time. The place is nice besides that but this really rubbed me the wrong way. Just terrible communication. read more

Well kept and a hidden gem ! With a cute garden, fairies and gnomes what's not to love about this tucked away forest oasis? From Friendly staff, yummy snacks for the kids and family, affordable and you're getting an experience in nature what else is better than that ?! read more

I like this place a lot. If you can't get to a lake way out in the country, this unique place is the next best thing. It's an Olympic-size, man-made pool, created in the 1930s, with much of the feel of a lake. It is stream-fed. The water is not chlorinated. And for me, that's a plus; you don't get home smelling like chlorine. This "pool" has much of the satisfying feel of a lake. You really feel you a connection with nature here. While I was there this week, I enjoyed watching a small, harmless snake sunning himself on a fence at the pool. Sometimes you may see frogs, too. And no amplified music is allowed--another good thing, if you like communing with nature. You might heard birds or crickets; you won't hear contemporary pop music. That tranquility is nice. On my visit this week, the weather was perfect--a nice, warm July day. It felt great to get into the cool waters of this pool. And there were only a handful of other visitors. I really welcomed the peace and quiet--a nice break from the hustle-and-bustle of everyday life. There are trails to explore, if you feel like spending some time hiking before or after your swim. You'll actually get in a little bit of a hike the moment you arrive, because there's a bit of a hike just from the parking lot to the pool itself. I like that, too--that sense of gradually leaving the regular world behind. You can buy a day pass (entitling you to spend the day there, swimming, hiking, picnicking) or become a member if you want to make frequent use of the facilities. Either way, the Highlands Natural Pool provides a nice escape. read more

Highlands Natural Pool - Highlands Natural Pool in Ringwood, New Jersey. - Swimming Pools Near Me - Ringwood, New Jersey

Beautiful back to nature was the vibe I got. Serene. Quiet. Families and people in their 20's.

- Very peaceful and great way to connect with nature - Bring bug spray and beware that there are harmless frogs and snakes - Water temp was fine but need a swim test to go in the deep end. Plus the bottom was like concrete with algae which made it slippery -Overall I wouldn't come back but if you need a quiet getaway, I recommend it - Also wanted to add it was wayyyy too expensive read more

Highlands Natural Pool - Seating area was pretty - Swimming Pools Near Me - Ringwood, New Jersey

Love this place! If you love nature, if you love refreshing water, if you love the great outdoors and all it's natural beauty, then this is your oasis!!! We love Maine, but live in New Jersey. This gives us a little bit of Maine in the Garden State. Bring a picnic or reserve a picnic table and grill your lunch. Be together and be in nature. I feel so refreshed after swimming and after being here, with all the green trees around me. Highly recommend for people who love nature. read more

Highlands Natural Pool - The view! - Swimming Pools Near Me - Ringwood, New Jersey

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This pool is amazing! There is an entrance fee of $10. The pool is surrounded by beautiful trees and the bottom is dirt ground. It feels so refreshing! Before taking a dip in this pool, we went hiking at a nearby trail! I definitely recommend doing that too. The view is amazing. It's a bit of a strenuous hike but so worth it! read more

Highlands Natural Pool - Swimming Pools Near Me - Ringwood, New Jersey

The Highlands Natural Pool is a recreational outdoor swimming pool that is fed by stream water from the Wyanokie Highlands in the Norvin Green State Forest. The pool is located in Ringwood, New Jersey, United States. The pool is not chemically treated, contains aquatic life, and is surrounded by gardens, trees and plenty of shade. Annual memberships and daily visitors passes are available to the general public. read more

Exceptional staff and pool. Felt welcomed the minute I stepped through the gates. There is free parking and chairs available near the pool as well which is super convenient and nice. It's also surrounded by lots of trails and beautiful scenery. The water is all natural which very refreshing. Loved my time here... and definitely plan on coming back again! read more

Got escorted by cops for playing music on my phone. Literally my phone. Not a speaker, not a bluetooth portable device, it was just my phone. Volume was the same as a ringtone volume would be. I had to be next to my phone to be able to hear it. The security man has an authority trauma that thinks he can yell at people and lie to police officers saying we had loud music, when even the table next to us told the officers they couldnt even hear the music. He was not professional and was probably a drill sergeant by the way he yelled at people. Will not be supporting this place anymore. That security guard had a problem with every table there. He's the reason people are not coming back. Such a beautiful place to be wasted by an angry man... read more

This place is very beautiful for people who are in tune with nature. I've got to say, while my family and I were driving in, we had seen a TRUMP sign and gotten a little freaked out, now with all the trump supporters coming out as white supremacists and racists (not to mention the shootings). But we didn't let that get to us too much, as it is wrong to generalize people for the actions of some. Anyways, unlike the prior reviews about the staff (some 2 years ago), the staff we met were very polite to us. There was only 1 adult with us so anyone under 18 had to take a swim test to be able to go on the deep side, but there was no one to supervise us to take the test. My mom had asked the lady at the snack bar (who was a very kind young woman, with a very sweet smile) if there was anyone who could watch us take the test, and they'd estimated an hour wait which was bad because we had arrived late and did not want to spend most of our time in the kiddy section. Reason being that there were only 2 lifeguards, one for the shallow section and another at the deep section, and they couldn't abandon their watch for the swim test without speaking to a superior first, which we understood. Anyways, we waited for 15 minutes and someone was able to supervise us, which we appreciated very much. They weren't rude about it either, it seemed. My family and I love nature so we were glad to be away from the noise and bustle of loud music and cars and whatnot. It was very peaceful. If you're scared of bugs, frogs or snakes, be careful because they're abundant here. We saw a caterpillar in the changing rooms and a daddy long leg which I was too scared to get a pic of. The garter snakes were hanging out on the fence near the kiddy pool, but the lifeguards told us they're harmless and won't bother you. There's also a volleyball net and basketball hoops near the grilling area and a large field where the volleyball net is. Overall it was a great experience :). read more

Highlands Natural Pool - Swimming Pools Near Me - Ringwood, New Jersey

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A nice place to visit but the staff makes it an unpleasant environment. One of the few encounters of the day was while sitting at my picnic table I had my iPad on low volume while I listened to Barry Manilow. I was told in a nasty tone that I had to shut it off because they want people to experience a natural environment...whatever. I guess Barry Manilow isn't natural. It's not like this 58-year-old grandma was blasting music on a boombox. There were many other times my family and a lot of others were rudely spoken to by the staff. Rather than discussing niceties with new people I met who were also visiting Highlands Pool, we all ranted to each other about how badly people were being treated by the staff. Life is too short to go back to this type of place. Until I hear that people are treated nicely I won't be going back. read more

I love this place . It's like a mini getaway and a step back in time. My only issue is that there are so many frogs and even though I waited therall day in the sun, none of them turned into a prince . read more

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The people in this place are discriminatory and have absurd rules, they are rude, we felt very mistreated. Our friend is a single Mother who has two sons, one is six years old and the other one is ten, they would not allow the younger boy in the pool with us and he was supposed to be on the kids side, when we asked if her boy could simply just sit with us without going into the pool we were told that was simply not allowed in the pool area, we argued that her mother wanted to be able to check on both kids, as a responsible parent would, the lady in charge told us "kids usually come with two parents" as a discriminatory jab to the fact that she is a single mother, at this point we asked for our money back and left. It's a shame since the place is really nice but ignorant people like this make the experience awful. Please avoid this place at all cost. read more

So relaxing! Days after had visited the pool, I had dreams of swimming winter fresh cool spring water, brought me back in time when I'd travel the world white water kayaking in the most amazing rivers. A true oasis, not too far from the city. I can't wait to go back. read more

I've now been there three times this year. This place is a gem (for some people.) My family enjoys camping, kayaking, cooking outside, being out in the woods on trails so this was perfect for us. My daughter loves coming here. Plenty of frogs, dragonflies, inch worms and Caterpillars stopping by. Water is cold and clean but slightly muddy with algae which is not for everyone. We had mentioned it to other family members as a possible place for them to go but when describing it they didn't like the idea of swimming in a "mud hole." *There is no alcohol allowed or music or loud noises/loud conversations. (I think something must have happened before so they are pretty strict about it.) There was a family next to us that had music on super low and they were asked to please turn it off by personnel. It was a bit awkward as the family asked why and the young lady kind of stumbled through the explanation. It's a quiet environment. I'm OK with not having any music. If I really need to I'll put my headphones in for myself. *The pool itself is pretty big but the space around the pool is pretty limited with tables (some being reserved for members) and there are limited space/areas to set up your own chairs. You can set up by the few picnic tables outside of pool entrance although you need to pay extra to use that area. It gets pretty packed on the weekends as parking and entrance to pool was turning away people 45 mins after they opened. Parking is free. You can use cash or credit card for entrance to Pool. You are allowed to bring in your own food but remember no alcohol. They have a snack bar with a lot of things that can be microwaved such as a hamburger or hotdog plus ice cream or chips but I'm not sure if that is excepting credit cards. We've always paid cash. You can bring your own pool noodle (or buy one there) or floaty as long as it's not a "party" raft. Our daughter had to have a swim test with one of the lifeguards in order to swim in the deep end. After that one time we reminded the personnel at the entrance that she's done the test before and they gave her a different color band. On our last visit I noticed a teenage lifeguard giving a 12-13 yr old a swim test. (Different life guard than the one with my daughter.) I felt he was getting rude with the child. He kept barking at the child to get in and then was curt and annoyed with the child when telling him that he was going the wrong way. Mind you the lifeguard did not give the child any instructions except for the actions above. Other than that, I haven't had a negative impression or interaction with the staff or the guests there. Everyone is generally friendly and willing to help each other out. read more

My daughter and I found this beautiful pool a few weeks ago. With COVID there wasn't anywhere we could swim. We went a few times and we both loved it so much , we joined as members . So glad we did. We try and go everyday . Staff is extremely nice . It's such a peaceful atmosphere . They even have outside picnic area if you want to grill. Try it , you won't be disappointed read more

If you love to have fun and enjoy a normal wonderful day with your family DO NOT COME HERE. They have signs that say "no amplified music" and "no alcohol" and they have these old bored white people patrolling the area and they will tell you to stop smoking (hookah), yet their own white people are smoking cigarettes. (Yes I'm making this about race because I noticed the inconsistency and how they need our money but want to police us). They will tell you to stop drinking (okay, fine the sign was clear) and to turn off your music (you can't even have it on at any low or decent volume). No you have to turn it off and listen to the crickets (the woman's exact words were "not everyone likes the same music. The person next to you may hate your music"). No lady, YOU hate our music because no one near us was complaining and they were all spanish and were playing the same type of music as us....So this is definitely a BORING place, despite the fact that today, July 4th, the majority of people around us were Spanish. They're clearly making PROFITS off of us spanish people coming to their place but they don't like our culture... no thanks. Never coming back to this wack place. When we were on the line waiting to pay our entrance fee, my 13 year old cousin was bouncing a beach ball where he was standing and an old white guy came up to him and told him that he can't bounce the ball because if it gets away from him someone can get hurt and that he can play with it in his hands by tossing it back and forth between his hands...seriously?...YOU CANT EVEN BOUNCE A BALL. They told us that it's great that we came in a big group because they're a non-profit and they need the money that they get through the visitors. Well if you need money so badly, and your demographic is largely Hispanic (at least today it was) then you need to allow music and hookah at the very least because that's what we like to do. We're just having innocent fun and as long as no one is going overboard then I don't see the problem in allowing music and hookah. It was $15 per adult (seniors are $10 and children are cheaper than $10) to use the natural pool. There's frogs, tadpoles and insects in the natural pool (looks like a lake) so look out for that if you don't like that. Towards the end when we were leaving, we turned on the music on low as we were cleaning up because we just wanted to get in good spirits. One old white woman came up to us and told us that we were being disrespectful for "blasting" the music after she told us three times (it was once) to turn off our music. I told her that we were literally cleaning up and getting ready to go and in the same time that she spoke to me, I told her that the music wasn't blasted at all. She was being super dramatic. We only stayed because we had already payed and quite frankly because a nearby location was full by 11:30am and there's no way they were going to ruin our fun. And no, NOBODY was complaining about any music or hookah or anything to the staff members. They were really just bored and clearly need to do something better with their retirement. Would not recommend to anyone and I'm definitely telling everyone I know of how WACK my family's 4th of July was. read more

This is such a beautiful, peaceful place to spend the day picnicking, swimming, hiking etc. They have a snack bar with a limited number of food and drink items available and many people bring their own food. It is carry in/carry out so bring something for any trash you might have. In response to Mandoo F. 's review, please know ahead of time that there are two sections to the pool. Due to Insurance Rules of Liability, the deep water section is ONLY open to adults and CHILDREN WHO HAVE TAKEN AND PASSED A DEEP WATER SWIMMING TEST - there are NO exceptions to this rule. read more

I love this place! Highlands pool is a man made pool filled with spring water. Entrance is $10 unless you have seasonal membership. You can also come do hiking BBQ or have a picnic. There is a separate rare for kids to play. They have a little shop with snacks and drinks. read more