Beautiful area, lots of hiking trails and a big lake to sit by. It would be really add to the park…read moreif there was a playground for kids and a small paved trail for strollers

Beautiful park in Kinnelon that's very-well kept. I enjoy coming here for walks around the lake and…read moreshort hikes (has a few trails). This park has PLENTY of parking so that's never an issue. This is the nicest park within my area so it's become my go-to since moving to this part of NJ. Great park for anyone looking for easy hikes, or wants to enjoy a nice walk, or bring children their children to play or have picnics (many picnic tables). I'd recommend.

A gorgeous walk, about .8 miles of pavement and then a grassy path that continues towards route 3…read more The path follows the old Morris Canal. Bikes are permitted for the .8 paved section, there were some offshoots from the main trail where it looked like you could take a mountain bike. Dogs are permitted as well. I saw many birds, squirrels and even a young buck scratching the velvet off his horns in someone's back yard. I did the full length and back for a nice 1.6 mile walk.

Did a hike today starting from Mary Roth Drive and ending near Lake Riconda Drive. It was four…read moremiles, had some climbs but wasn't too strenuous, and had a few great views. A nice way to spend a day, in the forest.

Medium level hike with great scenery. Not much elevation but part of the trail is rocky. Wear your…read morehiking shoes instead of sneakers, otherwise you will get a foot massage like I did today =) It's a good 3-4hours hike. Parking lot is 50 meters away from the entrance. Hiking might require hands at some points but overall it's smooth and agreeable. Following white trail, then at the crossing of white trail and yellow trail (2.5hours hike), you will enjoy the great view from the top of the mountain. Then follow the yellow trial for 30mins, surprise lake is right in front of you. It's surrounded by the forests with the branches of the trees touching the water. A soft breeze from the lake is very refreshing after a long hot hike. Follow the orange trail, you will get to the entrance nicely and easily. Def worth a visit if you like hiking.

For an inexperienced party of hikers, this trail might not be the best choice, but we had a…read moregrueling and fulfilling hike. With ample breaks (~10 short water breaks and 3-4 longer breaks to admire scenery), we finished in 5.5 hours. If a short but rough bit of rock scrambling will be a challenge, make sure to bring gloves and proper hiking footwear, and durable fitted clothing. The path we took had varied terrain and tended to go up and down in elevation. Definitely download a hiking app that works without good phone service since there are multiple trails and we had multiple instances where we had to choose the correct direction. We brought 2 bottles of ice water each, but decidedly towards the end we should have really brought 4-5. Didn't see any wildlife except a hawk/falcon, plenty of millipedes, and a weird alien-like squirming worm sticking straight out of a tree looking like a stubby branch. Pathing: we started at the parking lot and followed the blue state line trail (which apparently leads to Maine, informed fellow hikers). We probably missed any views until we changed to the yellow trail (the beginning is denoted by three yellow squares, as well soon learned). On the yellow trail, we were soon treated with a small, private feeling view of a pond next to a campfire pit. The next viewing area consisted of a closeup experience of the same pond from the ground level. After another hour of hiking, we had our best view yet, a canopy high view of the river and small houses across, with trees as far as the eye can see. Seemed worth it after four hours of rocks and mud. Terrain: Short easy walking portions are split between rocky paths with the occasional climb up or down. Having a stick really helped during both parts. Watch out for slick mossy rocks. Weather: matters! We luckily came on a cloudy cool summer day (70-80F) and with shade and breeze it was very pleasant. I could imagine running out of water in the first two hours if it was sunny and hotter. Unluckily, it rained during the last hour as it became afternoon. It will be very hard to hike this trail without sunlight. It also became frigidly cold. Crowdiness: crossed about 10 hikers during the five hours, could be due to the rain warning, but still much less crowded compared to any other spots I've been to. Also saw almost no trash, thumbs up to all the hikers here. Danger: heard about snakes, never saw any. Most dangerous thing on the trail is probably the dwarves that surely live in the trees with the little doors, and slick rocks along with unsure footing. Few scrapes and bruised backsides can be expected for amateur hikers like us, especially when it rains. Feels amazing after we finished, my last hour of the journey nearly blank with desperation to reach the end. Good meal and foot massage ahead! tl;dr fairly difficult trail with ups and downs and rock scrambling, bring more water than you think you need, a hat, gloves, sunscreen if you like, a stick, good shoes, and a tested hiking app. Views depend on the trail you take, we got the best views on the yellow trail. Be careful and enjoy being nearly alone on the trail. Don't stay til dark, and run from the rain.

A nice area for hiking with castle ruins and a lake and changing elevations. There are some paved…read moreroads but also trails off that path. You can hear the sound of cars on the highway both at the end and beginning of the hikes. Lots of dogs off leash even though there are signs that say to leash all dogs. The parking lot can get crowded later in the afternoon especially in the spring and summer, but there were plenty of spots on a Sunday morning at 9:30.

My 350th Yelp review is a banger…read more I try to stop by Ramapo at least once a year, usually at the beginning of hiking season; there's a nice 5- or 6-mile route I do in there that helps me build up for the more hardcore hikes later in the year, and it's unusual for me to do this one so late into the actual summer. Boy, is this a different hike in June. Ask the gazillion bears I saw. Yesterday I did about 6 miles, starting at the Ramapo Lake Trailhead parking lot, going on the blue trail to the aforementioned lake and then turning left onto N Shore Drive. I then veered off toward the castle ruins but made a pretty quick right before the path up to said ruins onto Cannonball to Skyline Drive, joining up with the Castle Point Trail back to and through the castle ruins, before heading down back to the lakefront and continuing all the way around the lake until getting back to the blue trail and the parking lot. The official hike in my book says it's 6.6 miles when you include an additional loop to the south of the lake that gets you very close to 287, but i bypassed that today. One of the big issues with this section of Ramapo is the parking situation. I can't tell you how many times I've had to pivot and do a different hike because this Ramapo Lake parking lot was completely full by mid-morning, and the powers that be insist on plastering no parking signs in every other conceivable area going literally miles down Skyline Drive. I get that Skyline is a busy road but there ARE sections where you can theoretically park safely on the shoulder without bothering anyone else - I think there's a compromise here somewhere, but because they don't have one, this lot is usually full by 8:30am on a nice day, and then you have vulture cars just lurking in the middle of the lot for ages waiting for hikers to come back so they can immediately grab the new spot. You can't tell me that's much safer than the alternative. Anyway. The other mild annoyance for me is that you can often hear car traffic, especially in the southern section by 287, but it is what it is. The lake and the castle are the real selling points here, especially the castle. Ruins are one of my all-time favorite hiking kinks, and this adventure has them in droves. The one drawback (again, because of the time of year) is that it gets overgrown with foliage very quickly, so this is a rare instance where I would recommend exploring it in the early spring before you're bushwhacking to get through. Very cool optics though, and a definite must at some point if you're in the area. The wildlife situation? Man. This was one for the books. I usually see one or two bears a year, but I saw that many today, and numerous hikers told me they'd encountered others as well. It was insane and I've never seen anything like it. I got a picture of the biggest one I saw (attached) as I was slowly backing away, and I'd guess this was a 700 pounder? Big boy, and wasn't particularly fazed by my bear horn (though he did ultimately wander off after a few toots on it). Absolutely would not do this hike without a bear horn. I don't even want to ponder what would have happened otherwise. Neither of the bears seemed aggressive but you just never know, and if cubs had been around? Ugh. I encountered a park ranger toward the end of the hike who said it had been insane bear-wise the entire summer and they're just getting more comfortable with humans so again, be careful, use common sense, etc. The trail conditions were pretty decent. Some of the blazes/markers were not the best, and a few sections of Cannonball were one way (meaning you had to keep turning around to confirm the markers because they were only on one side of the trees/poles). As mentioned, the trail section by the castle is overgrown right now but I'm not crazy about advocating for maintenance in an area that by definition should probably be preserved and as authentic as possible. To me there aren't too many significant inclines on the trail (there's one small section very close to the parking lot where you have to take a minute for footing on the rocks, as well as the climb up to the castle if you're going on that trail) but it's definitely rocky and not particularly flat except by the lake. This is one of the better hikes in the area but it's not my absolute favorite - it's crowded and a little too close to civilization. But arguably the bears cancel some of that out. Memorable day.

Finally was able to explore Great Oak Park. We decided to come while there was still snow on the…read moreground which ended making for an icey walk but most of the trails are flat with little to no elevation. It's a great way to get out and be active. There is also an attached dog park in the parking lot for both small and large dogs that is pristinely kept. I will definitely be coming back in the warmer months for walks with my dog and the added perk of a great more secluded dog park!

I asked a local if there were any good hikes or trails in the area and they recommended the James…read moreLeach boardwalk trail. While boating on the lake, I saw the bridge of the trail and thought it would be worth checking out. At first we didn't see the entrance for the trail, until we saw somebody coming out. The entrance was in the back of this little park. The park has basketball courts, tennis courts, a jungle gym and a Porto-potty in addition to the trail. The trail was gravel, easy to follow and very clean. Because it was named James Leach boardwalk trail, I assumed that it would be a boardwalk. Only the bridge was boarded. It is a nice trail, and if you are a local and would like to take a little hike, then you probably aren't reading my review and it is worthwhile. But if you are visiting and looking to take a hike, I don't think this will satisfy you. The bridge is nice and view to the lake is nice but that's about it.

***3 1/2 stars*** I…read morewas a little surprised when I saw how low the average rating was for this place; typically parks and hiking trails tend to have inflated/positive reviews, mostly because the only people willing to write them love being outdoors. However, it's really hard to argue. This was probably by fifth time here yesterday, and I'm never blown away by the experience. The hike I do here is featured in njhiking.com (which is a massively strong recommend - great, detailed and varied hikes featured all over the site) as one of the most challenging hikes in the state. It's an 11.1-miler that starts out at the boat launch parking lot on Splitrock Road (and there is ALWAYS a port-a-potty there - strong selling point; very clean this time too), goes east for about half a mile to the white trail, cuts south mostly through the woods and occasionally alongside the reservoir, switches to the blue trail by the southern end, goes up Buck Mountain and then continues mostly north back up to the road and the boat launch. It's a nasty hike (rugged with constant up and down), but it's one I like to do as training prep when I'm about to do a crazy adventure somewhere in the country - if you can do this one pretty easily, you can literally do almost any hike that doesn't involve massive rock climbing or something. In my opinion at least (and I AM in excellent hiking shape right now, full disclosure) the most difficult or challenging part of this is just the mileage. The up and down isn't as extreme as, say, a hike up in Norvin Green where you're literally going up an incline for a solid 15 or 20 minutes multiple times. There's one quick scramble up the mountain that took less than five minutes, and maybe one or two other sharper inclines that were shorter in length than that. But cumulatively, you're going to feel it toward the end of the hike, even though that part is largely on a woods road. I tend to meander and not bulldoze ahead (journey not the destination), so this whole hike took me six hours and 38 minutes. Start early. The primary reason I'm always tepid about this one is that SO much of it is just in the woods with no viewpoints. I'm of the opinion that if you have sweat pouring off of you and sore hindpaws, you'd better have a few majestic vistas or something for the payoff. Aside from the obvious reservoir optics from time to time, there also aren't a lot of exciting natural features to get hot and bothered about. You really just have one view up on Buck Mountain, and for whatever reason, I always seem to be over here on a meh, mostly overcast day. And this is sort of a pro and a con, but this is not a popular hike. Yes, you're not contending with hoards of people and the ones you do are CLEARLY legit hikers - there's no one wearing Uggs asking if you have extra water - but it means the canine situation is pretty barebones. Obviously a personal issue that may not apply to other prospective adventurers. That said, the wildlife game is always pretty abundant and yesterday was no exception. There were tons of frogs/toads, and I saw at least two skinks yesterday (the corgis of reptiles). There were also quite a few representatives of the waterfowl family hanging out on the edges of the reservoir, including one or two swans. The snake game was nuts, and both took place toward the end on the blue trail with maybe a mile or two to go. First I encountered a garter snake who was very on edge and tried to lunge at me (which I just rolled my eyes at), but then a few minutes later I came within a foot of a long black racer snake that mimicked a rattlesnake with the intentional rattling of its tail, which I've NEVER seen before, and that was a bit jarring. But I continued on, no worse for wear. I always enjoy being able to eat an entire pizza guilt-free and chuckling at the temporary loss of water weight from this hike, but this isn't one that I enjoy all that much. It gets you in shape and doesn't have much in the way of other selling points unless you're really into snakes with low self-esteem.

Farney State Park is a 589 acre mature mixed hardwood forest in Northern New Jersey. Tall red,…read morewhite and black oak trees dominate the canopy, The park is a habitat for the red-shouldered hawk and barred owl both of which are endangered. Be aware that there are ticks, bears and copperhead and eastern rattle snakes in the area. The terrain is rocky and features streams, stone walls, dams, a bridge and Split Rock Reservoir. The reservoir is part of the Wildcat Ridge Wildlife Management Area. The reservoir is open to kayaking which I do a great deal of since it is so close to where I live. You can also canoe or bring your boat, only electric motors though. There are two car=top launches on the the reservoir. No swimming is allowed and if a ranger sees your feet in the water, you will be reprimanded. Both use of alcohol, smoking or vaping is not permitted. There is a 13 mile loop around the reservoir with other shorter trails of varying difficulty. People come to Farney State to bird watch, fish (16+ need NJ license ), hunt in selected areas, ice fish, and hike. The Split Rock site was used as a production area during the Revolutionary War for producing iron. A furnace can still be seen if you take the trail down the road toward the bridge. It is down the slope by the overflow of the reservoir. There are trail maps on-line. Your phone GPS will work in this area as well. Signage is mixed in this State Park. The bridge crossing on the reservoir dam is one way but there is a red/green light system. ADMISSION IS FREE. Ten minutes from my home, it is my go to kayaking spot.