3.4 miles roundtrip, easy. It was unseasonably hot in Jersey again today, in the upper 80′s and very little leaf cover from the blaring sun. WHITE to RED to YELLOW to WHITE to BLUE to WHITE.
This is a gorgeous park in Chester, NJ (Morris County) that has the Black River as it’s centerpiece. It’s VERY popular for picnicking and light hiking/meandering around the river areas… so don’t go here looking for a nice quiet hike.
There are only about 6 miles of overlapping trails here, however, and a lot of that is paved/gravel – we hiked pretty much the entire park in 2 hrs – and that’s with stopping to shoot video and take pics - so this is not the park for an experienced hiker looking for a long/challenging trail.
Parking: Rt 206 to 513 W. Just past Cooper Mill make a left onto State Park Road. (There are signs) Continue for about 2 miles and make a right onto Hacklebarney Road. Park entrance on your left. There is a small parking lot with a monument just as you enter, turn left within that lot and follow the park road to a larger lot.
Restrooms: Comfort stations are place strategically around the park. On the main path just beyond the ranger station and kiosk, they are on your right. There are 2 or 3 others.
Warm and humid. Rt. 206N to 513 W. Park at Cooper Mill.There are bathrooms open when the Mill is, but also two Portas in the parking lot. Kiosks at Cooper, Kay, Bamboo & Willowbrook have nice maps.
BLUE trail along the river (very scenic, lots of people take this pleasant walk but don’t go very far) then to Kay Enviromental center which doesn’t seem to have bathrooms outside and always seems closed so not sure if they are inside. Have to walk along the road of Kay then cross and walk along a residential road to re-pick up BLUE (can take red instead and bypass Kay but it is harder and more hilly).
BLUE continues then follows Bamboo Brook to Lamerson Road. At this point, the trail becomes less maintained and has a LOT of sticker bushes to walk thru – long pants needed, we got scratched up. We had a storm the day before and had to scramble thru a blown down tree. Eventually ended up at corn field that you walk around, then cross Longview road and meander thru some fields as well. Intersting mix of trail.
End up at Bamboo Brook Outdoor Center (follow signs to single bathroom inside). From here the trail continues thru fields and over a river, to Willowwood Arboreum where we stopped for a snack. There are bathrooms inside surely, but I opted for the porta in the parking lot which was the fanciest I’ve ever seen (flushing mechanism and foot pump operated sink).
We back tracked the same way, except opting for RED around Kay… much more challenging than we remembered. Heard four-wheelers in the are between Longview and Lamerson road, did not hear them in the morning. Barely saw anyone all day, until we were within a mile of the car.
*Bonus – this park is mere minutes from the Wendy’s on 206.
4.1 miles. Very hot out but not as bad hiking as we thought… getting back into it after an injury so we did a short one. Starting to prep for fall hiking. Parking lot pretty full but not many people on the trail.
