Olympic National Park has been on our trip list ever since I read an article about hiking it (probably in National Geographic Adventure – really miss that mag). We’d been looking forward to hiking the Hoh Rainforest, Hurricane Ridge,  and – for something completely different – beach hiking among the sea stacks, tide pools, and giant driftwood.

Olympic is a very large park with three distinct ecosystems that we wanted to check out. Unlike most national parks, Olympic has no roads crossing it and distances between areas can be far. It’s key to research the areas you wish to visit in order to base yourself well.

Washington is known for drizzly, overcast weather and we were prepared with our rain gear… but we ran into unusually sunny and unseasonably warm days. We only got rain on our last day. Back home in NJ at this time, the state was getting soaked yet again and was dreary all week. We feel a little responsible for sending Washington weather over to Jersey that week…. Sorry, folks!

The Area: We chose Port Angeles and Forks as our bases to minimize driving to trailheads. Port Angeles to explore Hurricane Ridge, and Forks for The Hoh Rainforest, Ozette Loop, and the beaches.

Total miles hiked: 45.15

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NJ Hiking Other

I’d read that Cheesequake State Park had taken a decent hit from Irene. So after spending our prior weekend getting our basement back in order, and spending the weekend before that bailing it out by hand when the power was out for days… it was time to get out for a quick hike.

There were lots of down trees visible throughout, but the park staff had already done a terrific job cleaning up the trails. In fact, it looked like many had been raked clear because there was so much debris that the trail would be hard to follow otherwise.

One large section of boardwalk was totally moved to the side, but the area itself wasn’t wet (it usually is). And other areas that are soggy on a good day, were no problem to pass. A lot of sand had been washed into these areas, and it had the effect of actually making the areas easier to cross. We had expected to see flooded areas and destroyed boardwalks/bridges, but even the normally wet areas around Hooks Creek Lake were fine.

5-ish miles, roughly… we didn’t take the GPS as we’ve been there soooo many times.

Route: YELLOW – walk around Hooks Creek Lake (not blazed) – walk across beach/playground to crabbing bridge -  Perrine Road (a dirt woods road) – BLUE around Perrine Pond – BLUE/Perrine Road – RIGHT on GREEN – GREEN back to lot

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NJ Hiking NJ General Easy Hike

We were poking around our GPS data for Harriman State Park, looking for an area that we hadn’t done and ended up doing a loop from Lake Skannatati. We’d done another route from this trail head in 2006, and oddly, it was on August 13th as well. (Yes, yes, we know, it’s geeky to have years worth of hike data – but it can be handy as a trail journal).

The highlights of this loop are: a nice viewpoint of Lake Skannatati (right in the beginning), view of Lake Askoti from some rock slabs, the Hasenclever Mine (large deep hole filled with water), and a small cemetery with graves from the 1800s and of Civil War veterans. There is a waterfall a bit off the Red Cross trail, and another area with cascades near the road.

The rest of the trail is just nice hiking, typical of Harriman (there really isn’t a bad trail choice in this park). Because it crosses park roads several times, there is some road noise but it’s not bad.

8.8 miles. Moderate. One steep uphill and a small scramble right in the beginning, then just moderate after that. A decent amount of this trail was  tight with bushes and dense undergrowth, and some blind curves – be sure to be talking, making noise, clapping etc to alert any bears in the area that you are comin’ through. Read more…

NJ Hiking Harriman/Bear Mtn Cemetery, Historical, Moderate, Viewpoint

The Columbia Trail is a 15 mile long rail trail that runs from High Bridge in Hunterdon County to Bartley in Morris County. The trail goes through scenic Ken Lockwood Gorge and along the Raritan River, running through woods, behind houses, and through some small towns along the way.

It’s also mostly in shade, so that is where we headed on another hot day. The multi-use trail (walk/bike/horse) is easy, mostly level  (slightly uphill going from High Bridge) and covered in crushed gravel. We prefer it for biking, but it would be good for easy hiking as well.

30 miles. We started at High Bridge and did the entire trail to Bartley, then back.  A nice shorter route would be High Bridge to Califon, and back, at about 10.2 miles roundtrip. Read more…

NJ Hiking NJ Biking Easy Hike, Hunterdon, Morris

With the recent heat, we were looking for a mostly shady hike and ended up in the Delaware Water Gap at the Pocono Environmental Education Center. There were also strong thunderstorms possible in the afternoon, and we wanted a route with options to bail if need be.

The parking lot of PEEC sits in the center of the area’s trails so a hike can be cut short if storms roll in (or if you’ve decided you’d had enough of romping around in the heat/humidity!) There are a variety of trails of different lengths, or combine all to make about a 7.5 mile route. Read more…

NJ Hiking Delaware Water Gap Moderate, Waterfall