In our usual effort to avoid holiday weekend crowds by pointing the car away from the beach, we ended up at Allamuchy Mountain S.P. (North). It had been years since we last hiked at Allamuchy. At the time there wasn’t a decent trail map available and the trails were confusing – so much that we just hadn’t bothered with it again.
Somewhere along the way, I stumbled upon an excellent trail map created by JORBA so we added the park back on our to-do list. Before we got to try that out, the new mapset Jersey Highlands Trails came out, which is what we prefer to use. The park is much easier to navigate now using either map.
The park is now well-blazed but there are tons of unmarked trails that crisscross the park – make sure you have a map with you and watch the trail markers. Seriously, do not wander around this park without a map – even for a short hike.
There aren’t a lot of views or destinations in this park: it’s mostly about hiking though dense, shady, lush, beautiful forest. Early in this route we did have a really lovely viewpoint on the Highlands Trail. We expected a 2nd viewpoint on the Ditch/Cardiac Trail (PURPLE) but did not find where it would be. Not sure if it’s a seasonal view and the foliage blocked it, or we needed to take a side trail to it and missed it. Read more…
(For For detailed hike directions, maps, photos, video, and GPS coordinates, visit our Echo Lake – Highlands Trail page)
8.3 miles – out and back. Mostly level hiking on moderate trail with a few minor changes in elevation, plus a lot easy woods road walking. Route follows Echo Lake West/Highlands (TEAL Diamond) around the western shore of Echo Lake, then follows the Highlands Trail through some nice forest areas (no real views) over Kanouse Mountain toward Bearfort Mountain.
Our intention was to hike from Echo Lake to the fire tower up on Bearfort Mountain for a round trip total of about 10.6 miles. However at about 4.2 miles in, we heard a clumsy crashing noise ahead of us, maybe 50 yards or so, on the left.
It didn’t sound like a deer, so we stopped dead in our tracks to see what was going to come into view… and sure enough, a black bear cub comes bounding in from the left, and tries unsuccessfully to climb a tree (so cute), then followed by another cub. Uh oh.
8.5 miles. BLUE – YELLOW – BLUE (Sterling Ridge/Highlands) – RED – WHITE.
From central Jersey: Parkway N, 87N to 17 to 72 Sterling Mine Road to 84. Visitor Center is very nice, several displays, a ranger, maps, exceptional bathrooms. P11 hiker parking is across the road from the visitor center parking. Basically most of the trails in Sterling are woods roads, just the Ridge trail is a nice regular trail.
Took BLUE in front of Visitor Center. Huge ruin of a furnace from the 1700s was neat and the trail very nice… briefly then it turned into a road. Followed Sterling Lake, but this wasn’t nice hiking along houses. Finally YELLOW came in on the left so we took that, but that was a woods road.
Hit P8 hikers parking on 17A with Porta, then backtracked back in and took BLUE Sterling Ridge/Highlands Trail which was very nice and a couple nice viewpoints. Arrived at the Fire Tower and climbed that for nice views. There is a picnic table here as well. Blue Sterling continues and we should have taken that but we opted for RED then at the junction took RED south… all overgrown woods roads, nothing thrilling. Picked up WHITE and headed North to P12 then had to walk up the road, no trail, to BLUE at the furnace and to the parking lot.
287 to 206N to Route 80 at exit 25. Follow International Drive around and bear right at the light. Follow to T-intersection, parking directly ahead. About an hour from Central NJ. Composting toilet (nice, TP and sanitizer). Trail maps. Sussex Trail bike trail is here as well. Most trails in this park are multiuse. Did 6.5 miles.
Follwed Sussex trail up a little bit, then turned left onto WHITE. This is “unmarked”. As well as a RED “unmarked” we saw later on (not on trail map). Followed up and around and picked up YELLOW “Pebble Loop” (not on map either – ?) Followed up and around, steep and rocky. Bikers actually followed us up. When we reached an intersection with the TEAL DIAMOND Highland Trail we took that down a hard-to-follow not used trail. Went down over boulders, looped round then headed back up toward parking lot.
Eventually hit a dirt road, WHITE. Stopped for a snack on a huge boulder conveniently placed next to the trail. As soon as we left another group arrived and did the same thing. Kept on the Highland Trail, crossed the RED and continued up and down. Rather challenging. A few stream crossings on rocks. At the crest of a hill we crossed RED again a dirt road. Then further we ended up on the Sussex Trail with a small waterfall, bench and wide stream crossing on huge flat rocks.
Immediately in a pine forest once crossing the Sussex Trail. Followed the twisting, rocky, rolling path eventually passed several stone walls and ended up at a road in a residential area with a pull out for a few cars, no porta pot. Retraced our steps back to Sussex and followed it back, passing a day camp and lake.
In our usual effort to avoid holiday weekend crowds by pointing the car away from the beach, we ended up at Allamuchy Mountain S.P. (North). It had been years since we last hiked at Allamuchy. At the time there wasn’t a decent trail map available and the trails were confusing – so much that we just hadn’t bothered with it again.
