Revisiting the Wanaque Ridge Trail in Ramapo Mountain State Forest.
We did the Wanaque Ridge trail back in March on a brisk, overcast day, and wanted to come back on a nicer day to get better photos.
We did a similar route this time but added in a loop to Van Slyke Castle, and instead of the YELLOW trail we walked back along the unmarked woods road along Ramapo Lake.
8.6 miles – moderate terrain.
Route: BLUE (MacEvoy) – WHITE (Castle Point) – RED R on WHITE (Cannonball) – back to BLUE – ORANGE (Wanaque Ridge) – RED (Indian Rock) – briefly on Cannonball – unmarked woods road around lake – BLUE
Complete hike details on our main Wanaque Ridge page.
Parking: We parked at the main lot – Exit 57 off of Rt. 287, left at the light and go straight for just a bit. This lot is small and popular… we arrived at 9:45am and got the last spot, though a lot of people were leaving.
When we were leaving at about 3pm, people were waiting for spots and a row of cars had parked down the middle of the lot, making it very difficult to get out of the lot.
Note: We added a side trip on the Castle Point trail to Van Slyke Castle to get some nice photos, and decided to continue on and make a loop of it with Cannonball. Wouldn’t recommend this, however.
Castle Point is a nice trail, ending in a steep incline up a rock slab before arriving at Cannonball.
The section of Cannonball from here back to the BLUE trail ducks in and out of the woods and onto a road, even passing a few houses.
When it finally stays in the woods, it’s on a trail that is being rerouted and restored by a biking club.
The trail is really more suited for biking than hiking, with extra turns in it etc. With that and the road walking, it’s probably better to just backtrack on Castle Point after the house and water tower ruins.
Also of note… a group of four off road quad vehicles passed us as we were getting onto the Wanaque Ridge trail, and then on the actual ridge trail, two dirt bikes passed us.
So we got to enjoy noise and the scent of exhaust on our hike, not to mention that the trail is torn up quite a bit due to all the illegal riding.