Showing posts with label NJ Sparta Glen Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NJ Sparta Glen Park. Show all posts

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Sparta Glen Park, NJ


ABOUT THE PARK:
There is no information other than AllTrails stating 1 mile of trails.  There is much more than that.  Using Dan and Laura Balogh's notes along with various tracks I pieced together in the Gaia app I set out to hike as many of the blazed trails as possible.

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.039400, -74.618701
There is a parking lot on the left just before a gate.  If the gate is closed park there and walk in.  If the gate is open continue on to the second parking lot on the right which is the one pictured above.

TRAIL MAP:
The map in the kiosk does not show all of the trails.
Using my track I colored in the trails.  There is one other that connects the overlook to the orange trail and it is blazed with large green paint circles with a yellow circle in the middle.  Gray is the park road which becomes gravel and follows Sparta Glen Brook.
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HIKE DISTANCE:  3.7 miles

THE HIKE:
I needed to stop in at the Kittatinny Valley State Park office for some information on a new trail I wanted to hike but since I hike at the crack of dawn and they don't open until 9:00 AM I had a couple of hours to kill so I hiked these trails about 15 minutes away.
From the second parking lot backtrack just a few steps on the park road to the blue trail.
Passing orange which we would take from this point later.
Blue turns right with green; we turned left on green.
When green turns right, we turned left on yellow.
Yellow descends a bit then ascends and loop around the top of Sparta Mountain.
At the end of yellow, left on green ...
... to a huge flat boulder ...
... at the overlook of Lake Mohawk.
Leaving the overlook we turned left on green then left on ...
... sort of a yellowish/green? blazed trail.
Some benches along this trail.
This trail descends steeply at times.
Left on blue where we retraced what we hiked earlier for just a short distance to ...
... left on orange.
Orange descends to a picnic pavilion at the park road.  We turned left on the park road where it changes from paved to gravel.
The gravel road follows along Sparta Glen Brook.
A picnic table at the end of the gravel road.
Heading back.
The road becomes paved at the pavilion.
Coming back up on the parking lot.