Cedar Grove, NJ Nature Trails

ABOUT THE PARKS:
Hilltop Reservation - Essex County Parks
Hilltop Reservation - Hilltop Conservancy
West Essex Trail - Essex County Parks
Lenape Trail - Wikipedia
In Cedar Grove: Essex County Plans $11M Park At Overbrook Hospital Site  - Patch.com
Mills Reservation - Essex County Parks

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.83634, -74.25671

Parking behind the library next to Veteran's Field.  My GPS did not take me there accurately.  The turn is off of Bloomfield Avenue on to Linn Drive, not White Rock Road.  White Rock Road is the exit.

TRAIL MAPS:
Township of Cedar Grove Nature Trails Map - Township of Cedar Grove
Hilltop Reservation Map - Hilltop Conservancy

I had printed this map out a long time ago.  Now it is no longer available online and the Essex County Park map is not good at all.  This is a scan of my copy with the trail descriptions below.

HIKE DISTANCE:  11 miles

THE HIKE:
I did not know what to expect on hiking trails just a day after Winter Storm Riley wreaked havoc with downed trees everywhere so I decided to do this urban hike which had been in my file for a while, but it turned out to be not so urban at all.

To find the yellow trail, walk to the right of the baseball diamond on Veteran's Field.

There will be a post at the far end with yellow blazes.

Immediately cross over a little bridge.

I found the markers confusing at first but then realized the trails are not blazed in colors as shown on the map rather by the shape of the markers.

This started out much more rugged than I had expected.  Nice!

There are lots of unmarked trails.  I kept right at all forks.

This brought us down to Hillwood Terrace where I turned left and went a short distance ...

... then crossed over Fairview Avenue right onto the West Essex Trail/Lenape Trail.

This is an old rail bed ...

... with a couple of road crossings.

What is left of the old hospital mentioned in the article above.

The poor kiosk isn't faring much better than the hospital.

Just beyond the hospital ruins and mile marker 19, it looks like a golf course to the left.  Turns out that is the $11 million park mentioned in that article.  Sorry, not our cup of tea.  Just  blaze us a trail, no manicured, paved parks for us!

A bridge over busy Route 23 ...

... and a bridge over ...

... Peckman River.

The West Essex Trail continues but we turned right staying with the yellow-blazed Lenape Trail.

Some onlookers.

After crossing this footbridge ... 

... the trail enters a particularly scenic area.

The trail continues in the woods once Cedar Grove Reservoir comes into view, although it will be a while until we actually see the water in the reservoir.

Once on Ridge Road ...

... there is sidewalk and when that runs out ...

... a path on the other side of Ridge Road.

At the end of the reservoir fence, the Lenape Trail turns right and loops around the reservoir.

Balloon #26 of the year.  Also found two others making a total of 28 so far.

There is Cedar Grove Reservoir.

After the Lenape Trail crosses a road, a short distance ahead, some pretty cascades and ...

... the red trail where we turned left leaving the Lenape Trail.

The red trail ends at the busy Mills Reservation parking lot.  They are all on the 1.5 mile gravel path, not where we were headed.  We picked up the blue trail which starts just in front of the first car parked on the right.

We actually left the blue trail for an unmarked trail that ran a little closer to the edge with better views.

Brodie seems to like being on top of the world with the New York City skyline in the distance.

We eventually hooked back up with blue which was running parallel to the unmarked trail we were on.

Blue meets back up with the yellow Lenape Trail and these two run side-by-side so we took yellow.

Blue and yellow merge back together just before ...

... what I guess is the quarry overlook although there really are no views.

But that bench made for a nice break spot.

A little farther along, blue and yellow go their separate ways.  We stayed with blue.

Everything comes together at this kiosk.  Red is what we were looking for.

Red leads back to the southern end of the reservoir...

... where a very short red connector leads to ...

... a left on Reservoir Drive.

Managed to get a shot of a Canada goose through the reservoir fence,

A right on Ridge Road where there is a sidewalk.

And a short distance ahead, a left on Lakewood, a residential street.

This goes up and over a hill to ...

... Bowden Road where we turned right a short distance ...

... then left back on to the West Essex/Lenape Trail.

On our way out we had crawled under this blow down.  Just as we were coming up on it a man was leaving with his chainsaw so I got to thank him for clearing the way!

I had noticed some trail off towards Cedar Grove Community Park so we hopped over to those for a change of pace.

The trail runs parallel to the Lenape Trail,

A left over that bridge ...

... and back on the Lenape Trail.

That poor dog was tied outside when we passed by on our way out hours earlier.

I was looking for this an unmarked trail leaving the Lenape Trail because I had seen a track in my Cairn app where it went all the way over to the northern part of Hilltop Reservation.

This trail runs right alongside that new $11 million manicured park where there were tons of people.

The trail continues around the outside of the park ...

... then becomes marked with markers used in the Hilltop Reservation.

Left on Fairview Avenue then right into ...

... Cedar Grove Park which, turns out, is on both sides of Fairview Avenue.  I kind of cut straight ahead to the other side of that gazebo across the grass in search of the trail up to Hilltop Reservation.

I found it at the 1 mile marker post - this is looking back at the park from the trail.

Staying with this shape marker which is the yellow trail on the map.

I do this always, everywhere, every hike.

Finally, the "partly sunny" part of the day.

Somehow I got off of that trail and ended up on an old paved road.

That actually turned out to be interesting because it led to this old wall ...

... which is in that picture of the Essex Mountain Sanatorium that used to stand there.

From this point there are yellow blazes so we followed those all the way back.

Coming back out ot ...

... Veteran's Field.

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