Tower Hill Reserve and Jugtown Mountain Nature Preserve, NJ

ABOUT THE PARKS:
Tower Hill Nature Reserve - Hunterdon County Parks
Jugtown Mountain Nature Reserve - Hunterdon County Parks
Highlands Trail NJ Section 8 (bottom half) - New York New Jersey Trail Conference

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.669363, -75.003195

Parking on Mountain View Road,

TRAIL MAPS:
Tower Hill Nature Reserve - Hunterdon County Parks
Jugtown Mountain Nature Reserve - Hunterdon County Parks
Tower Hill and Jugtown Mountain Connector - Hunterdon County Parks

I apparently forgot to save my track when I closed the Cairn app so all I have is a picture of what is sent out to my contacts when I notify them I am hiking through the app.

HIKE DISTANCE:  7.5 miles

THE HIKE:

The trails do not start from the parking lot.  Facing Meadow View Road, turn left and walk a short distance to the intersection with Mine Road.

Just around the corner to the right is the trailhead.

Although this shows a green marker for the trail, the trail is actually not blazed.

Duck into an overgrown tunnel to the right of the sign posts ...

... and emerge on to a mowed path where we turned left.

What the map shows as fields is now well on it's way to becoming forest.

Coming into a power cut.

The trail continues across the power cut but it is also mowed for a bit to the left so you can get a closer look at ...

... views in the power cut.

Heading back up to where we cross over.

Back into the woods on the other side of the power cut.

A right on Meadow View Road joining a road walk portion of the Highlands Trail coming in from the left  ...

... to the Tower Hill Farm Springhouse.

The trail continues directly across Mountain View Road from the springhouse.  The Highlands Trail continues on Mountain View Road but we would be meeting back up with it from this direction.

Just up ahead Brodie was busy eating grass (he's an obsessive grazer) so I was able to get some shot of ...

... mom on full alert with baby...

... who wanted a swig before ...

... taking off.

The trail turns left into the woods to connect Tower Hill with Jugtown Mountain.  This is where the Highlands Trail joins in.

It gets pretty rocky through this section.

Brodie gets all kinds of confused with no distinct trail to follow.

Through another power cut ...

... with a little bit of a view.

Coming up on Mine Road where we turn left a short distance then reenter the woods on the right.

Now the Highlands Trail is joined by the blue park trail.

Vernal pool and mine tailings from past mining activity.

Remnants of concrete structures from mining.

Coming out into the Jugtown Mountain Preserve parking lot ...

... where the trail continues to the right of the kiosk.

Now the Highlands Trail is joined by the white park trail.

The Highlands Trail leaves the white trail which loops around to the left.  We turned right on the Highlands Trail to take it to the end of Jugtown Mountain Preserve.

There might be some winter views along this section.

The Highlands Trail continues across route 173 to the left but this was our turn around point.

Heading back up.

Now continuing straight on white where we had come off of the Highlands Trail/white from the left earlier.

This part of the white trail is pretty unkempt and overgrown.

The end of the loop merging back on to the Highlands Trail ...

... and back through the parking lot.

A left on Mine Road...

... the right back into the woods.

Coming out on to the mowed paths of Tower Hill Reserve, left to ...

... Mountain View Road then right to ...

... the parking lot.

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