Round Valley Reservoir, NJ - Cushetunk Loop

ABOUT THE PARK:
Round Valley Recreation Area - State of NJ DEP
Between Labor Day and Memorial Day there is no entrance fee and the park can be accessed from the Fish and Wildlife Boat Lunch Area which is where this hike starts.  The impoundment dike gates at the boat launch must be open to hike this as a loop and they are only open from Labor Day to Memorial Day.

If you plan on doing this hike after 11/18/19 (I hiked it on 11/17/19) you might want to check if this portion of Route 629 from Old Mountain Road to the boat launch is open yet because this is the final road walk portion needed to hike the loop.

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.631739, -74.849688

Boat Launch Parking

TRAIL MAP:
Round Valley Recreation Area Trail Map - State of NJ DEP
Cushetunk Mountain Nature Preserve Trail Map - Hunterdon County

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HIKE DISTANCE:  12.4 miles

THE HIKE:
A comment on NJHiking.com's Round Valley hike indicated a Cushetunk Trail loop could be hiked with 3 miles of not so bad road walking.  In anticipation of the road walk portion, I stashed a pair of sneakers in the Cushetunk Mountain Nature Preserve parking lot on the drive in as I would be passing through there on the hike and that is where the road walk portion would start.

It is probably a good idea to park at the boat launch to be sure the impoundment dike (on the right) gates are open..

They should be from Labor Day to Memorial Day.

Round Valley Reservoir from the impoundment dike.

This hike would not be doable Memorial Day through Labor Day.

At the end of the dike, veer left then right on blue uphill.

At green, left or right works at both sides join back together.

Keep straight were the green loop joins.

At the end of green, look for the red marker posts of the Cushetunk Trail across the park road.

Turn right (left goes to the south parking lot).

An overlook of Round Valley Reservoir.

White-throated Sparrow

There are mile markers every half mile and it's about 1 mile from the boat launch to the Cushetunk Trail.

Along a power cut ...

... then down steeply.  I was really glad I was doing a loop and would not have to climb back up.

There are some nice winter views of the reservoir along the way.

Picking up balloon #56 of the year along the way.

At about the half way point of the hike, a nice break spot a short distance off trail at the reservoir.

Tons of birds hanging out in this area.

Before continuing on, a look at the reservoir ...

... and zooming in to the boat launch across the way where we started.

Shortly after the break spot, the trail is lined with large rocks on the left.

This sign doesn't make much sense since all of the trails aren't shown but it's November so doesn't really matter.

A lingering bit of fall color.

At a T-intersection there is no sign.  Apparently the Cushetunk Trail turns left but red blazes continue to the right into Cushetunk Mountain Nature Preserve.  That is the way we needed to go so right we went, steeply uphill.

At the top on the ridge red runs into white.  An unmarked trail goes left and white forks to the right.  We took the left fork of white....

... steeply downhill descending the other side of the mountain.

This leads directly to the parking lot ...

.... where in the far left corner ...

... I had stashed my sneakers.

Changing from this ...

... into this.

And off we go exiting the parking lot and turning left on Old Mountain Road.  (Just can't forget to pick my shoes up on the way home.)

It's a fairly quiet residential walk up Old Mountain Road.

After 1.5 miles coming up on Route 629.

A left on Route 629 ...

... where that road closure sign was.  At this point it would have been an 11 mile hike back around the other way had the road been closed.  Yikes.

It's a long uphill with not too much traffic and a wide enough area to walk ...

... to reservoir views at the top.

I saw more wildlife in the reservoir during the road walk than during the trail portion of the hike.

In another 1.5 miles, left into the boat ramp parking lot.

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