ABOUT THE PARK:
Pyramid Mountain County Park - Morris County Parks
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.946752, -74.388308
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| At 7:30 AM my car was the only car in the lot. At 1:30 PM the lot is packed and cars are parked up and down both sides of Boonton Avenue. |
TRAIL MAPS:
Pyramid Mountain Trail Map - Morris County Park Commission
Jersey Highlands Trails Map #125 - NY/NJ Trail Conference
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HIKE DISTANCE: 9.8 miles
THE HIKE:
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| Head towards the parking lot exit to find... |
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| ... the beginning of the yellow trail. |
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| A short path leads to a crosswalk over Boonton Avenue. |
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| A right on red leads to ... |
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| ... a swamp with tons of singing birds. |
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| Those loud birds were elusive. From the blind I only saw ... |
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| ... a red-winged blackbird. |
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| Red makes a little loop and heads back to yellow where we continued right. |
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| Right on white. |
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| White goes around the back side of the swamp. |
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| Staying right on white when blue starts to the left. |
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| A winter view of Lake Valhalla |
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| When white ends, right on yellow. |
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| Following along the limestone quarry. There is an unmarked woods road on the other side that we would be taking later in the hike. |
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| Turning right on red into The Glen for an out-and-back along North Valhalla Brook. |
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| Red ends at Hemlock Drive just across from Lake Valhalla. |
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| Heading back. |
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| Right on yellow. |
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| Thinking this might be a turkey vulture skull. It was in the middle of the trail so I moved it off to the side so it wouldn't get trampled. |
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| The Falls |
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| Continuing on yellow. No more bridges at this farther, remote part of the yellow trail. It's all rock hops. |
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| When yellow follows parallel to Stony Brook Road, a short bushwhack over to Stony Brook Road ... |
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| ... leads to a pond on the other side. The map shows this as park property. |
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| There is an old structure ... |
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| ... that looks like stables. |
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| The map says you can park here although it looks like there is only room for about 1 car without blocking the park access road. Turns out there is better alternate parking farther along that is not on the map. |
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| It's a short bushwhack back ... |
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| ... to yellow. |
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| Yellow comes out on the road briefly to cross over North Valhalla Brook on the bridge. |
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| The trail goes back into the woods just after the guardrail and ahead is a nice parking pad for about 3 cars (not on the map), a great option to do this hike and avoid the madness at the main parking lot. |
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| Now yellow is a smooth woods road along wetlands. |
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| Left on green ... |
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| ... coming back up on the falls from the other side. |
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| Retracing a bit on yellow/green ... |
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| ... then right on green when yellow goes left. |
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| Right on red... |
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| ... steeply uphill on Turkey Mountain. |
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| Winter views of Lake Valhalla and a little bit of Boonton Reservoir beyond. |
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| Staying left on red when yellow starts to the right. |
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| Red ends in the power cut; right towards blue ... |
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| ... then left at the post. Straight ahead is 100 steps but we'd be returning for that later. |
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| Left on green ... |
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| ... to New York City skyline and ... |
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| ... Lake Valhalla views. |
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| Stone ruins a little farther along on green. |
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| Right on red heading towards the limestone quarry ... |
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| ... where we turned right just before the quarry on an unmarked trail. |
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| This runs right back into yellow. |
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| Balloon #12 of the year. |
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| Staying on yellow where we came off of white at the beginning of the hike. |
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| Right on blue. |
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| Left at the post in the power cut ... |
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| ... to 100 Steps descending steeply in the power cut. |
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| Looking back up the steps. |
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| Back at the parking lot. I'd say 90% of those people are on the Pyramid Mountain side. The Turkey Mountain side becomes far less crowded. |
