Hornbecks Creek Trail - National Park Service
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.18840, -74.8861
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| Lower Hornbeck Trail Parking Area |
TRAIL MAP:
Delaware Water Gap & Kittatinny Trail Map 122 - NYNJ Trail Conference
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| Old maps show this trail going all the way through to Emery Road but it has now been split into two trails - Lower and Upper - with no connection in between. |
HIKE DISTANCE: 2.3 miles (1.15 miles each way)
Hiked together with Tom's Creek to PEEC (7 mile drive away) - 8.6 miles
THE HIKE:
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| It's a smooth gravel trail until the very end when it gets a little rockier. |
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| There are several sturdy bridge crossings. |
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| There is no fee here so not sure what this means. |
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| At the end of the trail, Lower Indian Ladders Falls. I can't imagine how the trail ever continued beyond this point without scaling a vertical rock wall but that continuation no longer exists anyway. |
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| Heading back. |
I wouldn't want to advocate a closed trail, but reality is that the closed trail section it's still on maps and in frequent use. The trail to the Upper Indian ladder falls was heavily damaged during the Mar. 2018 Nor'easter, some work has been done by locals to make it hikeable again, and even though you have to pass under some blowdowns, it's a remarkably beautiful and worthwhile hike, passing several waterfalls on the way up to perhaps one of my favorite falls of the region. The trail splits off (left at a big tree) from the main trail about 50 yards before the lower Indian Ladder Falls. There it climbs to the top of the falls along some old steps and the remnants of a little bride before getting to the top of the "Lowers". Just before the "Uppers", the trail again divides into two, one is a brand new trail connecting the "Uppers" with the PEEC's trail system, the other continues to the falls. If you hike beyond the falls (either side) it'll take you to a parking area and trail head (41.1955 -74.9099) where Emery rd. cross Hornbecks creek. Either side of the stream is hikeable from Emery rd. to the "Uppers", but the west/south side has a curated trail.
ReplyDeleteI looked and looked and could not see where the old trail was. I could see it on my app and that it was a bit before the lower falls. Bummer! Maybe someday I can approach it from the Emery Road side. There were no signs saying it's closed so it wouldn't really be any different than the Tom's Creek hike since those weren't official trails either but to the best of my knowledge there is nothing that says that isn't allowed. Thanks for the info!
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