Ramapo Valley County Reservation - Bergen County
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| Lake Henry is directly across the Ramapo River from the Ramapo Valley trails so you have to drive around to get there. |
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.07770, -74.18734
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| Ramapo Valley County Reservation Parking Lot |
Lake Henry GPS Coordinates 41.08145, -74.18409
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| Lake Henry Parking Behind the Recreation Center |
TRAIL MAPS:
Northern New Jersey Highlands Trails Map 150 - New York New Jersey Trail Conference
HIKE DISTANCES:
Ramapo Valley County Reservation - 8.6 miles
Lake Henry Trail - 1.1 mile
THE HIKE:
This is the second weekend in a row where microspikes were needed for the entire hike. So much ice this year!
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| Starting from the far left corner of the parking lot at the kiosk. |
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| At the break in the railing there is a short trail to the right along the Ramapo River. |
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| We went as far as we could go ... |
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| ... then headed back. |
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| Pond Loop Trail |
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| Scarlet Oak Pond |
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| Right over the bridge on the yellow Vista Loop. |
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| View from Hawk Rock |
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| New York City Skyline |
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| Continuing on to ... |
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| ... views from Cactus Ledge. |
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| Taking the green Halifax Trail all the way to Bear Swamp Lake. |
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| Crossing a gas pipeline that we would be crossing a few more times later on. |
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| The Halifax Trail come out on a woods road. |
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| A raccoon heading to Havemeyer Brook. There were lots of raccoon tracks throughout. |
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| Crossing Havemeyer Brook is very tricky with spikes on. You can't step on icy rocks because not enough spikes make contact to keep from slipping. I ended up stepping on rocks below the water surface that weren't frozen and that worked with waterproof shoes on. |
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| Halifax Ruins |
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| The trail leaves the woods road on a footpath. |
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| Crossing back over Havemeyer Brook |
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| Wild Turkey |
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| A section with no human tracks only raccoon and coyote tracks intermingled. |
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| Leaving green on yellow ... |
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| ... then blue. |
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| Coming up on Bear Swamp Lake. |
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| A small bear heading towards his namesake, Bear Swamp Lake. |
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| Bear Swamp Lake from the far end. |
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| Heading back to ... |
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| ... right on red. |
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| MacMillan Reservoir |
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| Yellow trail to the waterfalls. |
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| Trail along the Ramapo River. |
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| Back at the parking lot. |
Fast Forward to Lake Henry
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| Since this was only one mile I left Brodie in the car. |
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| Lake Henry |
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| Ramapo River from the bridge. |
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| Several short side trails lead over to the Ramapo River. |
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| A swan in the Ramapo River just as it was starting to snow. |
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| Snow falling on Lake Henry. |
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| On the way out, passing by the New York New Jersey Trail Conference headquarters which is between Lake Henry and Ramapo Valley County Reservation. |
Beat Swamp Lake is my favorite location in Ramapo. If you kept walking around the lake, you would have encountered an old hunting camp and some newish chairs to sit and relax on a rock overlooking the lake.
ReplyDeleteI have been around Bear Swamp Lake before but did not plan it as part of this hike with it being the last day of hunting season - didn't want to venture that far into Ringwood.
DeleteThanks for another enjoyable, vicarious hike. You(and Brodie) are quite brave to tackle all the ice around lately.
ReplyDeleteFor as much as I dislike winter, snow and ice, I have to admit, hiking on ice is kind of fun. Those microspikes are so liberating - throw them on and you can go anywhere.
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