South Mountain Reservation - Essex County Parks
South Mountain Reservation - South Mountain Conservancy
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.76634, -74.27473
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| Turtle Back Rock Parking Lot |
TRAIL MAP:
South Mountain Reservation Trail Maps (purchase) - South Mountain Conservancy
Lenape Trail Map 6 South Mountain North - New York New Jersey Trail Conference
HIKE DISTANCE: 6.7 miles
THE HIKE:
Summer half day Fridays at work + 70 degrees after looooong heat wave = rare afternoon hike.
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| I would be heading left on the Turtle Back Trail (Upper) and returning from the Turtle Back Trail (Lower) to the Interpretive Trail. |
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| A connector trail if you want to short cut it but not us, on with orange it is. |
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| Hobble Brook with almost no water even after heavy rain the previous day. |
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| Oops |
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| Took some other trails to get around that. |
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| Connecting back after bypassing the blow down, the yellow Lenape Trail joins in. |
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| Another one but there was a more direct bypass... |
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| ... after which yellow leaves and green joins in. |
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| A very scenic area along the Rahway River. |
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| We would be returning to this spot to continue on orange after the loop around Orange Reservoir. |
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| Gravel Reservoir Trail to ... |
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| ... a left on the green trail down to Orange Reservoir. |
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| Taking the 2-mile Zoo Loop around the reservoir. |
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| Where I had only seen a couple of other people in the distance on the trails, this paved path around the reservoir was pretty crowded. |
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| This cormorant was having one heck of a time with that fish with something or other in the way. |
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| I think the fish got away and he managed to untangle himself. |
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| Finishing the loop back to the green trail. |
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| Reservoir Trail back to ... |
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| ... left on the orange Turtle Back Trail. |
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| Taking the Interpretive Trail to Turtle Back Rock. |
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| Turtle Back Rock |
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| Back at the parking lot. |
