Rainbow Hill at Sourland Mountain Preserve, NJ

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Rainbow Hill at Sourland Mountain Preserve - New Jersey Conservation Foundation

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 40.46009, -74.78373

Parking is at the end of a long dirt road.

TRAIL MAP: 

Rainbow Hill at Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail Map - New Jersey Conservation Foundation

The trail map shows trail closures from November to March; there was nothing indicating the trails were closed while I was there so the map might not have been updated yet.

HIKE DISTANCE: 

These hikes were 7.5 miles (12 minute drive) apart.

Rainbow Hill at Sourland Mountain Preserve - 7 miles

Alexauken Creek Wildlife Management Area and Pryde's Point - 3.4 miles

THE HIKE: 

At the first gap in the fence where the "horses have right of way" sign is, is not where the trails start.

Head in towards the gate and the trail entrance is at the white arrow on the right.

There are several creek crossings.  Even after very heavy snow melt and rain none of them were as bad as this one looks.  They were all shallow and crossable with waterproof hiking shoes.

After crossing the creek we turned left on blue and would return to this point later.

There was a large downed tree blocking the path up ahead but we were able to squeeze though.

There were many ducks at the far side of the pond.  Here are green-winged teals and wood ducks.  Taking a picture at that distance with crazy strong winds was challenging so it's not the clearest.

A few deer came into view also.

A bit higher up on white there are nice winter views over the pond.

Unfortunately the sheer number of trashy tree stands encountered detract from the otherwise nice scenery.

There are a few junked cars around but it wouldn't be a hike in New Jersey without them.

The large white loop is very well-blazed but the trail is not always visible so you have to pay attention to the blazes.

Coming around the other side the trail becomes more defined.

Balloon #2 of the year.

Retracing on that section of blue that follows above the creek...

... back to this point where we stayed with blue back to the pond.

I was hoping to quietly approach the pond coming up on the side where all of those ducks were to get a better shot but...

... exactly at that spot a hiking group was passing by so those ducks were long gone.

The ducks were gone but the spring peepers had come out.

From the pond taking red through the woods ...

... then over fields with nice views in the distance.

Back on white to the end.