Long Pond Ironworks State Park - New Jersey State Park Service
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.12708, -74.30116
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| Monksville Reservoir South Boat Launch |
TRAIL MAP:
Northern New Jersey Highlands Trail Map 151 - New York New Jersey Trail Conference
HIKE DISTANCE: 10.1 miles
THE HIKE:
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| Taking the short connector trail from the far right corner of the huge parking lot. |
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| Left on the white Monks Trail. |
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| Left on a side trail to ... |
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| ... views of Monksville Reservoir. |
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| Continuing on white. |
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| When white crosses a wide woods road, we turned left ... |
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| ... then at the bottom left again on an unmarked woods road. |
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| At the end of the woods road, views of Monksville Reservoir. |
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| Heading back. |
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| Passing by the woods road we had come down on ... |
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| ... then left on white when it crosses over. |
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| White ends and begins at the north boat launch. |
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| Coming up on Greenwood Lake Turnpike down below ... |
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| ... watch for a green trail on the left. |
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| Crossing over Greenwood Lake Turnpike to Beech Road. |
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| A short distance along Beech Road, the green trail continues to the right. |
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| Haven't found one of these in a long time! It is only balloon #6 of the year. |
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| The green trail descends to Beech Road ... |
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| ... and continues left after the Tranquility Ridge park sign. |
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| A short distance in green ends, continuing straight on the yellow Hansenclever Iron Trail. |
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| Several interpretive signs along the Hansenclever Iron Trail. |
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| The northern side of Monksville Reservoir. |
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| Right on the Highlands Trail/blue Sterling Ridge Trail. |
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| Passing by the yellow Jennings Hollow Trail. |
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| When the Highlands/blue trail veers left, we continued straight on an unmarked woods road. |
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| It was tricky to find the unmarked turn on to another unmarked trail but it was there. |
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| This comes out on the yellow Hansenclever Iron Trail and interpretive sign 6 where we turned left. |
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| At sign 7 the yellow trail turns left; we turned right on unmarked Beech Road which is a woods road here. |
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| Beech Road continues past the Tranquility Ridge park sign where it becomes a gravel road. |
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| Passing by where we had come off of the green trail before and staying with Beech Road. |
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| Beech Road becomes paved. |
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| Picking up green behind the Ringwood sign after crossing Greenwood Lake Turnpike again. |
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| Left on white to continue around the white loop. |
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| Yellow markers from Highlands Meadow join in. I had hiked this 11 years ago but did not have a map at that time. This time I printed out the map and brochure explaining the different points of interest. |
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| The trail did not seem to be used much. |
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| Some of the numbered stops explained in the brochure still exist. |
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| The Harry Vreeland House seems to be under renovation? |
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| The Meadow was pretty much a mess. |
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| Some plants were growing. |
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| Heading down from the meadow towards the house then continuing left on the trail. |
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| What trail? We hacked through thorny overgrowth ... |
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| ... and managed to find the trail again to continue the loop. |
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| Basically, the trail is a mess and has not been used or maintained so it very well might not even exist any more. |
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| Back on the white trail. |
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| Left on the connector trail ... |
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| ... back to the parking lot. |
