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. |
