ABOUT THE PARK:
Saddle River County Park - Bergen County, NJ
Grove Park - Ridgewood Wildscape
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.90182, -74.08035
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| Parking at the southern end of Saddle River County Park. |
TRAIL MAPS:
Saddle River County Park - Bergen County, NJ (scroll down for links to maps of all sections)
HIKE DISTANCE: 15.4 miles
THE HIKE:
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| This isn't my idea of a hike but when there is snow and/or rapid snow
melt with downed trees everywhere else, options were limited to this
area for some urban "hiking". |
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| Start by walking back out the entrance ... |
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| ... turn right on Railroad Avenue and cross the bridge over ... |
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| ... Saddle River. |
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| Then right on Saddle River Road a few steps to ... |
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| ... the beginning of the Saddle River Pathway. |
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| It's all paved, very busy even at 7 AM and there are mile markers every tenth of a mile. The pathway is 6 miles long one way. |
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| First balloon of this hike right at the beginning. |
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| This duck intentionally flew over to us quacking u p a storm. Looking for food, no doubt. Obviously people feed wildlife here and that is such a bad, bad thing to do. Not to mention the fact that I had to pry several pieces of bread out of Brodie's mouth farther down the trail and he did manage to snarf some others down whole before I noticed. (Today he has diarrhea, of course.) |
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| When no food was forthcoming, Mr. Duck flew back over to Mrs. Duck to report back that we were duck food cheapskates and gave us appropriate glares. |
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| In about a mile a bridge goes over Saddle River to the right - that would be our return route. For now, straight ahead... |
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| .. and under the Garden State Parkway. |
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| Even the Canada geese are habituated to humans and dogs and don't act fearful like they should. |
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| Leaving the Saddle River Pathway to the left to loop around the pond in the Otto C. Pehle Area. |
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| The pond from the other end. |
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| Back on the Saddle River Pathway. |
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| Under Red Mill Road ... |
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| ... to the Easton Tower (Red Mill). There is a historical marker sign but you don't see it until the return route. |
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| Under Route 4. The nice thing is the path always goes under roads and there is never a road crossing the entire way. |
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| Through the Fairlawn area things open up and there is plenty of room to walk off the paved path, which is our preference. |
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| In the Dunkerhook Area, the path is on a park road for a bit. |
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| From this bench at a little overlook... |
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| ... a short dirt path ... |
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| ... leads back to the paved path. |
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| Signs of spring are popping up. |
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| Waterfalls up ahead. |
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| The Saddle River Pathway continues right over the bridge but we went straight first to the Glen Rock Area. This is how what should have been a 12 mile total out and back hike turned into 15.4 miles - all of these side trips that we took! |
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| I thought there was a bald eagle sitting in a tree until I zoomed in and saw it was a balloon. |
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| Glen Rock Pond |
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| After looping around the pond and retracing back, I noticed trail blazes off to the right. We were so there! |
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| I didn't see any more markers but it's obvious these trails are used for bikes. |
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| The trail even goes through a fort! |
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| And a fine fort it is, complete with a trash receptacle. This gives me hope for the youth that are the future. |
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| We just kept following the trail around until we ended up back the paved path where we turned left ... |
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| ... back past the falls ... |
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| ... then right on the bridge towards Wild Duck Pond Area. |
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| And what have we here along the way on the left? |
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| A yellow blazed trail! |
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| We continued on the yellow trail until we needed to work our way back over to the paved path to go under ... |
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| ... Midland Avenue. |
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| Almost at the end. Or I should say the turn around point. |
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| And here we are, the end at 6 miles. But first ... |
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| ... a loop around the pond. |
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| Coming up on the dog park. I was going to let Brodie go in but I heard an aggressive-sounding dog and decided against it. I am not a fan of dog parks. Too many people bring dogs that don't have the right temperament for it and that endangers others. |
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| But Brodie really, really wanted to go in and that black lab up in the corner beckoned him ... |
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| So in we went. |
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| As I expected, Brodie became overwhelmed by it all and got that look of panic in his eye when he could not find me in the crowd of people so I retrieved him and off we went. |
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| Now heading back from the beginning of the northern end of the pathway. |
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| I had noticed this sign across Midland Avenue earlier and watched for it on my way back. That was the park that yellow trail was in so when I saw the sign I left the pathway crossing over Midland Avenue and went into Grove Park. |
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| Yes! |
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| We really did enjoy the trails :) |
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| We went right on white and looped around ... |
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| ... to the end of white where we turned right on yellow ... |
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| ... back to where we had entered earlier when we had taken yellow out. Nice little park and a really nice break from all of that pavement. |
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| Continuing back. |
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| Coming up on Red Mill ... |
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| ... where you can now see the historical marker. |
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| Balloon #2 for this hike, #30 of the year. |
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| Huh? No Golf Playing Allowed? |
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| At 5 miles going back under the Garden State Parkway. |
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| Then left on the bridge over Saddle River leaving the parkway. |
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| Returning to the car on the other side of the river. |
