Saddle River County Park, NJ

ABOUT THE PARK:
Saddle River County Park - Bergen County, NJ
Grove Park -  Ridgewood Wildscape

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.90182, -74.08035

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)

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HIKE DISTANCE:  15.4 miles

THE HIKE:

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".

Start by walking back out the entrance ...

... turn right on Railroad Avenue and cross the bridge over ...

... Saddle River.

Then right on Saddle River Road a few steps to ...

... the beginning of the Saddle River Pathway.

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.

First balloon of this hike right at the beginning.

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.)

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.

In about a mile a bridge goes over Saddle River to the right - that would be our return route.  For now, straight ahead...

.. and under the Garden State Parkway.

Even the Canada geese are habituated to humans and dogs and don't act fearful like they should.

Leaving the Saddle River Pathway to the left to loop around the pond in the Otto C. Pehle Area.

The pond from the other end.

Back on the Saddle River Pathway.

Under Red Mill Road ...

... to the Easton Tower (Red Mill).  There is a historical marker sign but you don't see it until the return route.

Under Route 4.  The nice thing is the path always goes under roads and there is never a road crossing the entire way.

Through the Fairlawn area things open up and there is plenty of room to walk off the paved path, which is our preference.

In the Dunkerhook Area, the path is on a park road for a bit.

From this bench at a little overlook...

... a short dirt path ...

... leads back to the paved path.

Signs of spring are popping up.

Waterfalls up ahead.

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!

I thought there was a bald eagle sitting in a tree until I zoomed in and saw it was a balloon.

Glen Rock Pond

After looping around the pond and retracing back, I noticed trail blazes off to the right.  We were so there!

I didn't see any more markers but it's obvious these trails are used for bikes.

The trail even goes through a fort!

And a fine fort it is, complete with a trash receptacle.  This gives me hope for the youth that are the future.

We just kept following the trail around until we ended up back the paved path where we turned left ...

... back past the falls ...

... then right on the bridge towards Wild Duck Pond Area.

And what have we here along the way on the left?

A yellow blazed trail!

We continued on the yellow trail until we needed to work our way back over to the paved path to go under ...

... Midland Avenue.

Almost at the end.  Or I should say the turn around point.

And here we are, the end at 6 miles.  But first ...

... a loop around the pond.

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.

But Brodie really, really wanted to go in and that black lab up in the corner beckoned him ...

So in we went.

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.

Now heading back from the beginning of the northern end of the pathway.

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.

Yes!

We really did enjoy the trails :)

We went right on white and looped around ...

... to the end of white where we turned right on yellow ...

... 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.

Continuing back.

Coming up on Red Mill ...

... where you can now see the historical marker.

Balloon #2 for this hike, #30 of the year.

Huh?  No Golf Playing Allowed?

At 5 miles going back under the Garden State Parkway.

Then left on the bridge over Saddle River leaving the parkway.

Returning to the car on the other side of the river.