Washington Valley Park - Yellow Trail

A few days later we headed back to Washington Valley Park.  With the park map now in hand, it was much easier to find my way into the other side's parking lot.  The Orange trail connects only to the road and not the parking lot, so I avoided it because I didn't want to walk along the road, nor park off the side of it.  So we explored the Yellow trail.

The first thing we did was head down towards the hawk watch.  There were several people there.  It over looked a noisy stone quarry.  If it had been on the weekend, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad.  But it was not really relaxing, so we left quickly.  I could also tell some of the people on the platform did not like having Sammy around. 

There was a little waterfall, but I couldn't get a good angle on it.

Above the falls

We walked along the river for a time.  

The hiking was mostly fairly easy, slightly rocky near the river but not too bad.  Then it went upwards and through forest.  It was quiet - not many animals like last time.  Pleasant.

Along the river

Right near here, we saw a pair of heron.  So beautiful!  They were flying though, and I didn't get my camera out fast enough.

We did see a deer on our way out though!  He was making lunch out of someone's lawn.

Washington Valley Park - Red & White trails

Heard about this park on njhiking.com, as part of their short hikes section.  It was nearby, so I figured it was perfect for us.  It was a bit hard to find!  But eventually we managed to get in.

Washington Valley Park is shaped sort of like a butterfly.  I had intended on going to the east "wing" but ended up in the western one instead. The west "wing" has 3 trails - Red, White and Blue.  The east "wing" has Yellow and Orange.  The west side at least is very popular with mountain bikers, so if you plan to hike there be aware of them.  The trails can be a bit confusing because there are "perimiter" trails and "interior" trails.  One is marked with square blazes, the other with circles. 

 We asked a biker in the parking lot which trail he thought was best,  he basically indicated the blue or red trails.  I headed out on Red. This trail follows the resevoir for a bit, then curves up and through the forest.  

 Going uphill, we saw this in the "valley" below the trail.

 Sammy and I stopped to watch some hawks soar over the quarry.

 Most of this was just dense forest.  Quiet away from the parking lot, though we did see other people.

 
We crossed the little bridge and kept going onto the White trail.  On the White trail we saw a LOT of wildlife, including many deer!  I had seen a 2 snakes (one of whom was eating a frog) on the Red trail, but this was really nice.  I got quite close to a couple of them, and twice a group of them came out of the woods to jump over the trail about 20-30 feet in front of us.  My cell phone camera is crap though, so sadly I didn't get any good pics. 


 Length:  ?? Can't seem to find any listings.  Elevation: Minimal.