Passaic County is full of amazing hiking trails for every skill level, from rambling woods paths to dramatic viewpoints overlooking New York City. Here’s a list of a few of the best hiking trails in Passaic County!

Appalachian Trail in Passaic County

West Milford

The Appalachian Trail makes a short visit to Passaic County on its 2,200-mile journey from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine. The best access is via a trailhead located off Longhouse Drive in the Hewitt section of West Milford, where a few parking spaces are available alongside the road. Park and head east, following the white blazes of the A.T. about two miles, across Longhouse Creek to the New York/New Jersey border. The state line is marked with paint on the rocky mountain face, so make sure to get a selfie with a foot in each state before heading back to New Jersey!

Norvin Green State Forest

Bloomingdale

Norvin Green State Forest spans 5,416 acres of western Passaic County, featuring over 50 miles of hiking trails that wind through the mountains. The trail network includes some of the most challenging hikes in Passaic County, with elevations ranging from 400 to 1,300 feet. But the cardio workout is worth it, with incredible views of New York City from the highest vantage points, as well as overlooks across Wanaque Reservoir and the New Jersey Highlands.

The trail network also connects to the New Weis Center, a nature center just outside the forest run by The Highlands Nature Friends, which offers programming and events throughout the year. In the summer, you can take a dip after your hike in the Highlands Natural Pool, an Olympic-size swimming pool filled with unfiltered water from the streams in the forest.

The State Forest is divided into two main sections. Access the trails in the northern section from a variety of roadside pull-offs, marked on the official map. The southern half can be accessed from parking lots along Otterhole Road in Bloomingdale, or from the New Weis Center.

High Mountain Park Preserve

Wayne

High Mountain Park Preserve is one of the largest pieces of conserved land in Northern New Jersey outside of the Highlands, covering 1,200 acres. It’s cared for by The Nature Conservancy and is home to several endangered species of plants and animals. The Preserve runs along the ridgeline of the Preakness Range of the Watchung Mountains, with trails running through the woods and across wetlands. There are 11.5 miles of trails, and from the top of the hills, there are amazing views of the New York City skyline.

There are ties to history throughout the landscape, too. Rock ledges in the Franklin Clove section in the northwest part of the preserve were used by the Lenni Lenape to construct shelters. The ridgeline was used during the American Revolution as part of the Continental Army’s signalling network. The peak of High Mountain is the highest point on the East Coast south of Maine, with a view of the Atlantic Ocean.

The best access to the trail network is from the Preserve’s main parking lot, on University Drive in Wayne, near the William Paterson University campus.

Garret Mountain Reservation/Rifle Camp Park

Clifton/Paterson

Garret Mountain Reservation and Rifle Camp Park are near each other on the ridgeline overlooking Paterson, and both offer hiking trails with amazing views, combined with lots of other activities.

Garret Mountain Reservation is one of Passaic County’s most action-packed parks, with an equestrian center, boat house, athletic fields, bike trails, and historic Lambert Castle and Lambert Tower. It’s also a National Natural Landmark, one of only 11 in New Jersey, and much of the park was designed by the Olmsted Firm, which also designed Central Park.

The Yellow Trail takes you all the way around the park, with overlooks over Paterson and Little Falls. In many places, the basalt that makes this part of the ridgeline so naturally significant comes through on the trail surface.

Rifle Camp Park is just to the south of Garret Mountain, and shares many of the amazing ridgeline views. The Yellow Trail at Rifle Camp circumnavigates the park for 3.2 miles, with views of New York City and Great Notch Reservoir.

Ringwood State Park

Ringwood

Ringwood State Park is one of the most historic areas in Passaic County, having served as an ironworks during the Revolutionary War. Today, there are 40 miles of trails spread out across the park’s 4,444 acres, which bring you to areas of natural beauty and historic locations.

One of the most scenic trails in the park is the Five Ponds Loop Trail, a tour of five idyllic small ponds spread across the park. It’s a 4.8-mile, moderate-difficulty hike with a lot of reward. The 2.8-mile Manor Trail heads out from the historic Ringwood Manor house and takes in the Revolutionary War-era cemetery where the ironmaster and mapmaker Robert Erskine is buried. When you get back, you can take a tour of Ringwood Manor and learn about this area’s long history in industry.

There are two parking areas that are great for exploring the park’s trails. The Ringwood Manor Historic area provides access to trails on the west side of the park, including the Manor Trail and the challenging 4.7-mile Cooper Union Trail. To access the eastern trails, park near Skylands Manor. From here, you can hike the Five Ponds Loop, or head deep into the park to take the Shore Trail around Bear Swamp Lake.

Apshawa Preserve

West Milford

Stretching across 576 acres of the Highlands in West Milford, the Apshawa Preserve is a haven for wildlife. It is surrounded by a 3.2-mile deer “exclosure” fence that was built in 2010. The exclosure allows native plant life to blossom undisturbed inside the preserve, making this a hike unlike any other in Passaic County.

Inside this “exclosure” are five miles of blazed trails. Hikers can expect to find scenic views of the Bulter Reservoir, as well as a waterfall, a dam, and ruins. (The trail is also open to mountain bikers and horseback riders, if that’s more your style.) If those vistas aren’t enough, Apshawa Preserve is a perfect location to go birding, or even try your hand at fishing!

The Apshawa Preserve is open all year from dawn to dusk. The only access point into the enclosure fence is from a parking lot on Northwood Drive, off Macopin Road in West Milford.

Wanaque Ridge and Van Slyke Castle

Wanaque

Wanaque Ridge is located in Ramapo Mountain State Forest. Although the State Forest straddles Passaic and Bergen County, many of the trails along the ridgeline are located in Passaic County, as are the incredible ruins of Van Slyke Castle, the ruins of an early-20th-century mansion that was burned by vandals in the late 1950s.

Other trails loop around Ramapo Lake and take you to vantage points across the ridgeline. The trail network connects further to Ringwood Manor State Park and Bergen County’s Ramapo Valley County Reservation.

Parking lots on Skyline Drive in Oakland provide the easiest access to the trails in the park. You can also access the back side of the park via a connecting trail heading out of the parking lot in Back Beach Park in Wanaque.

Morris Canal Greenway

Little Falls, Paterson, and Clifton

Follow a pathway through history on the Morris Canal Greenway. This 111-mile route runs from Phillipsburg on the Delaware River to Jersey City. The historic canal was built in 1824 to carry coal mined in Pennsylvania to markets on the eastern seaboard. The canal has been closed for over a century, but its route across New Jersey is still mostly intact.

The route is now being converted into a multi-purpose recreation path across the state. This epic project is still being built out, and the entire route is not a continuous path just yet. Passaic County is home to XXXXXX miles of the Canal, and there are a few sections where you can enjoy extended sectors.

The Greenway is most developed in Little Falls, Paterson, and Clifton. Separated pathways combine with existing sidewalks to create a continuous route, and with a bit of planning, you can enjoy about ten miles of the Greenway in Passaic County. Check out the Morris Canal Greenway website to see an interactive map and plot the best areas to take your walk.

Highlands Trail

Across the County

The Highlands Trail is a 170-mile multi-state trail that will eventually stretch from Pennsylvania to Connecticut across the New Jersey/New York Highlands. New Jersey has 120 miles of the trail crossing its mountains, and Passaic County has more than 25 miles of that, exploring our most stunning and remote natural areas.

The Highlands Trail enters Passaic County at the New Jersey/New York border, in Tranquility Ridge County Park. It heads through Long Pond Ironworks State Park, Norvin Green State Forest, and the Pequannock Watershed on its way south across the state. You can join the trail in any of these parks, and if you’re looking for a long-distance day hike, you can park a car at two different trailheads and take a one-way route across the mountain ridges of the Highlands.

Check out the Highlands Trail page on the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference website to see the route and download a map.