Brutal yet beautiful, this is how I describe my 7 mile hike at Bearfort Mountain (West Milford/Greenwood Lake area NJ).
Beautiful as you walk along the puddingstone ridges and through lush rhododendron tunnels. Three different types of mountain dragonfly' and wonderful vistas. Most trail guides take you to Surprise Lake (along the Yellow Trail), then have you return back. I strongly recommend continuing on to the State Line Trail (Blue) for amazing vistas overlooking Greenwood Lake.
Brutal as you hike up many rock scrambles; some steep. A good challenge, which I enjoyed. However, these scrambles and the heat (July) bested me from completing the yellow trail loop, which touched a small segment of the Appalachian trail.
During this hike, I sighted a young Buck and a snake (see photo). We surprised each other on the trail. There have been reports of bears. Alas, no sightings.
A secondary hike is to start from the Blue Trail by the Greenwood Lake Marina (see trail map for details).
This is a highly recommended trail and may be worth a revisit in the cooler Fall weather. View the complete set of photo images from Bearfort Mountain - Suprise Lake.
That's a great photo of the snake!
I've done that trail before - really nice, I especially like walking through the rhodos.
Robin
Posted by: Robin | 07/18/2011 at 08:02 PM