Waterfall Hikes in NJ

The NJ Hiking website has some nice information if you like - as I do - hiking to a waterfall. Though waterfalls look best in the spring or after heavy rain, trails can be muddy then, so decide if you want the best view or dry boots and socks. (Winter frozen waterfalls and water is also pretty cool.) Some falls are an easy walk from a parking area and others are real ikes on trails. Their waterfall hikes collection is at njhiking.com/tag/waterfall/.

Here are just 4 examples. 

Buttermilk Falls is a very short climb from a parking area up the stairs around the falls, but you can continue on the blue trail at the top, but it is steep right from the start and more than a stroll in the woods. Alternatives: Buttermilk Falls trail to an unmarked woods road to Hemlock Pond and return; roughly 5 miles. 

Ramapo Valley Falls is a short, easy hike to get to this waterfall but you can also do a longer loop hike in this popular park in Bergen County. Ramapo Valley County Reservation to Hawk Rock and Cactus Ledge viewpoints, continuing to Bear Swamp Lake, and ending with a pretty waterfall is 7.4 miles on a rocky trail surface, hills, and multiple stream crossings on rocks or logs. You can also do a short 1.4 miles yellow trail to the waterfall and back the same way.

Hemlock Falls was my childhood hike destination in Essex County and we hiked to it and biked to it from every direction. It is the tallest waterfall in South Mountain Reservation and can be reached via a short easy hike, or take in the view from historic Washington Rock on a longer hike to the falls.

Chikahoki Falls can be found in Norvin Green State Forest. This route takes in Chikahoki Falls, Otter Hole, and an awesome viewpoint at Wyanokie High Point with 360° views of the area, including NYC on a clear day. It is 7.7 miles on a rugged, rocky, path with a few decent elevation changes. There is an extensive trail system so it’s easy to create other shorter or longer loops. Ringwood, Passaic County, NJ.

Waterfall Hikes in New Jersey

I love waterfalls of all sizes, from the power of the Great Fall in Paterson to small tumbling waters on streams. As a kid in Essex County, Hemlock Falls in South Mountain Reservation was a frequent place to visit by bike.

Paterson's Great Falls of the Passaic River is the top waterfall site in NJ, but for a real hike, as opposed to a nice walk, head over to nearby High Mountain.

Hikes that include a waterfall are a great hike break in the heat of summer or when they are partially or totally frozen in winter. In spring, especially after a rainfall, they will have their greatest drama.

Hemlock Falls was one of our stops while hiking through South Mountain Reservation along with historic Washington Rock, fishing at Diamond Mill, and back in my childhood, a visit to the "Deer Paddock."

On the njhiking.com website, you will find waterfall hikes. A few are excerpted below.

at Buttermilk Falls

Buttermilk Falls is reachable and via some elaborate stairs you can get some great views. If you go up a steep uphill to the Appalachian Trail you can hike to to Crater Lake and on to Hemlock Pond.

Chikahoki Falls is located in the Norvin Green State Forest, up north in the Jersey Highlands. The recommended hike route includes the Chikahoki Falls, Otter Hole, and the viewpoint at Wyanokie High Point.

Cascades are small waterfalls, typically in sets that fall in stages down a steep rocky slope. You'll find some along hiking trails in Apshawa Preserve on the Apshawa Brook in the Jersey Highlands and Butler reservoir. You will also find cascades in Hacklebarney State Park
along the Black River in Chester

For more NJ waterfall info:
The Waterfall Record 
The Waterfalls of NJ 

New Jersey Waterfalls

I wrote about water trails earlier on this blog, but a post back in September on the njconservation.org blog reminded me to revisit our states waterfalls.

This summer was pretty dry and our waterfalls were low on water. The Great Falls at Paterson were actually "turned off" for a few hours in September to check the dam and clear away debris. The Passaic River was diverted to the hydroelectric plant there on a day where the water level was low.

A day or two after a big rainfall is a great time to visit. By then the runoff has hit the falls and the paths and trails are less soggy.

Great Falls

The big one in NJ is the Paterson Great Falls. It's a distant second to Niagara Falls but it is the east coast's second largest (not the highest) waterfall. The addition of the Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park has made visiting more worthwhile. Check out the 77-foot Great Falls after a big rainstorm for a rainbow-spray view.

The falls that I have visited the most is a small one - Hemlock Falls in South Mountain Reservation - which was a place I often rode my bike when I was growing up nearby. The Reservation is the largest park in Essex County and an escape in a very urban area, so even an easy "hike" to a 25-foot waterfall was treat. And it still is a nice escape.

Buttermilk Falls via www.njhiking.com

There are 7 other waterfalls you can visit in our state

1. Buttermilk Falls is your stop if you want to see the state's highest waterfall. At 200 feet, this rocky cascade in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is a short walk from a parking lot and you can also climb steps to the top for a reverse view. If you're more ambitious, try this hike from njhiking.com
2. Chikahoki Falls and Otter Hole is in Norvin Green State Forest in Passaic County.
3. The small Apshawa Falls would be a good stop on a hike through the Apshawa Preserve in West Milford.
4. Greenbrook Falls has a unique location in the Greenbrook Sanctuary atop the Palisades in Tenafly and Alpine, Bergen County.
5. The Rockaway River, like the Passaic River in Paterson, once powered industry. Boonton Falls is outside Boonton's downtown in Grace Lord Park.
6. The prettily named Bridal Veil Falls is on the grounds of William Paterson University in North Haledon. There is a trail behind the falls that lets you stand in a cave behind the falling water.
7. Tinton Falls is a town and the falls from which it got its name. This Monmouth County waterfall was also one a source of power, and can be easily seen from an overlook off Tinton Avenue.

Waterfalls of New Jersey

New Jersey probably is not the first place one thinks of to find waterfalls. The Garden State has about 30 waterfalls. Most of them are found in the Kittatinny Ridge (northwest), the north-central Highlands, and the Piedmont of the central part of the state. Almost all of them are on public lands and so are accessible to visitors, and many of them offer surrounding lands suitable for a walk or hike.

NJhiking.com has many hikes that feature waterfalls.

Buttermilk Falls in Sussex County tops out at 80-90 feet and cascades spectacularly down the red shale face of the Kittatinny Ridge. It is the only waterfall in New Jersey, apart from Paterson's Great Falls, with a developed viewing area created by the National Park Service. There is an interpretive display and a wooden walkway to the top.

Buttermilk Falls is in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, alongside a gravel road south of Walpack Center. The Park Service does not advertise Buttermilk Falls, keeping the location a pleasant surprise.

Coppermines Trail has several pretty cascades. Norvin Green State Park has Chikahoki Falls and the Apshawa Preserve has some nice cascades on Apshawa Brook.

Hacklebarney State Park has multiple cascades along the Black River in an easily accessible park.

The Pocono Environmental Center has a nice shady hike through a hemlock forest with several waterfalls.

Hemlock Falls

 

As a young boy, South Mountain Reservation in Essex County was my local forest, and I made many trips to there. The landscape and trails are moderate and somewhat rocky, and you're never that far from roads and development. It is a bit harder to escape the traffic noise than some of those northwestern NJ trails. It's suburban.

At the eastern edge is the view from Washington Rock, where a signal beacon warned the General and his Army at Morristown that the British Army was approaching. My favorite destination was probably Hemlock Falls and walking along the Rahway River (white trail markers). You could also walk part of the 40-mile Lenape Trail (Yellow trail markers) that uses some of South Mountain.  There is a nice hike of about 6 miles that will include Hemlock Falls.

If waterfalls are something you'd like to explore, your best bet in books for our area is Waterfalls of the Mid-Atlantic States: 200 Falls in Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennysylvania.