Norvin Green State Forest — Attraction in Bloomingdale

Norvin Green is one of my absolute favorite places in NJ to hike. It has a tremendous variety of trails with different terrain, difficulty level and unique environments; if the mood strikes you, it's possible to hike up and down a few mountains with gorgeous 360-degree views, or something much easier that involves exploring some of the mines on the eastern side of the forest, closer to the reservoir. There's something for virtually any type of hiker, and because so much of the area is rugged, you're not likely to find too many ignorant young hiking pups wandering aimlessly without water or a map.

I usually get out here at least a few times every year, and most recently stopped by with one of my chums two Saturdays ago for an 8.1-mile hike. If you're approaching Norvin Green from 287, I would strongly recommend stopping by the Quick Chek on 511 - the bathroom options are pretty much non-existent in the forest (apart from strategically placed foliage), the employees there are always very pleasant and you have a lot of hiking snack options if you haven't had time to preplan that aspect of the adventure.

We did a circuitous route beginning at the Weis parking lot up the green trail, past the natural pool to the kiosk, then up blue to Wyanokie High Point, back down and continuing on the blue trail to Carris Hill, then taking the yellow trail from there down into the wetlands, turning west onto the blue trail, past Chik Falls and over to Otter Hole. At that point, you can either take the green Otter Hole trail back to the kiosk (I think that's about 6 miles), or turn west again in .2 miles onto yellow and up Buck Mountain, meandering along the ridge until you hit the woods road (subjective term) and can follow it back to the green trail/kiosk. Deciding to incorporate Buck Mountain adds about two miles to the trip, so if your haunches aren't up to it, just keep going north on green. You'll still get a workout in, regardless.

The climb up to Wyanokie is fairly strenuous. I'm in very good hiking shape and can do it without any breaks if needed, but you're definitely earning the views once you ascend past the main tree line. The view on top has to be one of the top two or three in the state; on a clear day, you can see the NYC skyline (that's true as well for the top of Buck Mountain and several points along the yellow trail before it descends), as well as the mountainous regions to the north and west. It's gorgeous, and the only damper on this particular day was the obvious effects of the seasonal drought - tons of brown foliage and several of the water features were dried up or close to it. Especially down in the wetlands, you're usually hopping over a small stream or two. Not on this day, and Chik Falls was a barely discernable trickle.

The Buck Mountain climb is one of the toughest in the area - if you can do it without taking a breather, god bless. It's something like an 800-foot ascent in .1 miles; it doesn't require actual rock scrambling or climbing, but it's probably in the tier right below that. But as with Wyanokie, you're getting amazing views for the sweat expended on the incline, and because it's a nastier section of the forest, there isn't nearly as much foot traffic. It's not unusual to get some solid wildlife sightings up on the ridge.

This particular hike certainly had its share of wildlife. We saw either a garter or ribbon snake with Pittsburgh Steelers coloring, a skink, AKA the corgi of lizards, oodles of small frogs (presumably panicking over the lack of water), and met two canine chums, Nala and Argo. A very solid crop, and not out of the ordinary for this area.

I couldn't recommend this place more highly. Nearby Wanaque doesn't have a lot of great eating options, so given that you've more than earned your calories from tromping around in the woods, I'd venture a little further south to sup on...

FIrst hike during the pandemic!

My fiance and I have been avoiding any hiking spots during the weekend because we want to avoid the crowds. So we decided to take a Monday off (had to be during the heatwave, of course) to go check out this park.

We got there a little bit after 9. There's a small parking area (fits maybe 6-7 cars) which was almost full already. Although I'm sure there are different trail entrances and areas to park. As we were entering the trail, we saw one lady leaving but other than that, we didn't see a single soul on the trail the entire time. A little eerie but it was nice to have the entire trail to ourselves. I think it was probably because it was a Monday couples with the fact that it would also be 95 degrees (real feel 100 something) later in the afternoon. But we went early enough so it wasn't crazy hot yet, and 90% of the hike was in the shade. We did the blue diamond trail leading into the yellow trail, which I believe is 2.6 miles. The hike itself is definitely a little harder than a beginner trail. There are some rocky areas you have to climb.

Once you get to the top, that's where it's blazing. There is no shade at all up there so don't expect any. But it's pretty up there! I can't say how it would be on a weekend but I'd recommend just taking a day to go during the week. It's not like we're saving those vacation days for anything else this...

Overall, it was a decent hike on a holiday weekend (Veterans day weekend and Diwali). The weather was great, partly cloudy and 55 degrees outside which was manageable . The scramble was tricky due to a lot of leaves covering the rocks which made it a little dangerous so bring walking sticks and good hiking boots. The view at High point was my favorite. Beautiful views of New York City skyline. My least favorite of coming to this hike was not much parking options. Both parking lots full and about 6-7 spaces in each lot. However, since I traveled a hour and a half to commute from south east New Jersey I was excited to view such an amazing forest. I parked on the shoulder along with other cars ( no visible do not park signs or No Parking signs on the side of the road but still received a ticket) about 25 cars all had tickets on there cars when leaving and parking lot still full after a my 3 hour hike. I wish I saw the Waterfall trail but It was a difficult hike especially being two months pregnant. I might come back another time...