Ramapo Valley County Reservation — Attraction in Mahwah

It's a popular place for hiking and fishing so on busy days parking is difficult, but most of the time is not an issue. Note to make sure to use tick spray both on yourself and the pets. It has a nice walking path around the lake and a waterfall trail, which is great a few days after the rain. I spotted a bear in the back of the lake (on the right side in the bushy area) when walking around the lake during the evening, so this is something to be aware of. It has an upper reservoir where people often take their dogs to splash in the water, but be aware that there are no safety rails where the water overflows, close to where dogs and kids splash in the water and that always scares me. Additionally, this may look like a relatively small park, but you can easily get lost and in some areas if you go down the hill by taking left instead of right due to phone GPS not recognizing direction, it's going to be extremely difficult to go back up that hill. So make sure to lookup trails first prior to going in deep, and it's best to bring a map for safety. The best part of most of the areas I've been to has...

Nice wide path around the bottom lake and a preserved meadow area. Visitors can extend their walk and go up to the second level leading to another large lake. 🐕‍🦺🐾This is an ideal place for dogs to have fun retrieving Toys/Sticks from the water. The top lake is about 1/2- 3/4 of a mile in length. It's extremely Rocky around the lake trail and not very enjoyable to hike.✔️ However there is one OK path that climbs upward from where the lake first appears and it's on the Left Side of the lake. ⬅️ It's primarily a dirt path. 🔭🥾⚠️However I recently wanted to climb it and discovered it's been degraded by the worst Rain erosion ever seen in 12 years. I Need to Notify the Park Rangers about this.!! Packed dirt is needed here and at portions of the...

Great place to avoid the 90+ weather. The trails weren't difficult. People we ran into along the trails were friendly, nice, and courteous. There's even trout fishing as you enter the trails; and, the campground is right there so one can have fresh fish. The reserve is also dog friendly so bring your DBF. We came at a bad time when it must not have rained in awhile because the fall was coming down in trickles and the dam on top wasn't full. Because it wasn't full all the way, we could walk across the rim which was a plus; felt like Harrison Ford in the Fugitive running...