Passaic River — Local services in Livingston

On Memorial Day I canoed the section between Wagaraw Field in Hawthorne and Riverview County Park in Lyndhurst. I was surprised by the amount of wildlife I saw during my trip. Great blue herons, a flock of cormorants, egrets, turtles, huge bass. I had to portage around the Dundee Dam. The rapids at the bottom were fun to paddle through. Otherwise, the Passaic is pretty flat. It wasn't as pristine as the Raquette River up in the Adirondacks but it is certainly a little piece of heaven right here in New Jersey. It's a shame that it has been so mistreated and forgotten over the years. Places you could put in/take out: Wagaraw Field in Hawthorne, Memorial Park in Fair Lawn, Elmwood Park Boat Ramp (right by the high school), Pulaski Park in Passaic, Lester St. in Wallington, Nereid Boat Club (private) or Riverview Park...

One of the longest rivers in Northern New Jersey, it's about 80 miles long (130 km) and it flows and meanders through 7 different counties (Hudson, Essex, Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Union and Somerset) all throughout Northeastern NJ. While the lower (southern) portion of the river still suffers from severe pollution from its flow through urbanized and industrialized areas of the state, it is still a majestic river, albeit not a very clean one. I wouldn't recommend swimming or boating in this river (though some towns do a better job of sanitizing the water to keep it clean). However, it is still a major part of nature and NJ ecosystems, so it deserves mention...

The river meandering through the Great Swamp and its adjacent area in northwestern New Jersey flows to the Atlantic Ocean through the most industrialized areas of the state where it became a highly polluted river.Yet the river is greatly beneficial to NJ people because it drains much portion of the state through its tributaries. I uploaded the photos of the upper portion...