The Highlands Trail- Part 2
By Ann Luttkenhouse and Wilma Frey
The Highlands Trail is one of only 50 trails nationwide to be designated as a Millennium Legacy Trail.
Deer Park Pond in Allamuchy State Park.
Photo: Wilma Frey
Four new sections of the Highlands Trail are open to the public, scattered in Sussex, Warren, Morris and Hunterdon counties. In the vicinity of Allamuchy State Park and Route 206, an approximate 4.5 mile section of the Highlands Trail awaits. This is a section of rugged terrain - recalling the Trail's route closer to the New York-New Jersey stateline section - climbing over Allamuchy Mountain, with much rock scrambling required. Views are wooded of the Musconetcong River, the farms and towns of the river valley, and of Waterloo Village. After passing under Interstate Route 80, the Trail follows the Morris Canal Trail, part of the former towpath for the mules which pulled canal boats along the Morris Canal. One of the canal locks is nearby. This new Highlands Trail section currently ends at Saxton Falls in [Stephens] State Park.
Heading Trail-south, another new segment, about 3 miles in length, of the Highlands Trail begins in Stephens State Park near the Musconetcong River and Waterloo Valley Road. The Trail follows the Musconetcong River, then climbs over a steep forested ridge into the Hackettstown M.U.A. Into a gorge and then across a stream, this Trail section ends at U.S. Route 46.
Columbia Trail above Ken Lockwood Gorge.
Photo: Wilma Frey
After a brief (temporary) gap , another new approximately 6-mile-length of the Highlands Trail picks up on the Columbia Rail-Trail in Morris County and continues on that abandoned railroad bed into Hunterdon County. Here the Highlands Trail is in a flat valley, amongst farmlands. With an even and gentle graded surface, this is an easy section of Trail, well-suited for families with young children and those with some kind of limitations on physical exertion. Leaving the Rail Trail, the Highlands Trail enters the Ken Lockwood Gorge Wildlife Management Area - a scenic jewel. Water and woods combine here to create a natural get-away-from-it-all environment.
Finally, between 4 and 5 miles of the last new section of the Highlands Trail begins in Voorhees State Park, where the Trail traverses hills and forests as it snakes though that park. A country road takes the walker past a narrow bridge over railroad tracks. Hunterdon County-owned Union Furnace Nature Preserve is next, with its remnants of the mill industry. Here the Highlands Trail uses part of the former mill race (the sluice which diverted water from the stream to power a mill). Next entering Spruce Run Recreation Area, the Highlands Trail is a mostly level pathway, an ideal kind of nature trail, and, again, a well suited locale for a family outing. The footpath emerges to the reservoir's shoreline in several places for an expansive watershed view. The newly-opened Trail section currently ends near the Group Picnic Area in Spruce Run Recreation Area.
Sections of all of the new lengths of Highlands Trail are well suited for a half-day or day's outing for families, seniors and those just wishing to take it easy, stop and 'smell the flowers' and linger in the out-of-doors. In this respect, the Highlands Trail is a community resource, offering close-to-home recreation opportunities to many more communities. Once the Highlands Trail is fully completed, and these new sections are interconnected, then the Highlands Trail will offer additional possibilities for long-distance hiking from nearby communities.
An estimated 30 miles of the Highlands Trail remains to be built in Warren and Hunterdon counties. The Warren County Planning Board has committed to securing a route for the Highlands Trail through that county, and is acquiring lands for the trail's permanent protection. The Warren County section of the Highlands Millennium Trail will feature varied topography, including ridgetop routes and passing by former iron mines. The 'anchor point' of the Trail on the Delaware River is already owned by Warren County, on land that includes the former pumping station that took water from the Delaware River up to the ridgetop reservoir which held Phillipsburg's municipal water supply. A historic piece of machinery, an early-20th century Allis-Chalmers engine which powered the pumping station's turbines, is housed nearby for future public display.
The Highlands Trail is a cooperative partnership in the finest sense between public land agencies, municipal governments, private volunteer groups and private landowners. Conceived in 1992 as an estimated 150-mile, long distance hiking trail connecting the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, the Highlands Trail traverses the Highlands Physiographic (geologic) province - putting on display the scenic and historic treasures of this water- and iron-ore-rich region. Currently about 115 miles of the Trail have been completed and opened to the public.
The Highlands Trail, an ongoing project in association with the National Park Service and the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, is well on its way to its destination, a rendezvous with the shores of the Delaware River. The NY-NJ Trail Conference is responsible for developing the on-the-ground route of the Trail, and also cooperatively maintaining it through a partnership among volunteer trail clubs, community groups, private landowners and public agencies.
For additional information about the Highlands region, visit the Highlands Coalition website or call (908) 234-1225.