Red Dot and Twin Bridges trails – Wawayanda State Park
Karen and I are members of the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference (NYNJTC) and volunteer trail maintainers for the Red Dot and Twin Bridges trails in Wawayanda State Park in New Jersey. The trails make a nice loop hike from the Wawayanda group campsite near the iron furnace and Wawayanda Lake wingdam through forest, rhododendron, cedar swamps, and old farms following a combination of trails and old iron ore roads. The forest in the area was extensively harvested to make charcoal to fire the iron furnace in the mid-1800s.
Wawayanda is the phonetical spelling of the Lenape name, said to mean “water on the mountain”. Wawayanda Lake was once known as Double Pond, but the building of the dam raised the water and combined the two bodies of water into the current lake. In the mid-1800s the dam was built to power bellows for the blast furnace, which was completed by Oliver Ames and his sons in 1846. Water power was also used for various workshops just north of the blast furnace. Using ore from two local mines and charcoal produced on site, they made wheels for railroad cars. During the Civil War, they filled orders for shovels and swords.
A map of the trails we maintain is shown below along with connecting trails.
Parking is sometimes available at the end of the campsite road but always available in the boating parking lot near the beach. There is also access to the trails starting from the southern end by parking at the end of Cherry Ridge Road off of Clinton Road in Hewitt.
Den Brook Trail – Denville
The Den Brook Trail is a 1-mile long trail near our house in Denville and is a nice flat gravel walk along the Den Brook in southern Denville. It is just south of Rt. 10, running between Openaki Lake and Den Brook Park on Mount Pleasant Turnpike. At the southern end is a dam and one-lane bridge near the site of an old gristmill. A couple of small former dam remnants can be seen along the brook. There are side trails that lead off to local neighborhoods offering additional access to the trail.