Today we drove to Sourland Mountain Preserve, a 3025 acre county park, where we enjoyed a late Fall day with temperatures in the upper 60s! It was nice to hike with a short sleeved shirt this time of year. The name “Sourlands” is derived from the fact that early settlers found the rocky soils difficult to farm.
The park has a single point of access, with a spacious gravel parking lot. It is a very popular park, though, and with cars spaced generously from each other, it was tricky finding a spot. Don’t come to this county park expecting to find solitude. There is no entrance fee, and other than a porta-potty, no facilities. The park seems to just exist for hiking, biking, and bouldering.
There are a few trails, but we chose the longest trail, the 5-mile Ridge Trail, and we deviated from it at one point to take the red-blazed 2.1 mile Roaring Brook Trail, so our hike may have been 5.5 or 6 miles.
This photo was taken just past the trailhead:
Trail
We progressed counterclockwise on the trail, gaining about 350′ in elevation and soon reaching the eastern-most part of the park, featuring Devil’s Half Acre, a boulder field. Here I scrambled to the top of one of the boulders:
Charlie climbs a boulder
The park has both sedimentary and igneous rocks. Here are more boulders:
Boulders
I was impressed that this tree grew sideways out of a crack in a boulder, then made a 90 degree angle toward the sky:
Tree growing from a rock
We also saw a number of trees that grew as twins, triplets, and in one place a stand of four trees that grew together. Here, three trees grew together on the left:
Triplet trees
There were also a number of fallen trees in the park, perhaps from the storms that the region has experienced over the past several years:
Fallen tree
Here, the top broke off a standing dead tree:
Broken snag
The west part of the park has another boulder field. This is called Roaring Rocks Boulders. Batya noted that the name was curious, as rocks don’t generally make roaring sounds. However, these boulders are adjacent to Roaring Brook, which perhaps roars at time:
Boulders
More boulders:
Boulder field
Roaring Brook was practically dry, and was very silent on this day. A sign across the brook identified the opposing land as belonging to 3M, and asked people not to cross into their property.
Roaring Brook
Another tree grew from a boulder:
Tree growing from a rock
An old wall, possibly built as a dam:
Old wall
The maximum elevation in the park is around 500′, so the hiking is not very strenuous. There are no scenic views, either, but it is always nice to get out into the woods. Obviously, the park will look very different in the middle of the summer, when there are leaves on the trees, but it was also nice to visit on such a warm day in mid-December.