I only have a few photos from this hike in Norvin Green State Forest, as I have been to this park a number of times.
We got off to a late start, and upon arriving at Norvin Green parked on West Brook Road. We had thought of investigating the northern part of the park, where one of my hiking partners had been injured a year earlier.
We descended from the road to West Brook, losing the trail blazes along the way, though the fallen trees spanning the brook looked familiar. We carefully crossed, not wanting to fall into the water:
West Brook
Unfortunately, having crossed to the far side, we couldn’t find the blazes. This was entirely my fault, as I should have made sure to reacquire the blazes before crossing the brook. We gave up and crossed back to the side of the brook closest to the road. We then did find the blazes and followed them to a different crossing point. However, we didn’t feel like repeating the crossing, and given our late start it seemed unlikely at this point that we would be able to complete the hike. I am now beginning to wonder whether I will ever complete the hike of the northern section of Norvin Green.
We returned to the car and drove to the southern part of Norvin Green, parking near the Otter Hole, where we had lunch. We then hiked up the teal-blazed Highland Trail. Here, Batya makes another water crossing, though this was much easier than our earlier round-trip over West Brook.
Water crossing
We spotted a shy toad:
Toad
We encountered a number of scenic views:
Scenic view
This view looking to the east shows the Wanaque Reservoir, adjacent to the forest:
Wanaque Reservoir
Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia):
Mountain laurel
Another scenic view:
Scenic view
We probably only hiked about 4.5 or 5 miles this day. I was not very satisfied with the hike, as I’m accustomed to longer hikes. Also, the drive back to New York City was painful. Traffic made it hard for me to get back to Queens when I lived there, but it takes even longer for Batya and me to drive back to Brooklyn.