Hell Mountain Preserve



Hell Mountain Preserve (10/22/2017)

This is the second of two preserves we visited today in Central New Jersey, both accessible from the same parking lot!

Using the map in the second photo of the first row below, which I photographed at the kiosk, we headed a bit east to find the trailhead into the forest on the left and then proceeded to hike the perimiter trails in the preserve (none of the several trails that connect the western and eastern legs. This is a strange area in that there are no blazes on the trees, just numbers posted on pieces of wood high above the ground (at least 8-9 feet). And the peculiar thing is that they all face south, so you can only see the numbers when you are climbing the hill. Once you get to the top (around number 29), and head back down, you won't see any numbers unless you keep turning around. The western leg is nicely graded, so numbers are hardly even needed on that leg. But on the eastern leg (which we did on the way down), the trail is not clear at all, so finding the numbers was not easy, but we did manage to make it back. For those who want to do this, you can view and download our GPS track here

Total distance hiked was about 2 miles in 80 minutes.

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