Garret Mountain Reservation

Garret Mountain Reservation (10/25/2014)

The last time we visited this reservation was nearly 9 years ago. At that time we were following a relatively short hike (under 3 miles) which used the eastern part of Yellow and all of the White trail. Back in 2005 there was no map of this area. Today there is! Following this excellent map from 2009, we decided to explore the trails we haven't yet hiked.

We parked in the lot just north of the Benson Memorial we took in the views overlooking Paterson before heading south on Yellow, passing the Observation Tower and continuing all the way to Benson Drive where we headed north on the unblazed gravel path just west of the road. We took this north to the other side of the Observation Tower and then headed west through the area labeled "Stone Steps" picking up White and taking that north to the basketball court where we then headed south on another unblazed path, eventually reaching the eastern bank of Barbour's Pond. Near the southern tip we headed SE on another unblazed path to Yellow, which we took south, then west, then north passing the Abandoned Picnic Grove on the map. We continued on Yellow all the way back to the car.

Total distance hiked was 4.8 miles in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

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