Greater Mountain Lakes

Greater Mountain Lakes, Princeton, NJ (12/23/2012)

I had never heard of this area until my friend Shawnee, and her human companion Daniela, hiked this enchanting and quite varied area last week. But unlike Shawnee & Daniela who ventured onto the trails of Princeton Day School and Woodfield Reservation across Great Road, we focused on the area bounded by Mountain Avenue, Cherry Hill Road, Stuart Road and Great Road.

Parking in the large parking lot on Mountain Avenue, and using this map we covered nearly 5 miles in a hike too complicated to describe here. Suffice it to say, this map is very accurate and with the very good blazing and excellent signs at so many trail intersections, it's very difficult to get lost. So instead of trying to follow the hike we did, venture forth where you can easily cover Community Park North, John Witherspoon Woods, Mountain Lakes North and Mountain Lakes. We even added a walk along the impressive boardwalk south of Coventry Farm.

One thing you will notice is that Hurricane Sandy obliterated sections of this park, and yet the park is open! For instance, the area just north of the parking lot, in Community Park North seems to have more fallen pines than pines standing. It literally feels like a war zone. The same is true for the area northeast of Mountain Lakes House, another war zone. It's a miracle that any trail in this park is open, and yet all of them are.

Total distance covered was nearly 5 miles in just over 2.5 hours.

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