It's been eight years since we hiked here and a quick perusal of this map made me wonder if the trail south of Lord Stirling Road was new. I didn't rememeber ever seeing it on any map before. So, we decided to head back today to check it out for a relatively short nature walk.

Following the map just cited above, we parked in the large parking lot at the the Environmental Education Center (which was closed), and crossed the street, heading south on the initially very wet orange trail. Within minutes we thought we couldn't go any further because of flooding from the Passaic River, but found another way to continue on the trail just west of the flooding. We completed the orange lollipop, with spectacular views of the Passaic River. We returned to the road on the white trail. We next winded west on the boardwalk behind the EEC, following the left-hand rule before finally arriving at the West Observation Tower. We continued east on the blue trail, taking the connecting trail north to the red trail, which we then took east, skirting the northern and eastern banks of Branta Pond, before finally reaching the parking lot.