Iron Mountain Road, Wawayanda



Iron Mountain Road, Wawayanda State Park (3/2/2013)

Today we returned to Wawayanda, a park we visited last year not long after Hurricane Sandy decimated a good part of New Jersey. Today we hiked a loop which incorporated the southern part of the Iron Mountain trail, a woods road apparently dating back to Colonial times. A good part of the park is still covered in snow, though with intermittent patches of dry earth. At one point we had to put on our Kahtoolas but then took them off less than 10 minutes later only to contemplate putting them on again 10 minutes after that! It also happened to be snowing gently during the entire hike.

We started at the southern terminus of blue-blazed Iron Mountain Road, in the parking lot for the boat launch. We took this woods road all the way north to the AT which, according to the park website, is still closed due to Sandy damage. Perhaps it is, but the setion we used today, just north of Kazmar Pond was open. We were on it only for a short stretch before taking a woods road east to Old Wawayanda Road which we took south passing a picturesque swamp on the left. We took this woods road all the way to the park road, which we walked along back to Iron Mountain Road and back to the car. The park was quiet today, with only one car passing us along the park road.

Total distance hiked today was 4.2 miles in just under 2.5 hours.

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Boat launch lot

Trail parallels lot road at start

It was snowing

Crossing park road


Kiosk on park road

Heading north through gate

Bears!

Path was slick in parts

 

Abandoned nest

Creek


[Photo by Laura]
 



Plastic pipes under path


Small climb on Iron Mt Road
 


Interesting rock

Winter still life

Continuing north

Weird!
 



Swamp west

Dedraggled nest

Birch thicket
 



Bridge from ...

... the 1890s ...

... over ...
 


... Wawayanda Creek


[Photo by Laura]

How many tons?
 



AT wand

Run-off from ...

... Kazmar Pond
 


Sunny, icy Kazmar Pond

AT blazes

Boardwalk through wet area

 


Heading east on AT

Climbing from pond

Woods road heading east

View west
 


[Photo by Laura]

On Old Wawayanda Road

Marsh east

Cat tails
 


Heading south

Phragmites


Like a Rotho painting
 


Zoom towards park office

Beaver lodge

Zoom to lodge

 


Frozen swamp

More cat tails


Run-off from ...
 


Kazmar Pond ...

... frozen at ...

... southeastern tip

Blaze on poison ivy
 



Marsh from park road

Bird hotel

Kiosk on park road
 

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