Highlands Trail Guide Introduction

Updated 7/1/23.

The Highlands Trail Guide is your resource for planning hikes on the Highlands Trail. Several maps are linked below, followed by detailed descriptions of individual trail segments. Hike reports, questions, comments, complaints, and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated; please contact the volunteer Highlands Trail Chair at [email protected]

Please READ THE ALERTS for each section you are hiking. They inform you of reroutes which might not show on your map or of closed sections. One alert lets you know that HT hikers are permitted to open a fence gate for entry to the trail. Plan ahead before you get out somewhere with no cell phone signal and need the info.

What's with all of those road walks?

The good news is that the better portion of the Highlands Trail road walks in NY & NJ can be eliminated with woods trails on public land. The bad news is that the current HT Chair (me) and the current HT Supervisors are all maxed out. The Hunterdon County sections alone take up most of our summer to maintain them just to keep them open and hike-able - and we sometimes fail at even that goal. So, we just don't have time to eliminate road walks - even the ones where a future woods trail has already been scouted. That's where YOU come in if you are interested. I would of course get you up to speed on what land is available and how to go about it.

The plans between Goose Pond Mountain State Park and Sterling Forest are not final. Of course, anything would be better than the current road walk. Recently, a proposal has come up to swing the trail over to Sugar Loaf Mountain. That would be a great place for the trail to go. But how to do it without extensive road walks is the problem.

The plans between Black Rock Forest and Schunemunk Moutain are more straight-forward. The trail will go south through Legacy Ridge. The land is available, and the park is willing to work with us once we scout out a route, walk them through the proposed route, and get it approved. But the time to scout and flag out a viable route and organize work crews is lacking. From the scouting I have done, the HT through Legacy Ridge would not just be a viable HT connection, but a destination trail of its own.

https://www.openspaceinstitute.org/news/702-acres-on-legacy-ridge-saved-...

So, if you are interested in taking ownership of a road walk elimination project and improving the trail, please contact me.

Thanks

Glenn Oleksak

Highlands Trail Chair

[email protected]

A set of 10 individual section maps for the Highlands Trail through New Jersey has been created with support from the New Jersey Highlands Council.

A digital Avenza Maps app map of the New Jersey section is also now available, so click here to learn more about this free app map.

This Highlands Trail Map below is interactive and zoomable and was last updated in December 2021. Tap the 'Explore' button at the bottom to view the map or click here to view a full-screen version for your desktop or mobile device. Please be sure to also refer to the individual detailed descriptions to ensure you have the latest updates.

Click the 'Explore' button to view the interactive map, or click here to view a full-screen version of this map.

Highlands Trail Guide