Pyramid Mountain Natual Historic Area Offers Something for Everyone By GREGORY J. RUMMO

It’s a hot and steamy Saturday morning in early September. Everything is drenched in moisture including the football-sized rocks scattered along the forest floor on the trail. They are covered with a light film of damp moss, making for a very slippery footing in some places.

The double light blue blaze on the tree trunk in front of me warns that the trail turns to the right. But it says nothing about the steepness of the grade that lies ahead. For the next quarter-mile, it is as if I am on a stair master. Gravity has become my enemy as the damp earth reaches up to meet my every step, trying to hold me back, sapping the energy from my quadriceps muscles. The trail levels out for a brief respite, then turns sharply upward again.

By the time I reach the mist-shrouded summit, perspiration is already bleeding through my T-shirt despite having hiked a mere half-mile. The scenery is almost surreal here, and reminiscent of a week I spent in the Venezuelan Rain Forest in 1998.

As I stop for a sip from one of the four bottles of spring water in my backpack, there is a wild, cacophonous crashing through the woods behind me. My presence here has spooked a pair of Whitetail deer from behind a protective outcropping of rocks. Their flight of panic snaps me back to the reality of time and place-hiking along the blue trail on the summit of Pyramid Mountain.

The Pyramid Mountain Natural Historical Area, located on Boonton Avenue (Rt. 511) on the border of Kinnelon and Montville Township in Morris County offers more than 1000 acres of trails that run through fields, forests and wetlands. The blue trail is just one of five different trails that crisscross each other through the boulder-strewn Highlands.

"The Sand Pits" lies just outside of the Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic Area but still along the blue trail. Here, beaver can be found making their dams along the small brook that feeds this lake.

It is a wonderful confluence of flora and fauna; providing a home to approximately fifty differently species of trees, over four hundred species of plants and wildflowers and almost one hundred different species of birds; many of which nest in the area during the spring. Over two-dozen mammals can be found here-yes even a bear now and then although I have yet to see one myself-and there are beaver dams further along the blue trail in an area known as “the sandpits.” There’s also plenty of amphibians and a few snakes. I remember once finding a large, black rat snake sunning itself on a rock on a cool autumn day. I learned that rat snakes do not back down when prodded with a stick. (Fortunately it was a long stick.)

I usually hike the blue trail all the way back to my home in Butler-a walk of almost seven miles that takes me out of the boundaries of the Pyramid Mountain preserve. But there are numerous other circuits through the woods that are somewhat less demanding, ranging in length from 2.3 to 4.8 miles and rated from “easy” to “strenuous.”

One of the more aerobic hikes is along the blue trail to the top of Pyramid Mountain. We’re not talking the Peruvian Andes here, as it’s less than 950 feet in elevation at the summit. But the trail is steep and if you’re not in shape, you’ll feel it in your legs and your lungs by the time you reach the top. On a clear day, you can see the New York City skyline from a rocky overlook while you catch your breath.

Continuing along the blue trail, for about another mile or so, you’ll come upon a unique glacier erratic called Tripod Rock or Three Pillar Rock. It is a huge boulder, the size of a garage. It sits precariously perched on three smaller rocks that are arranged in a triangle underneath. It is believed to have been created when the Wisconsin glacier receded off the continental United States somewhere between 15,000-18,000 years ago.

Continuing along the blue trail, for another mile or so, you’ll come upon a unique glacier erratic called Tripod Rock, a huge boulder, the size of a garage, resting precariously on three smaller rocks arranged in a triangle underneath.

While Tripod Rock is certainly unique, it is not the largest glacial erratic in the park. You can hike on ahead to Whale Head Rock, or backtrack a few yards, and follow the blue trail down the steep, rocky, west side of the mountain past stands of Mountain Laurel. The trail levels out finally, spilling into Bear Swamp, a wetlands formed by Bear House Brook. From here, it’s just a short walk to Bear Rock, a boulder that is easily three times the size of Tripod Rock although this massive slab rests solidly on the forest floor.

You can hike back to the visitor's center, or continue on out of the park along the blue trail down to a beautiful lake at an area called The Sandpits. There are beaver here and they have made a dam along a small brook which empties into the lake. The terrain is markedly different here; the deep shade of hardwood forests transformed into a bright and sunny wildflower meadow for about a half mile along the trail. But it's not long before you find yourself back into the woods and at the upper end of Butler's reservoir.

The history of the area includes the Lenape Indians who used the wilderness area primarily for hunting and fishing. There are also surveyors’ stones and remnants of stonewalls which marked farms and woodlots during another, less complicated era of New Jersey's history.

There is something for everyone at Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic Area, including families with children and it makes for a great day trip, especially with the upcoming color transition of the fall foliage.

The park is open every day for hiking but the visitor’s center is only open Saturday to Monday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There are guided hikes every Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. For more information, you can call the visitor’s center during its hours of operation at (973) 334-3130. n

This column appeared in the Sunday October 8, 2000 Suburban Trends with the headline, "All Trails Lead To Kinnelon."