Explore the best rated trails in Fair Lawn, NJ. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the D & H Canal Linear Park and Norwalk River Valley Trail. With more than 104 trails covering 721 miles you’re bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
_207457_sc.jpg)
The idea of a greenway along the Elizabeth River was actually put forward in 1912 by the famous Olmsted Architectural Firm. However, continous flooding made building a trail on the riverbank all but...
The Cross Island Parkway Trail closely follows its namesake thoroughfare through northeastern Queens. From its northern end, you will soon enter Little Bay Park, which offers lovely views of the...
The Saddle River County Park Bike Path is a beautiful suburban trail that winds alongside the Saddle River. Most of the trail runs through moderately dense suburban development, with residential and...
In the early 1830s the Morris Canal opened across northern New Jersey, from Phillipsburg on the Delaware River to Newark, and later to Jersey City on the Hudson River. It provided a thoroughfare for...
_319_sc.jpg)
A short rail trail with two covered bridges occupying a portion of the former Mount Hope Mineral Railroad right-of-way in Wharton, NJ. In the future this trail will be linked with the Rockaway...
The Perth Amboy Harbor Walk offers scenic views of the Raritan Bay and Raritan River as it hugs the shoreline of the City of Perth Amboy, founded in 1683 and home to one of the nation's oldest ports....
The D & H Canal towpath is nestled within the 300-acre D & H Canal Park in the New York hamlet of Cuddebackville. The crushed-stone trail, stretching just over a half mile, is one section of a larger...
The Walden-Wallkill Rail Trail is built on a former Conrail right-of-way. Conrail and its predecessors, Penn Central, New York Central, and The Wallkill Valley Railway, provided service to farmers...
The Ramsey Bike Path is a recreational path built on the former Paterson to Suffern trolley line right-of-way. The path extends along a north-south route from one end of Ramsey to the other....
The Battery Bikeway is a only a half a mile long but it is an important link in the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway system, connecting the East River Greenway with the Hudson River Greenway to form a...
The 2.8-mile eastern phase of the Bedminster Hike and Bikeway allows pedestrians and cyclists to safely traverse part of Bedminster Township by crossing over I-287 and US 206/202 via a series of three...
At 2.6 miles, the Staten Island Greenbelt Multi-Purpose Trail offers a nice jaunt for joggers, walkers, and cyclists alike. The crushed-stone path is 6-feet wide and runs from Rockland Avenue to...
Note: As of December 2021, the trail is fully complete except for a bridge on its southern end in Brewster; stairways on either side of the bridge are available for the detour. Construction on the...
While not a "rail-trail," the Hook Mountain/Nyack Beach Bikeway is a very scenic trail along the Hudson River in Rockland County. The southern half of this trail is flat and runs right along the...
Randall's Island Park Trails offer a series of interconnected paved loops on an island in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park offers a quiet setting, especially enjoyed by runners, with...
The William R. Steinhaus Dutchess Rail Trail—named for the Dutchess County executive who championed it—is a treasure in New York's Hudson Valley region. The 13.1-mile trail runs through what seems...
It’s hard to believe that a noisy locomotive once ran through here, given that stillness is a defining characteristic of the Middlesex Greenway. Even when people pour onto the trail from the adjacent...
Like Wantagh State Parkway, Ocean Parkway was built in the postwar 1930s to provide access to the crown jewel of the state park system, Jones Beach State Park. Unlike the former road, however, this...
_205519_sc.jpg)
Built on the former Erie Railroad main line, the 15-mile Heritage Trail runs through the small Orange County towns of Goshen, Chester, Monroe, and Harriman. The shaded trail runs through different...
The Bronx River travels from the mouth of the East River north to the Kensico Dam, providing views of the natural history of the area. Because the trail is under development, there are several gaps...
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk follows Staten Island's eastern shore from Miller Field -- a recreational area for sports, picnicking and bird watching -- to Fort Wadsworth. Highlights of the...
Note: As of December 2021, the trail is fully complete except for a bridge on its southern end in Brewster; stairways on either side of the bridge are available for the detour. Construction on the...
The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway is a 1.5 mile walkway along the bank of the Hudson River in Jersey City. The walkway offers stunning views of Manhattan as well as access to a number of ferries and...
Randall's Island Park Trails offer a series of interconnected paved loops on an island in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park offers a quiet setting, especially enjoyed by runners, with...
The Harlem River Greenway runs north-south along the Harlem River on the East Side of Upper Manhattan. The northern terminus is Dyckman Street and Harlem River Drive. Going west on Dyckman allows...
Brooklyn's Flatbush Avenue Greenway parallels its namesake roadway for just over a mile from Marine Parkway Bridge to a connection with the Shore Parkway Greenway Trail. The two trails are part of the...
This is a section of the New York, Ontario and Western (O&W) Railway line that ran across New York State from Port Jervis to Lake Ontario. The trail consists of two discrete sections: State Route 209...
The Fort Washington Park Greenway brings residents and visitors to Washington Heights right up to the edge of the Hudson. The mile-long trail begins near the pier at the end of Dyckman Street and...
The Randolph Trail system covers 16 miles of pathways through five parks, the Clyde Potts Reservoir watershed and 2,000 acres of pristine open space. The trails link schools and neighborhoods and also...
_204244_sc.jpg)
The Patriots' Path covers roughly 35 miles of terrain and is open to mountain biking, horseback riding, cross-country skiing and hiking. The multi-use trails links parks, open space, recreational...
DESCRIPTION: The Created by Union Forge Heritage Association in 2007,Taylor SteelWorkers Historical Greenway is a 7 mile trail that winds its way through High Bridge criss-crossing a number of...
The Great Valley Trail, built on the former Lehigh & New England Railroad, offers an unpaved, natural experience through quiet woodlands between the townships of Hampton and Frankford. Although...
The Briarcliff-Peekskill Trailway is a 12-mile linear park that runs from the town of Ossining north to Westchester County's Blue Mountain Reservation in Peekskill. The trail is built on land...
The New Springville Greenway stretches just over 3 miles, primarily paralleling Richmond Avenue on New York's Staten Island. A highlight of the paved pathway is its proximity to Freshkills Park, a...
This is the first phase of the proposed Lehigh & Hudson River Rail Trail. The second phase will connect Hillside Park to Kittatinny Valley State Park. It is hoped that there will be an eventual...
The Bashakill Wildlife Management Area is located on the Orange County-Sullivan County border just south of Wurtsboro, New York. It consists of over 3,000 acres of wetlands and uplands which were...
Like Wantagh State Parkway, Ocean Parkway was built in the postwar 1930s to provide access to the crown jewel of the state park system, Jones Beach State Park. Unlike the former road, however, this...
The Ocean Parkway Trail closely follows its eponymous thoroughfare nearly 5 miles through several Brooklyn neighborhoods, ending only a block from the popular Coney Island boardwalk. Those traveling...
The Perth Amboy Harbor Walk offers scenic views of the Raritan Bay and Raritan River as it hugs the shoreline of the City of Perth Amboy, founded in 1683 and home to one of the nation's oldest ports....
The Jones Point Path occupies an abandoned motor vehicle route (old US Route 9W). The path provides bicyclists with a relatively safe bypass to a dangerous section of busy US Route 9W near Bear...
The 2.8-mile eastern phase of the Bedminster Hike and Bikeway allows pedestrians and cyclists to safely traverse part of Bedminster Township by crossing over I-287 and US 206/202 via a series of three...
While not a "rail-trail," the Hook Mountain/Nyack Beach Bikeway is a very scenic trail along the Hudson River in Rockland County. The southern half of this trail is flat and runs right along the...
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk follows Staten Island's eastern shore from Miller Field -- a recreational area for sports, picnicking and bird watching -- to Fort Wadsworth. Highlights of the...
The Kingston Branch Loop Trail is a trip up one side and down the other of the scenic tree-lined Delaware and Raritan Canal. The eastern half of the loop follows the bed of the Rocky Hill Railroad and...
The Randolph Trail system covers 16 miles of pathways through five parks, the Clyde Potts Reservoir watershed and 2,000 acres of pristine open space. The trails link schools and neighborhoods and also...
The Eastern Parkway Trail is a 2-mile route along a tree-lined boulevard in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood. The path begins at Prospect Park, which houses some of Brooklyn's most popular...
The South County Trailway rolls 14.4 miles through one of the most densely populated parts of New York, but its route through pocket woodlots, parks, and golf courses and along riverbanks makes it...
At first glance, there’s no evidence that an aqueduct ever existed along the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail. The trail is often a singletrack dirt pathway that winds through communities and trees and...
The Ramsey Bike Path is a recreational path built on the former Paterson to Suffern trolley line right-of-way. The path extends along a north-south route from one end of Ramsey to the other....
The corridor now home to the Sussex Branch Trail was originally the narrow-gauge, mule-drawn Sussex Mine Railroad, which opened in 1851 to haul iron ore from mines in Andover to the Morris Canal....
In the early 1830s the Morris Canal opened across northern New Jersey, from Phillipsburg on the Delaware River to Newark, and later to Jersey City on the Hudson River. It provided a thoroughfare for...
A short rail trail with two covered bridges occupying a portion of the former Mount Hope Mineral Railroad right-of-way in Wharton, NJ. In the future this trail will be linked with the Rockaway...
This is a section of the New York, Ontario and Western (O&W) Railway line that ran across New York State from Port Jervis to Lake Ontario. The trail consists of two discrete sections: State Route 209...
<p>This trail is the legacy of the first elevated roadway in the United States, constructed by William K. Vanderbilt in 1904. Vanderbilt created the parkway to get to his family’s estate in Long...
The Jones Beach Boardwalk traverses Jones Beach State Park, running parallel (and south of) Ocean Parkway. The pleasant pathway offers views of the beach and the ocean. Although bicycles are...
The Fort Washington Park Greenway brings residents and visitors to Washington Heights right up to the edge of the Hudson. The mile-long trail begins near the pier at the end of Dyckman Street and...
The Ridgefield Rail-Trail meanders for nearly 2.5 miles through the forested exburbs of Ridgefield, Connecticut. The trail passes among suburban acreages, along a creek at one point, and past a couple...
The nicely paved Bethpage Bikeway runs alongside suburban roads for long segments of the route, but it’s much more than a suburban trail. Each on-road suburban stretch is broken up by one of three...
The Klara Sauer Trail (formerly known as the Beacon Riverside Trail) runs for 1 mile along the Hudson River on the west side of New York's village of Beacon. The trail occupies the same corridor as...
Although just a mile long, the Beach Channel Drive Greenway in Queens offers expansive views of Jamaica Bay and the beautiful Marine Parkway Bridge as it traces the border of Jacob Riis Park. On the...
Great biking trail only complaint is people are all over the trail and don’t watch around them also walking straight in the middle so they really need to continue the trail through Metuchen into South Plainfield maybe even the other way down to Perth amboy that would be great kinda full on weekends to bike
For background, my wife and I are older, recreational riders. We're reasonably fit and enjoy riding around NYC, along the Hudson from Weehawken to Liberty State Park and, of course, the Saddle River County Path, near our home.
We understood from the description of the Sussex Branch Trail, and from the reviews here, that it is not paved and is certainly not a typical rail trail. We started from the Waterloo Rd. parking area in Stanhope and only made it as far as Cranberry Lake before deciding to turn around. While the scenery in the woods was very pretty, the trail, as noted, is not well maintained. In addition to gravel, the surface was small stone/larger rocks in places, and it was just not comfortable riding for us. There were some very muddy spots, with several areas of standing water on the trail that we had to pick our way around. Finally, as we got near Cranberry Lake, we followed a Sussex Trail marker which led us to a dead end.
I understand how some people will find this trail enjoyable, and I'm sorry we didn't get to see more of it, but, given that it was a 45-minute drive from home, we were disappointed.
A pretty nice trail with some nice views, but definitely rough in places. The RT Conservancy book describes it as roughness index of 1, but it’s at least a 2. If only doing a section, recommend avoiding the section south of New Paltz.
This trail is a good idea in terms of riding from Van Cartland Park to City Island. The execution however leaves a lot of room for improvement. The mostly asphalt paths are in rough shape -cracked, tree trunk and root damage, in need of lane markings both to designate the trail and to help keep people in the proper lanes (a big issue considering the number of walkers using this trail). There are signs to help navigate this trail but they are busy and difficult to read for bikers and could be more prominent as it’s easy to miss turns at intersections.
Although a bit narrow given the amount of use this trail gets the paved surface is smooth. Nice addition to the Empire State trail joining the south county to other trails in the area.
The Maybrook has quickly become one of our favorite rail trails. Basically brand new, uncrowded, lots of interesting sights along the way including multiple water views and lots of greenery.
Today we rode from the Brewster trailhead at Lake Tonetta both ways: Out and back to the CT line, and then out and back in the other direction up past the Ice Pond, for a total of about 20 miles. The first segment to the CT line was new to us; there is an on-road detour due to a bridge out at Peaceable Hill Road. You walk down a flight of steps, ride down Peaceable Hill Road to Rt. 6, turn left on Rt. 6, go down the hill, turn left again on Rt 6 and then ride up the hill past the Honda dealership where another set of stairs on the left will bring you back to the trail. These stairs are fairly steep but it can be done. The road has a shoulder but is a bit busy; experienced road riders will find this easy to navigate, others can simple walk along the sidewalk. Your reward is that the other end of the trail as you ride east is a very nice section past East Branch Reservoir, including a long section right along the water. One way mileage is about 5 miles, as the trail ends at the Connecticut line. The second section we rode, going North from the Brewster trailhead at Lake Tonetta, offers views of the “ice pond” and the “great swamp,” with hills in the distance. Today’s one way mileage for that section was also about 5 miles; a great ride, and you can ride much farther (we often go as far as Whalley Lake, just not today) as the trail goes all the way to Hopewell Junction where you can pick up the Dutchess Rail Trail. Check the Empire State Trail website for more info.
Very nice trail, like some others have said some parts of the trail have larger rocks but its not an issue just pay attention to the terrain while shredding!
Rode the full trail on Memorial Day and really enjoyed it. It is well maintained; smooth pavement all the way. Mostly good shade and scenic, with lots of woods. A few spots along busy roads, but the trail is well protected throughout; always a sturdy railing between you and the cars. Goes through a few towns for snacks or lunch. Others warned about it being uphill heading north but I found it mostly flat. Some uphill as you approach the Putnam border, but mostly a gentle grade. Never came out of the seat. Overall a great trail.
Rode the full trail on Memorial Day and really enjoyed it. It is well maintained; smooth pavement all the way. Mostly good shade and scenic, with lots of woods. A few spots along busy roads, but the trail is well protected throughout; always a sturdy railing between you and the cars. Goes through a few towns for snacks or lunch. Others warned about it being uphill heading north but I found it mostly flat. Some uphill as you approach the Putnam border, but mostly a gentle grade. Never came out of the seat. Overall a great trail.
I prefer to travel out to Jones in the Fall and Winter months but this trail is great all year round. The board walk gets very crowded on the weekends and throughout the summer, however, the trail continues PAST the board walk (this trail map should be updated!) the concrete trail extends to the west end, there are paths that allow you to check out the fishing spots which require parking permits so being able to get there by bike for free is a plus. Just be aware that after memorial day you must pay $$$ for parking at Jones Beach, which is why I recommend this trail for the off season.
What a lovely trail! We had a great time with our 2 year old daughter on the back of the bike… shaded, not too hilly and playgrounds for her along the way.
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (a non-profit) and we need your support!
Map Search
_207457_st.jpg)
_205519_st.jpg)
_188258_st.jpg)
_204244_st.jpg)
_0_st.jpg)
_319_st.jpg)
_138996_st.jpg)
