Explore the best rated trails in Franklin Lakes, NJ. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Walkway Over The Hudson and D & H Canal Linear Park. With more than 96 trails covering 696 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.
New York City's East River Greenway offers views of the East River, Queens, Brooklyn, and the iconic bridges that connect these boroughs to Manhattan. The paved pathway traces the waterfront on one...
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 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....
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...
Offering a picturesque and family-friendly adventure, the Hudson Valley Rail Trail stretches 7.1 miles through hardwood forests, over Black Creek, and under two spectacular stone-arch bridges....
The Columbia Trail has the distinction of being named for a natural gas pipeline that runs beneath it for 15 miles in rural northern New Jersey. The crushed-stone trail rolls along the South Branch of...
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...
Tallman Mountain State Park Bike Path is partially paved and bisects the Tallman Mountain State Park. The route provides a motor-vehicle-free way for bicyclists using US Route 9W to connect with...
The Oxford Bikeway is a .9 mile long pave trail constructed on an abandoned railroad right-of-way. The trail can be accessed at three points. To the north the trail ends at Pequest Road, however there...
The O&W Rail Trail provides a glimpse into the area’s history from the perspectives of both a historical canal and a railroad. The Delaware & Hudson (D&H) Canal carried coal from Honesdale,...
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...
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 Hudson River Greenway (HRG) is one of the most popular places to ride, walk, and jog in New York City. It makes up part of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway loop, the cross-state Empire State...
When complete the Green Brook Multi-Use Trail will meander for 7 miles through the communities of Plainfield and North Plainfield, New Jersey. The trail will connect major regional trails and parks 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...
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...
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...
When Jones Beach State Park opened on Long Island’s South Shore in the late 1920s, a series of scenic parkways was built on infill dredged from nearby towns to connect New Yorkers to the new public...
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 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...
When Jones Beach State Park opened on Long Island’s South Shore in the late 1920s, a series of scenic parkways was built on infill dredged from nearby towns to connect New Yorkers to the new public...
While the Wallkill Valley Railroad no longer carries fruits and vegetables from Ulster County to New York City, trail users can still discover small, family-owned farms and farmers markets serving up...
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...
The West Essex Trail follows a short distance (just under 3 miles) of the former rail bed of the Caldwell Branch on the old Erie-Lackawanna Railroad. The trail runs between the EssexPassiac county...
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...
The Columbia Trail has the distinction of being named for a natural gas pipeline that runs beneath it for 15 miles in rural northern New Jersey. The crushed-stone trail rolls along the South Branch of...
This trail is much better suited to walking than to biking. It provides excellent access to the Pequest River which is stocked with trout. Not all of the bridges across the river have been decked and...
The Landsdown Trail runs 1.8 miles between Lower Landsdown Road and W. Main in Clinton. The trail passes among open fields, woodlands and wetlands and provides access to the South Branch of the...
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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 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 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 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 two diverse sections of the Shore Parkway Greenway Trail blend urban and scenic, offering views of sights ranging from the Statue of Liberty to wildlife refuges. Following the Belt/Shore Parkway,...
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 Hudson River Greenway (HRG) is one of the most popular places to ride, walk, and jog in New York City. It makes up part of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway loop, the cross-state Empire State...
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...
This trail is located in the Mahlon Dickerson Reservation which is a unit of the Morris County Park Commission. The trail follows an abandoned railroad bed through hardwood forests, past ponds, swamps...
When completed, the Norwalk River Valley Trail will run from Danbury to Long Island Sound in southwestern Connecticut, for a total of about 27 miles. Currently, several disconnected sections totaling...
Roosevelt Island Greenway, a little-known gem in the Big Apple, was named after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1973. To reach this scenic pathway, board New York City’s only aerial tram,...
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...
Fahnestock State Park is a relatively undiscovered gems in the New York State Park System. Located a few miles east of Cold Spring Village on Rt. 301 (Main Street), the park jurisdiction was recently...
Tallman Mountain State Park Bike Path is partially paved and bisects the Tallman Mountain State Park. The route provides a motor-vehicle-free way for bicyclists using US Route 9W to connect with...
The City of Port Jervis is the latest community to save a portion of the former D&H Canal and turn it into a greenway for use by residents and visitors. A section of the canal, which is approximately...
<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 O&W Rail Trail provides a glimpse into the area’s history from the perspectives of both a historical canal and a railroad. The Delaware & Hudson (D&H) Canal carried coal from Honesdale,...
The Columbia Trail has the distinction of being named for a natural gas pipeline that runs beneath it for 15 miles in rural northern New Jersey. The crushed-stone trail rolls along the South Branch of...
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 Mosholu-Pelham Greenway connects several parks and recreational opportunities in New York City's north and central Bronx neighborhoods. A portion of the trail is also part of the growing East...
You might expect a 4-mile rail-trail that passes through three downtowns to be excessively urban, but the quaint town centers on the Joseph B. Clarke Rail Trail are compact and surrounded by...
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...
Freedom Trail Bikeway will eventually be a 10-mile route linking parks and open spaces throughout South Brunswick Township in northern New Jersey. The trail follows a former rail line through...
This trail is located in the Mahlon Dickerson Reservation which is a unit of the Morris County Park Commission. The trail follows an abandoned railroad bed through hardwood forests, past ponds, swamps...
The Karamac Trail is a short walking trail that starts under the Interstate 80 bridge on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River. The trail follows an old railroad right-of-way; there is a railroad...
The Jack Harrington White Plains Greenway was recently renamed to honor a long-time member of the city's conservation board. The trail's corridor follows the former New York, Westchester & Boston...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The paved pathway running through West Hudson Park offers a scenic, tree-lined escape between Harrison and Kearny, NJ. The trail provides access to the park’s stocked lake, water park, athletic...
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...
We just finished riding this trail yesterday 9/9/19 and we have to say this is the best maintained paved trail we have ever rode our bikes on.
We started from the southern endpoint in Hopewell Junction and rode the trail to Poughkeepsie where we rode over the Walkway Over The Hudson on onto the Hudson Valley Rail Trail to New Paltz. There are train stations along the way where you can sit a a picnic table and eat or you can try one of the food trucks at the walkway before or after crossing the Hudson.
The trail is wide with plenty of room for three bikes to pass each other and there are not too many road crossings and none of them are busy roads. The thing that stood out to us as we rode was the trail signs directing you to the different points and the entrance and exit ramps to the many parking areas and local road access points along the way with the many benches to sit if you want to take a break. The trail is mostly wooded and there is not much to see as far as scenery but if you looking for a level smooth place to ride, this trail is a great choice.
This trail is just 1.2 miles from our home and is by far our favorite trail to ride. We enter the trail at the northern endpoint in Dutchtown in Haverstraw and ride to Nyack Beach Park and back. The 12.3 mile ride can be done in less then an hour or you can ride up the mountain and include the loop around Rockland Lake State Park where you can also park and enter the trail from. This trail winds up and down along Hook Mountain State Park with views from high over the Hudson River and then down along the rivers edge to Nyack Beach State Park. If you can get out during the week you can have the trail to yourself. Hybrid or mountain bikes are the better choice but you can make the trip on a road bike if your carful. If you live in this area you shouldn't miss this hidden gem.
We had a wonderful time riding from Gardiner on the southern endpoint to Rosendale when we turned around due to the weather changing for the worse. We rode back to New Paltz and ate at "The Station" restaurant right on the trail before heading back to our car in Gardiner. The trail was level and wooded which was a blessing since the temperature was nearing 90 degrees. There are several bridges and streams to cross and beautiful scenery.
The only drawback was since its a packed dirt trail there was quite a bit of mud to evade or in some places unable to evade. The thick black mud coated our bikes and ourselves pretty good. Our advice is to avoid riding in the rain or just after a heaving rain and pick a nice dry day to ride.
Overall we loved the trail and will go back this fall and finish the northern section and adjacent trails.
I visited the walkway to roller skate, because I’d heard great things about it, and that it was super smooth. The rail trail on the Poughkeepsie side was super smooth and great, but the actual Walkway had huge cracks, some quite raised, every two feet. This made it impossible to flow and we basically had to march our skates across it, and I took two pretty bad falls (thank you, protective gear.) Soooo that was a real bummer. The rail trail on the other side was smooth for a bit but then got very rough. It was definitely worth the trip, but I wouldn’t recommend skating the walkway if you want a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
Not smooth roads from 79th Street towards 125th Street. Narrow areas.
After 141th Street....some roads are not smooth.
Due to the fact that roots, heat, rain and etc..causing to crack and rise.
This is a beautiful ride through an area lush with lake views. The surface provides a smooth ride. The trail is well maintained with a bike repair station.
I take this trail from the reservoir to Bronxville often. I love it. Even riding on road section in Scarsdale though a residential area along Fox Meadow is lovely.
Stayed at Shawnee resort with my wife and 2 kids (6 and 9). Not knowing the area we cam upon this trail at Hialeah. Started easy enough but before long the hills started. Wish there had been warnings (maybe we missed them). We are not experienced bikers so we ended up walking up all the hills with our little ones. We made it to Smithfield Beach 1.7 miles and kids didn't want to ride back. I rode back to get the car. It was a good ride but had to walk up one hill. Next day we started at Smithfield going north and got as far as Turn Farm about 2.2 miles. This stretch was pretty flat with minimal hills. A lot of green but can hardly see the river. But, good stretch to ride with kids as mostly level. Will need to visit again alone to see how far I can make it.
On 08/19/19 we rode a section of this trail running south from the airport to just past the viaduct. To begin with the trail was slightly difficult to locate and we ended up asking someone at the airport how to locate the trail. We were hoping to get in a 20 to 25 mile ride, but after passing under the viaduct the trail became increasingly tight (rubbing up against bushes) and muddy (large puddles of water) which caused us to turn around. When we arrived back at the airport we figured that heading north would be similar to our southerly experience so we ended our ride.
Our assessment of the section of the trail that we rode:
Narrow - We had to ride single file.
Muddy - It did look like it maybe rained the night before.
Rough - We usually average around 12 mph. On this trail we were at 8 mph.
Has potential, but needs a little TLC.
More suited for mountain bikes (or at least bikes with wider tires) than hybrids.
Baseline:
We are in our mid to late 50's and our home trails are the Pine Creek Trail and the Buffalo Valley Trail.
I started riding on NJ trails a few weeks ago and I had some things I liked about this trail and other things that I did not enjoy:
There's plenty of shade and it's a few degrees cooler up north than going south. There are some scenic views, for example a little water fall, body of water, areas of rock that had been blasted for the train tracks.
On the less favorable side: There are a number of times that you'll need to cross a road. Sometimes these are county roads with a lot of fast moving trucks. Be very careful! Also, there can be mud after a rain. A number of areas are very narrow and you'll encounter rocks and holes in the trail.
I did not see any animals (except for a dog).
We chickened out last year about half-way down and turned back because it was getting too thick with brush. Decided to take another crack at it by myself today and I found it an interesting challenge. Rocky and hilly with loose dirt and sections where parts were washed away, which made it somewhat of a challenge if youre moving at any significant speed. I ended up with a few scrapes from the sticker bushes, some of which you cant avoid because youre too busy watching the trail to make sure you dont get your wheel caught in a rut in the washed-away sections.
All in all It was a short, somewhat challenging trail, with some nice views of the river at the end. At 2 miles, it should be a nice chal;lenge for a novice or intermediate mountain bike rider, but you definitely should not try this on a road bike.
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