Explore the best rated trails in Oakland, 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 103 trails covering 740 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.
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 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,...
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...
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 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...
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 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 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....
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...
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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...
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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 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 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....
This bike-ped path in Roselle Park, Union County. The bike path is nestled at the bottom of the railroad embankment carrying New Jersey Transit's Raritan Valley Line. Stretching between Galloping Hill...
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...
This 5.5-mile trail is the rail-trail section of two much longer trails, the Long Path and the Shawangunk Ridge Trail, that converge and share the same path for part of their respective routes. Built...
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 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...
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...
Running alongside a New Jersey Transit passenger line, the Traction Line Recreation Trail has been around since 1986, when Jersey Central Power & Light donated portions of the land to the Morris...
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The Wood Duck Nature Trail, appropriately named for the secretive duck, was made possible through the hard work and dedication of refuge volunteers. This beautiful trail now extends about 1.5 miles on...
In the mid 1800s Chester, New Jersey, was the home of the iron ore industry; railroads shipped the ore all over the county. With the end of the industry, however, the rail lines were abandoned, turned...
The Old Erie Path reveals spectacular views of the Hudson River Valley as the rail-trail rolls along cliffs that border the river’s western shore. Although fairly short, it joins two other...
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 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 Mohansic Trailway is a rail-trail providing an important link between the North County Trailway and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt State Park. The trailway occupies a short-lived spur of the New...
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 John Kieran Nature Trail is a short loop that borders Van Cortlandt Lake and its associated wetlands. It is a wonderful site for bird-watching. The trail also passes several sites of significance...
A former right-of-way of the NY & NJ Railroad. Near historical Mount Ivy which was the center of a Quaker settlement in the 18th century. Hiking along railroad bed and wildlife observation and...
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,...
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...
The Kennedy Trail begins at Brick Hill Road and ends at the northwest corner of the 68-acre campus of John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers. The cinder trail, built on a former rail bed,...
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...
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 High Line trail runs 30 feet above the bustling Manhattan streets and sidewalks below, which for trail lovers makes it an attraction in the same league as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State...
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...
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...
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...
The Laurelton Greenway is a short but well-maintained multiuse path connecting the neighborhoods of Jamaica and Rosedale in southern Queens, NY. The two-lane paved trail starts in Jamaica, and travels...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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 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 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 Quarry Trail is currently a 600-foot long unimproved strip of land along what is known as Quarry Road in the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. The trail links Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic...
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 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 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...
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...
This 5.5-mile trail is the rail-trail section of two much longer trails, the Long Path and the Shawangunk Ridge Trail, that converge and share the same path for part of their respective routes. Built...
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...
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 Joseph M. McDade Recreational Trail runs nearly the length of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River across from New Jersey. The protected...
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...
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...
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...
The Old Erie Path reveals spectacular views of the Hudson River Valley as the rail-trail rolls along cliffs that border the river’s western shore. Although fairly short, it joins two other...
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.
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