Sourland Mountain Preserve

Boulders in the Sourland Mountain Preserve

The Sourland Mountain Preserve is located in Hillsborough and Montgomery townships, Somerset County, New Jersey.

The main feature of the preserve is the 5-mile (8.0 km) Ridge Trail [white squares], suitable for hiking and off-road biking. There are two shorter routes [white circular and white triangle blazes] and "connector" trails [white "C" blaze].The trails have been very well blazed by the Somerset County Park Commission. The Park Commission also tries to keep the map box just off the parking lot filled with trail maps. While located in a suburban section of central New Jersey, Sourland Mountain is a heavily wooded and rocky place. The Ridge Trail can be quite difficult and technical in spots. At the top of the ridge, there are some very large and beautiful exposed boulders. Roaring Brook passes through the southern edge of the preserve. While not officially a part of the preserve, hikers often visit the brook to see one of the finest boulder fields in New Jersey. A complete circuit of the Ridge Trail for an experienced hiker will take about two and one-half hours. For anyone who hikes and lives in central Jersey, Sourland provides quick access to a hiking experience that can rival some of the trails in the Ridge and Valley section and the Highlands section of northern New Jersey.

Geologically, Sourland Mountain is composed of sedimentary and igneous rocks of Late Triassic and Early Jurassic age, and are part of the Newark basin rift lake system. The main ridge in Sourland Mountain is intrusive diabase (a type of igneous rock) associated with the same igneous event that produced the Palisades Sill (the cliffs along the west side of the Hudson River across from New York City), and The Watchung Mountains in Northern New Jersey. The sedimentary rocks are Late Triassic in age and are part of the lower Passaic Formation of the Newark Basin sedimentary sequence.

The park covers 3,025 acres (12.24 km²). The name "Sourland" may derive from the soil, described as "sorrel-land" or reddish brown land. The quiet of this environment is almost complete, except for the song of a bird, the rush in the bush when a close-by deer is spooked. Seen in the park are red fox, gray fox, deer, even a coyote. Birds include tanagers, wrens, and chickadees.

As of about June 1, 2007, a new extension to the Ridge Trail will take hikers to Roaring Brook and one of the finest boulder fields anywhere in the Northeast. This trail extension is the result of a great deal of work and the help of 3M Company, a good friend of the Somerset County Park Commission.

Very recently added in Spring 2009, a newly blazed trail system runs North from Roaring Brook before turning East and back into the Preserve. The blazes for this trail system are red. The red square trail connects back to the Ridge Trail [white square].The red circular blazed trail goes north and ends at the gas line. These trails are excellent for hiking, but are clearly laid out for off-road biking, with many twists and turns taking good advantage of the topography. It is just a short hike or ride down the gas line to get back to the original Ridge Trail.

External links

• Official site for the Somerset County Park Commission
• Park photos
• NY-NJTC: Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail Details and Info