3.8 miles | ~600 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★

Last weekend was a perfect fall day. A little crisp but not the kind of chill you feel in your bones. Back from the Catskills, we were excited for the local foliage, but unfortunately that was still to come. Instead, we headed out to New Jersey, to Pyramid Mountain National Historical Area in Montville for a gentle forest walk with a few views.

Pyramid Mountain is a great little park with fairly accessible trails and a large parking area. When we arrived around 10:30am, the lot was nearly full, but we were surprised to see the trails lightly traveled. It was only later that we noticed several large groups of 15-20 that likely accounted for several cars each. I’ve never seen a hiking group so large. Maybe a Sunday after church activity?

Starting on the Blue Trail, we wandered flat for a short while, then began the moderate assent of 300 feet to Pyramid Mountain. The views were lovely, though a bit dampened by the power lines in close view. We didn’t stay on the summit long, as one of those larger groups soon claimed the summit. Back in the woods, to get our next view point at Lucy’s Overlook.

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After peaking through the trees at Lucy’s Overlook (probably a great winter view!), we headed back into the forest. We missed our turn onto an unmarked trail and ended up on the orange trail, though luckily so. Had we taken the intended AllTrails path, we would have missed Tripod Rock, a stunning glacier formation of a large boulder, seemingly balancing just right on three smaller stones.

Winding around to the west, we got one final look out, a little north of Pyramid Mountain where we enjoyed lunch before heading down into the forest and alongside the Taylortown Reservoir, which we followed for the majority of our loop back to the parking lot. With .5 miles left, we rejoined our Blue loop and made our way back to the car. At 1pm, the lot was clearly overflowing with lines of cars parked along the road. They were legally parked, though navigating the car and hiker traffic felt a little dicey.

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