Issue #5 — Wednesday, May 27, 2026
One family-friendly hike within a 2-hour drive of Hoboken — plus where to take the kids to eat in the city and NJ. Hike it or skip it; either way your weekend's sorted.
A single 4-mile loop connects three separate bodies of water — Scarlet Oak Pond, MacMillan Reservoir, and a quiet unnamed pond tucked against the return trail — passes an active beaver lodge you can see from the shore, and ends near the fieldstone ruins of a 19th-century estate that most hikers walk right past. The whole thing is 35 minutes from the Holland Tunnel.
Bergen County's most underrated family loop. No brutal climbs, real wildlife, and enough mystery to carry the conversation the whole drive home.Park at the main lot off 608 Ramapo Valley Road (Route 202) — a large gravel lot on the left heading north out of Mahwah. From the trailhead kiosk, take the yellow-blazed Scarlet Oak Pond Trail northwest. Within the first quarter mile you cross a wooden footbridge and arrive at Scarlet Oak Pond. Keep left along the shore; the beaver lodge is on the north bank, roughly 10 minutes in. For families with very young kids, this pond is a natural turnaround — flat, beautiful, and full of things to look at.
From the pond, pick up the blue-blazed MacMillan Trail heading north. This is the only real climbing on the route: about 150 feet of gain over half a mile, steady but never steep. The trail opens up at MacMillan Reservoir, a larger body of water with longer sight lines and a better chance of spotting herons working the far bank. Eat your snacks here.
The return loop runs south through older hardwood forest. Watch for the spur trail left off the main path that leads to the Oakland Farm ruins — easy to miss, worth the 5-minute detour. Follow the yellow blazes back to the lot from there. The back half gets rooty in spots; kids who run ahead should know where the trail is.
Ten minutes north on Route 17, downtown Suffern runs along Lafayette Avenue — a small, real neighborhood with no tourist infrastructure and exactly what you want after a morning in the woods.
Water (1L per person), bug spray, trail runners or hiking shoes (the back half is rooty), a light layer for the morning, sunscreen, snacks, and a phone with the trail map downloaded offline. Cell service disappears in the back half of the loop.
Not feeling the drive this week? Here's where to take the kids instead — in the city and across the river. (No connection to this week's hike.)