About - Abram S. Hewitt State Forest. (Surprise lake loop)
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Amenities and More
Activities
- Hiking
- Loop trail
Top Reviews
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Excellent hike to surprise lake. Challenging (but can be done by little kids too) enough to be interesting and many options to make it as short as a 2.5 hr hike and as long as a 7 hour hike. It was a bit disappointing that it wasn't possible to swim in surprise lake due to turtles.
Great hike, beautiful view! A bit challenging with some rocky areas where you need to climb a bit and steep incline , as a long time smoker I was dying on my way up in the first third of the hike,but it's worth it once you get up there.Wear hiking boots and use hiking rods if you got'em! Your knees will thank you The loop goes along the ridge once you are up and we were able to even see the NYC skyline behind the mountains ,it was such a beautiful day. We went end of August and surprisingly -no bugs and the breeze was perfect. Parking is a bit small but manageable to find a spot, there's always someone coming in and out. We took a lot of breaks (mainly for me to catch my breath haha) and also stopped to enjoy the view so it took us 4.5 hours end to end .
The 4 mile loop (with a one minute detour to NY) took me just over 2 hours. Standing with one foot in NY and one foot in NJ was the best part. Lots of fallen trees on blue, several mild water crossings, gentle incline, easy scrambles. Pretty quiet on a Wednesday afternoon mid March, before the bugs and humidity hit. Lake views from the top are okay. No bathrooms. Parking lot is exactly opposite of the Greenwood Lake Marina. Small hiker parking lot is straight up the hill.