New Jersey has a lot of excellent hiking spots. It's understandable that most of them are in pretty…read morerural areas with tons of room to roam/explore. So when I found out there was a 5.7-mile hike in the immediate vicinity of Bridgewater/Somerville, I was pretty skeptical. This is a pretty chaotic section of the state, with a lot of major highways interconnecting and a mall and heinous traffic circle thrown in for good measure - it's not the first or 100th place I'd think of for a hike. That remains the case. You can't force the design of a hike, and this is a clear example of a situation where you should have had, say, a mile's worth of trails and left it at that. My chum and I came here on Saturday to take advantage of the unseasonably warm early December weather. It was mostly cloudy throughout the hike, but the temperature steadily rose and the sun was largely out by the end. It had been raining pretty steadily the prior day so we were expecting and encountered a lot of mud and some mild rock hopping, but nothing egregious. Both of us opted for running shoes over hiking/trail shoes; it was a LITTLE rockier than I expected and in hindsight I would have gone with the latter for better support, but I didn't suffer any consequences for the decision. Our trek started at the entrance/parking lot off of Newmans Road (spacious, easy to spot with a pretty clean port-a-potty; there were drops on the seat but that's people being animals and not a reflection on the park) following the red trail running roughly parallel to the Washington Valley Reservoir before crossing Chimney Rock Road and heading up and down the orange trail in a quasi loop that runs alongside the East Branch Reservoir before another brief foray on a road (this one Gilbride Rd) and then doing another loop on the yellow trail that goes up to the Chimney Rock Outlook before circling back to Gilbride, at which point you basically complete the prior orange loop and then head back on the other side of the Washington Valley Reservoir to the parking lot. If that sounds overly complicated, you're right. There are two huge issues that mar this hike for me. One is that whoever designed the trails/blazes for this place had no idea what they were doing. Literally every possible trail and offshoot is painted with a blaze, always the same color as the "main" trail. As such, it's incredibly difficult to follow an official hiking itinerary because every fork in the trail has two choices with the same color blaze. Incredibly foolish and short-sighted. We had to VERY carefully stop each time, look at the map in our book AND double-check the GPS/map on the AllTrails app (which I hate doing) just to make sure we were on the right path. There's no reason to put a blaze on literally any walkable route like that; no idea what they were thinking. The other problem is what I alluded to earlier - this is a populated area with minimal room to hike so you end up by definition having to cross and briefly walk alongside busy roads. Chimney Rock was incredibly busy midday on Saturday, and cars were whizzing by us the entire time (the first section was probably about two minutes long, while the second was five minutes - believe me, it felt longer). I'm stunned people don't get hit there, especially since there's not a lot of room off to the side for pedestrians. If you're at the point where you're brainstorming a hiking trail and you can't avoid having the hikers come into contact with moving vehicles, that's probably a clue to scrap the plans. The big selling point of this hike is Chimney Rock, which was apparently a lookout point for George Washington during the Revolutionary War. That's all well and good, but for the money they spent to put up a protective fence and pave the trail here, they couldn't be bothered to maintain the actual rock, which is covered by broken beer bottle glass. And I'm sure General Washington had a much prettier view back in the day than we did; we were treated to the gorgeous scenery of the Stavola Bound Brook Quarry - crushed stones as far as the eye can see! The best part of the hike by far was the last section on the northern side of the Washington Valley Reservoir, and this is the part I'd actually preserve for walking, etc. It definitely helped that the sun was out at this point, but there was a cute bridge and a lot of bird activity. My chum is an avid birdwatcher and will likely be returning to this part with her camera. We also encountered a fallen tree (picture attached) that was taken down by a beaver. Very cool sighting. Head over to Watchung Reservation if you're in the area and want to commune with nature. You may hear the sounds of Route 78 but at least you won't be crossing that highway as part of your hike.

The Washington Valley State Park parking lot is basically a hidden driveway with a small,…read moreinconspicuous sign that suddenly pops up out of nowhere after you've been driving for a while on Newmans Lane. Recommend using GPS to navigate lest you miss the entrance. The park is also accessible from Vosseller Avenue at Millers Lane, though Google Maps will default to Newmans Lane when you chart a route to "Washington Valley State Park". The Newmans Lane entrance seems to be popular with mountain bicyclists and dog walkers. The highlights of this park are the Washington Valley Reservoir and raptor watching in autumn. Otherwise, the trails are pretty low-key (boring even) which make for some relatively quiet walks, which are only interrupted occasionally by the sound of scurrying chipmunks and teenagers jumping into the reservoir in the summer. As another reviewer noted, some of the more remote parts of the trails are not thoroughly blazed, but you should be able find your way even without trail markers. Be sure to grab a park brochure from the wooden bulletin board at the trailhead if you need help navigating. The brochures are also great for swatting away gnats. The red trail has a lot of rocks/gravel and multiple changes in elevation, so you might want to wear shoes with sturdy soles and firm grip. The reservoir does not have a boat ramp but has various trails and rock formations for shoreline fishing (license required, of course). Random trivia: back in 2015, a convicted sex-offender was sighted here fishing before being arrested. With that being said, remember to curb your dog and be sure to leave before the park officially closes 1/2 an hour after sunset.