Busy Day Part II:Pyramid Mountain

(Note:I am splitting my day up into parts.It's easier this way.Trust me.)

After leaving Boonton Falls, I decided to head up to Pyramid Mountain.It is located in Montville, which is one town and five minutes away.I came up with the thought to go there because it was featured in the Weird NJ book.

The lot was quite full, but I expected that.There were plenty of trail maps available there.The trail started off pretty flat and running along some power lines.As soon as the trail hit the woods, I took off on the more difficult trail.It got steep quick as I was at the bottom of Pyramid Mountain.



Then it got harder.

Honestly, the tough part did go by pretty quick.On the trip up I stopped at Bear Rock, which is one of New Jersey's largest individual boulders.

It had to be at least 15 feet tall.It was pretty impressive, for a rock.The land was also very swampy.Bear Rock was actually on the edge of one of the bigger ones.It's name, appropriately enough, is Bear Swamp.

Finally, I made it to the top and the reason I came here in the first place:Tripod Rock.

Tripod Rock is considered to be a glacial erratic.For those not willing to follow the link, a glacial erratic is a rock that was deposited somewhere unusual by a ...wait for it...a glacier.This one, as you can see is being balanced by three small stones.The space underneath is high enough to crawl under.Not that I advocate crawling underneath it, but if 10000 years of weather and erosion haven't toppled it, I doubt any of us will either.

There were other erratics in the area as well, though these were much smaller.

It was tough to get a good view up there as there were many trees, but when I found a clearing it was pretty rewarding.

I came down the side of the mountain on the yellow trail, which I have to remember to use to go up next time I come here, as it was a lot of fun.The whole trip only took me about 1 1/2 hours.I had enough time to check out one more trail, which will be shown in part III of my ever-so-thrilling adventures.