Pyramid Mountain · On footPyramid Mountain Trails

How the trails work

Pyramid Mountain holds more than a dozen blazed trails — over 19 miles in all — across more than 1,600 acres of Highlands ridge and swamp. Alone among the Morris County parks, it is hiking-only: no bikes, no rock climbing. Trails are identified on the ground by blaze color (and color-with-dot variants), and they connect into loops of almost any length. The whole network was re-blazed on March 17, 2021, so color references on older third-party pages are often out of date — the table below follows the current official Morris County trail guide (September 2024 edition), and you should carry that map.

Trails by blaze

Named routes

The New York–New Jersey Trail Conference, which builds and maintains the trails, describes the classic loop and what each blaze does. The Blue Trail is the spine — the main loop to Tripod Rock and the 934-foot overlook, crossing Stony Brook on a footbridge. The Orange Trail drops to and follows the shore of Taylortown Reservoir before climbing the ridge through mountain laurel. A Blue Dot connector leads to Tripod Rock; from there a short Purple spur climbs to Lucy's Overlook, with views south and west over Stony Brook Mountain. The Yellow Dot trail descends toward Bear Rock, crossing Bear House Brook on a wooden bridge, while pink-dot trails serve as connectors.

How the trail network grew

The trail system has kept changing. In 2008–09 the park added a 1.2-mile White trail and a black-dot/Yellow pair (about 2.8 miles combined), the longer of which runs from Powerville Road in Boonton Township out to Bear Rock. The whole network was re-blazed on March 17, 2021, and in 2023 the Blue Trail was rerouted near its junction with the Orange Trail to reach the first overlook, adding slightly to its length. The current official map dates to September 2024.

The park's named hikes

The Park Commission publishes five self-guided suggested hikes, each with its own downloadable map: Tripod Rock (to the famous balanced erratic), Glacial Erratic (the boulder country), Reservoir (out toward Taylortown Reservoir), Valhalla Views (the ridgeline overlooks), and Falls (to a seasonal waterfall). The high point of the park reaches 934 feet, and on a clear day the eastern overlooks take in the Manhattan skyline.

A few favorites worth knowing: the climb to Tripod Rock and back runs roughly 3–4 miles; a longer loop linking Tripod Rock, Bear Rock, and Whale Head Rock is on the order of 6 miles with around 800 feet of climbing; a Taylortown Reservoir loop follows the Orange Trail along the water; and across Boonton Avenue, Turkey Mountain offers the steep powerline pitch hikers call the “100 Steps.” Treat these distances as approximate and confirm them on the official map.

Take a map

Download the official trail guide and map before you go, or open the county's interactive map on your phone. AllTrails and the New York–New Jersey Trail Conference are useful for crowd-sourced conditions and route ideas, but the Morris County map is the authority on current blazes.