Welcome! Today’s virtual hike will take us on a journey through a preserved floodplain forest of the Pompton River, a major tributary of the Passaic River.

Our hike will be in Pompton Aquatic Park (part of the Passaic County Park System). The park runs through sections of Wayne, Pompton Lakes and Pequannock. The park is about an estimated 78 acres (with 28 acres located in Wayne and Pompton Lakes and 46 acres located in Pequannock).

The park is divided in half by the Pompton River while the Ramapo River hugs the eastern shoreline. Pompton Aquatic Park provides much needed habitat to a multitude of wildlife including Great Blue Heron, Wood Turtle, White-Tailed Deer, Muskrat and other wildlife.

The land that became Pompton Aquatic Park was part of the Morris Canal. After the Morris Canal was discontinued the land was given to the Passaic County Park Commission where it sat unused as parkland for decades. Passaic County was awarded a Recreational Trails Grant in 2011 to construct trails. Trails were constructed with stone along with walkways over seasonal wetlands. The trails were blazed by the Pompton Lakes Open Space Committee.

Virtual Tour

Welcome! Today we are going to hike two of the four Pompton Aquatic Parks trails. We will use the below trail map (provided by the Pompton Lakes Open Space Committee) to guide us.

We will have views of the adjacent Pompton River and a hike through a preserved floodplain forest. Ready? Let’s go!

Starting from Woodlawn Avenue in Pompton Lakes we will head straight going west at the intersection near the trailhead of the .59 of a mile Pompton Aquatic Park Trail. The entire trail is through fresh water wetlands. Its good we picked the month of August to walk through when it is nice and dry! In fact, if we didn’t look at the vegetation growing we might not even know we were walking through wetlands. Common wetland vegetation growing along the trail as we walk include:

All of the above flora are native except for Purple Loosestrife and Japanese Knotweed which are considered invasive plants, that is, they displace and prevent native plants from growing because there are no natural predators native to the US to stop the spread of these plants.

From here we will follow the 1 mile yellow blazed Rivercrest Trail which is the longest trail found in Pompton Aquatic Park. We will head north on this out and back trail (meaning we will retrace our steps). Out and back trails are a good way to verify if you missed something as you walked.

And there is the Pompton River! The Pompton River formed just north of Aquatic Park through the confluence of the Pequannock, Wanaque and Ramapo Rivers. The river above the park is technically still called the Pequannock River. The Pompton River is classified FW2-NT (fresh water non-trout production or maintenance) by the NJ DEP. The Pompton River is a major tributary to the Passaic River.

As we walk along we spot some painted turtles bobbing in the Pompton River. Don’t they have the life! Not a care in the world!

We see jumbles of arrow shaped leaves everywhere. It’s a Mile-a-Minute Plant another invasive. It is native to Asia.

We’ve been spotted! A white-tailed deer family is watching us closely. Let’s keep going!

August is a good month for butterflies! Here’s an Eastern Comma Butterfly taking a rest.

Well, we have made it to the end of the Rivercrest Trail at Joe’s Grill Field (which is part of the Pompton Lakes park system.). Time to head back the way we came to get to our cars. Glad you could make it! It is my hope that this ‘virtual tour’ of Pompton Aquatic Park inspires you to visit and check it out for yourself!

Feel free to comment with any memories, wildlife sightings or any other comments about Pompton Aquatic Park! Thank you and have fun exploring!

The trailhead discussed in this post is located off of Woodlawn Avenue in Pompton Lakes NJ.

Check out some great books below to learn more about NJ’s plants and wetlands!