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Ramapo Mountain State Forest - Van Slyke Castle ruins

Sunday, June 27, 2010

It was a hot day for a hike, but I'd been wanting to explore this area plus, there were a few caches to find nearby. Unfortunately the directions on the njhiking page were incorrect. It is NOT exit 55 off of 287. It's exit 57. Somehow we managed to find the upper parking lot and hiked from there. We did the yellow trail (Hoeferlin Memorial) from the upper parking to the blue trail. Then picked up the white trail (Castle Point). A nice area to hike in....water lillies blooming, views would have been spectacular if it weren't so hazy. Trails were well marked and well maintained. Blueberries just starting to cover the bushes...guess we were a week or so early!!

The Castle ruins themselves were amazing....although I was sad to see the vandalism and graffity. What a haven it must have been in its time. Did not see the poison ivy that supposedly is prolific here.

Definitely recommend this hike!!

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Comment by njHiking.com on June 29, 2010 at 1:09pm
Thanks for letting me know there was an error in the directions; it's been corrected on the site. Most hikes in that area are from exit 55, and I didn't catch it. Glad the poison ivy wasn't an issue - it was pretty rampant when we did the hike last year.

Dawn

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