Hiking the Stairway to Heaven

Hiking Staircase to Heaven (New Jersey)

During the summer, my husband and I enjoy hiking in Northern, NJ.  The fall is also nice, but we tend to go more in the summer.  We have more free time as well.

Last week, we decided to head to the “Staircase to Heaven” in NJ on the Appalachian Trail.  We’ve hiked several portions of the Appalachian Trail including in New York at Bear Mountain.  The Staircase to Heaven is supposed to have one of the best views in all of the state.  Spoiler: Hiking the Staircase to Heaven did not disappoint!

There are several portions of the Staircase to Heaven hiking trail you can park to get to the top. There is about a 2-mile hike/walk, followed by a steep 1.5 mile hike. Hiking the Staircase to Heaven is a longer hike, but it’s scenic.  The closer spot is close to the mountain, where you have about a 1.5 mile steep and rocky hike to get to the top.  Since we were later and assumed the closer lot was filled, we parked further from the Staircase to Heaven and hiked 3.5 miles to the top.

After an extremely rocky hike, we made it to the top of the Staircase to Heaven, and the view was fantastic.  So far, hiking Staircase to Heaven is one of my favorite views in New Jersey.

After making it to the top, we decided to explore the Appalachian trail a little further and found a waterfall.

It was perfect because the weather was so hot, so it was nice to take a refreshing dip in the stream.  Thank goodness running clothes are basically like bathing suits and dry quickly.  Ha!

Afer that we took the hike down the Staircase to Heaven back to our car.  It seemed to go much quicker this time, thankfully.

Other Hiking Posts:

Getting Lost at Bear Mountain and Revisiting (not getting lost)

Seeing a Bear While Hiking

Hiking the Hollywood Sign (LA)

We are hoping to get another hike in before the end of the summer so we will see.  Although coming back to the Staircase to Heaven would not be a bad idea.

Tristate locals: do you have any recommendations of hikes? 

Questions for you:

Do you like hiking?  Where is your favorite?