Recently my husband and I flew to the Aeroflex-Andover Airport. The Aeroflex-Andover Airport might be my new favorite general aviation airport because it’s walkable to Kittatinny Valley State Park. It’s less than a half mile from the airport to Kittatinny Valley State Park and in fact owned by the NJ Forest Fire Service.
The Kittatinny Valley State Park ha all sorts of interesting features including:
- Glacial lakes
- Limestone outcroppings
- Former railroads (which I assume is the rails to trails)
There are several lakes including Lake Aeroflex and Gardner’s Pond which you can fish in. The four lakes offer fishing, boating and kayaking. When we flew in, we saw kayakers and it looks fairly easy to access the lake.
Plus according to the Kittatinny Valley State Park website, there are also several animals that live at Kittatinny Valley State Park including: deer, turkeys, vultures, beavers, muskrats, and squirrels. I saw up close deer that didn’t look like they had a single fear.
Kittatinny Valley State Park has plenty of outdoors options whether you want to hike, mountain bike, rides. bird watch, and even horseback ride. Plus there are several picnic areas, picnic tables, and grills if you want to have a cookout.
We decided to take a hike to check out the trails and see if it would be suitable for running (which rails to trails definitely are).
Both the Paulinskill Valley Trail and the Sussex Branch Trail are former railroads that have been converted as rail to trails. Both railroads were important to the deveolopement of Sussex Country in late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
The surface of the rails to trails and is soft and flat. It’s easy to walk, run, mountain bike, or ride. You don’t need to worry about inclines or declines.
Apparently in the winter, they are also used for cross country skiing and dog sledding. Photos even show dogsledding, which I honestly had no idea has a thing in New Jersey!
You can see more hikes here.
Questions for you:
Have you ever seen a dog sledder?
What is a new park you’ve recently discovered?