Hiking the Stairway To Heaven Trail

Welcome to Travel Tuesday! The “Stairway to Heaven” hike has been one of my favorite hikes in New Jersey so far! There’s one in Hawai’i (check out my Hawai’i travel posts here!) that I’d love to get to do at some point, but in the meantime, this is one I’d definitely recommend checking out (especially in the fall)!

Hiking the Stairway To Heaven Trail (New Jersey)

The Stairway to Heaven trail is actually a stretch of the Appalachian Trail (it’s on my travel bucket list to someday hike this and the Pacific Crest Trail, but that’ll probably have to wait til I’m out of debt and when I actually have free time (hah). Someday.

There’ll be a sign with a hiker symbol–follow the path along the road and you’ll see the Pochuck Boardwalk on your right!

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A post shared by Farrah | Blogger/Physician, DO (@fairyburger) on Nov 8, 2018 at 4:00pm PST

Distance: ~6.5 miles out-and-back if you do what we did; ~2.9 miles to Pinwheel Vista and back, ~4.2 miles to the mailbox and back
Elevation: 892 feet
Difficulty: Moderate
Duration: 3 hours (including photo stops + a stop for lunch)
Parking: GPS coordinates:41.234733, -74.480867 [to start at the boardwalk)

Take Rt 287N to exit 52B for Rt. 23 Butler. Follow 23 for a while to 515N, then take a left onto 644 (Vernon Crossing) and a right on 517. Alternatively, you can also start at the Route 94 parking lot (GPS coordinates: 41.219472, -74.455083)

You’ll have to park along the shoulder of 517. I’d definitely suggest getting there early because it fills up fast. We had to circle a couple times before we finally managed to snag a spot!

Follow the boardwalk (path is pretty self-explanatory) and you’ll eventually come across a suspension bridge…

We didn’t actually get to hike from the boardwalk because it’d rained for a couple days before we went and the section after the suspension bridge got flooded (see below), so…we went as far as we could and then turned back to go to a different starting point–the Route 94 parking lot (GPS coordinates above!)!

The hike through the woods isn’t too bad, but one of the only downsides to hiking in the fall is that there are leaves everywhere, so it’s hard to know if where you’re stepping will actually provide sure footing. It can also get pretty slippery the day after a rainstorm, so just be mindful of that and be careful!

You’ll see a boulder field on your left and the trail will start getting super rocky with a fairly steep ascent. There are a bunch of rock slabs making up the “stairway” for the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ hike!

Follow the trail blazes and you’ll eventually see a ginormous pile of rocks with a tiny sign that says “view.” Turn left there to go to the lookout point (Pinwheel Vista)! There are lots of flat areas to sit, eat, take photos, etc. If you only do the Stairway to Heaven portion of the hike, it’s roughly around 2.5 miles!

 

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A post shared by Farrah | Blogger/Physician, DO (@fairyburger) on Nov 4, 2018 at 1:48pm PST

If you haven’t had enough of a hike yet and continue following the trail, it’ll add another ~1.3 miles roundtrip to your mileage. Retrace your steps and when you get to the pile of rocks, turn left and follow the trail blazes.

You’ll see a mailbox attached to a tree with an Appalachian Trail logbook in it (for the thru-hikers to sign!).

The trail is fairly populated and after talking with one of the hikers, we decided to keep trekking onwards to a river where we stopped for lunch! There’s usually a bridge there but the storm knocked it off so we didn’t go any further. (I guess it was a good turning point anyway since I started my night shifts that evening.)

I don’t know the total mileage of our hike that day but I venture to guess it was about 6-7 miles (+ the equivalent of 101 floors, according to my phone)!

And of course, what hike is complete without a celebratory “return-to-civilization” meal/snack? The Heaven Hill Farm is right across the street from Lot 94, so we stopped over there for ice cream and apple cider doughnuts. :]!

• Where’s your favorite place to go to check out the fall foliage? (Check out my fall foliage hike up Mount Tammany too!)
• What’s your favorite thing to eat after a hike?