Kittatinny Valley State Park is filled with history, and activities to do. In the 1800s and early 1900s, three railroads ran through the area. These railroads have since been converted to trails for multiple uses. These include the Great Valley Rail Trail, The Sussex Branch Trail, Lehigh & Hudson River Rail Trail, and The Paulinskill Valley Trail. The waters of Lake Aeroflex and Gardner’s Pond form the headwaters of the Pequest River, which is a tributary of the Delaware River. A variety of flora and fauna live in the park, such as wild turkeys, muskrats, beavers, songbirds to sing sweet songs and squirrels.
Trails and Hiking
Within the park, there are plenty of different trails to take, depending on how far you’d like to go. Each trail is multi-use, meaning one can use it to hike or go horseback riding on the beautiful cedar on the ground, where the trains of yesterday rumbled past. Snowshoeing and biking are also allowed. However, there are no motorized vehicles to be ridden on any of the trails. Here is the trail information:
Paulinskill Valley Trail: By far the largest trail in the park, it comes in at a whopping 27 miles long.
Sussex Branch Trail: Coming in the second longest trail, this one comes in at 20 miles long.
Lehigh & Hudson River Rail Trail and The Great Valley Rail Trail are both equal, at 4 miles long.
Trailside kiosks are available for the Sussex Skylands trail map that features a 15-mile rail-trail loop. Plus, there are additional trails in the Mt. Paul section of the park. If you would like to view a general guide to the trails, you can visit this page on the park’s official website.
Water Activities
The park holds four lakes that offer up all kinds of activities. Fishing, boating, paddleboarding, kayaking, and canoeing are all fun things you can do in one of the incredible lakes in the park. Lake Aeroflex covers 119 acres and offers boat launch ramp access as well as shoreline access. Gardner’s Pond, 39 acres are only accessible when walking through the small airport parking lot at the Aeroflex-Andover airport; here, boats may only be brought in my hand or a small cart. White’s Pond is accessible via the Sussex Rail Trail or from Goodale Road offers shoreline fishing. While there is no swimming allowed in any of the lakes, one can still enjoy the true beauty of them by boat.
Hunting and Fishing Information
Lake Aeroflex is stocked with rainbow and brown trout annually by the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife. The lake, being the deepest glacial lake in New Jersey, also features landlocked salmon which can thrive in the deep waters of the lake. It’s also a holdover trout lake and offers fishermen the thrilling opportunity to catch one of these fantastic fish. In all four of these lakes, ice fishing is an available activity, weather, and condition of lake permitting, of course.
Hunting is available within the park, but it is forbidden on any trail. Towards the middle of the park, the only availability is to hunt deer using a bow.
Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden
In Kittatinny State Park, there lies an almost magic garden – bursting with vibrant colors, hummingbirds, and butterflies. The garden won the Rutgers Cooperative Research and Extension of Sussex County – State Award for Excellence. The naturalist of the park carefully curated and created a gorgeous garden that would serve as a “living display” of nature and nature studies and to find solace in the quiet moments. Volunteers graciously helped to clear the land, and it now abounds with all kinds of perennial flowers. These flowers provide a much-needed source of nectar for the native hummingbirds, butterflies, and of course, bees and other pollinators in the area.
Kittatinny Valley State Park is truly special; from the old railbed trails to the amazing amount of beautiful open space to enjoy nature in, you can definitely soak up the sun here!
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Members of Life In Sussex staff have contributed to this post.
