Four Birds Trail

Four Birds Trail is a long-distance hiking route in New Jersey’s Highlands area, spanning Morris and Passaic counties and connected with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference.

The route covers about 19.4 miles one-way and is generally treated as hard/rugged, with roughly 2,850 ft of elevation gain over the full line.

Expect a mix of woods-road walking early on and more rugged Highlands terrain later, including steep downhill sections on the way out and uphill return work on the way back.

The route is commonly broken into sections rather than pushed end-to-end: the northern section in Farny State Park is about a 7.2-mile out-and-back to Timber Brook Lake area, while the southern section in Wildcat Ridge Wildlife Management Area is around 5.6 miles as an out-and-back or loop.

A portion of the trail passes through the Newark Watershed; hiking there requires a valid Watershed hiking permit.

Route markings use white blazes, which is how you stay on the correct line through woods-road and connector intersections as conditions change along the route.

There has been trail rerouting near Timberbrook Pond to bypass a dam, so you may encounter an updated alignment in that area rather than the older route line.

More information: 10 Best Things to Do in South Jersey for Local Experiences, Four Birds Trail (North) | njHiking.com, Four Birds Trail – North Section | njHiking.com