Kittatinny Valley State Park

What Makes Kittatinny Valley State Park Worth the Drive

The visitor center is a farmhouse built in 1825 out of limestone quarried from the ground it stands on. That building, the Hill-Hussey Stone House, is the front door to Kittatinny Valley State Park in Andover Township, and it sets the tone for the place: a lot of Sussex County history sitting quietly underneath a very good day outside. The state assembled the park in 1994 using Green Acres funds, pulling together glacial lakes, limestone outcroppings, wetlands, abandoned railbeds and a small working airstrip into one property.

Trails for Every Speed

Eleven blazed trails run inside the park boundary, more than 15 miles of them, ranging from flat gravel road to technical single track with roots and rock. What pulls people from across North Jersey, though, is the rail trail network the park administers: the Paulinskill Valley Trail at 27 miles, the Sussex Branch Trail at 20, and the Great Valley Rail Trail and Lehigh & Hudson River Rail Trail at four miles each. Three of them connect into a 14-mile loop. The cinder surface is level and wide, which makes it as workable for a stroller or a horse as it is for a gravel bike. In a good snow year, the same beds turn into some of the better cross-country skiing around.

Four Lakes and a Runway

Lake Aeroflex covers 119 acres and runs deep and cold enough that NJ Fish and Wildlife stocks it with landlocked salmon, a fish most of the state cannot support. The boat ramp is off Limecrest Road, on the Andover Township side of the park. Twin Lakes has a car-top launch off Goodale Road, and White’s Pond is reachable on foot from the Sussex Branch Trail for shoreline fishing. Overhead you will often catch small planes working in and out of Aeroflex-Andover Airport, run by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service as an air attack base during fire season. Plane watching from the parking lot is a genuine local pastime.

Programs and Practical Notes

Park staff and volunteers run well over 100 programs a year out of the interpretive center, from full moon hikes to weekday nature walks, plus an award-winning butterfly garden behind the stone house. Restrooms and picnic tables sit near the office and the Lake Aeroflex lot. Dogs are welcome on leash outdoors, though not inside buildings, as at most Sussex County parks and trails.