Ramapo Lake Loop

Ramapo Mountain State Forest's signature loop circles Ramapo Lake, a 120-acre reservoir impounded in the 1870s as a water supply for the village of Mahwah, then climbs to Ramapo Torne, a granite summit at 1,095 feet that offers broad views across the Hudson Highlands and into New York State just beyond the ridgeline. The 5-mile loop begins at the Oakland Avenue trailhead and ascends through mixed oak forest on the MacEvoy Trail before reaching the lake's earthen dam and following the shoreline on a rolling woodland path. Ramapo Lake sits in a glacially scoured bowl surrounded by second-growth hardwood forest, its clear water reflecting the ridge that rises steeply from the north shore. Osprey and great blue heron fish the lake regularly; river otter have been documented in recent years. The climb to Ramapo Torne above the lake is steep but brief, gaining 400 feet over a half-mile through open rock slabs with increasingly expansive views. The summit vista encompasses the New York-New Jersey border ridgeline, the Ramapo Valley, and on clear days the Manhattan skyline 25 miles to the southeast. The Ramapo Mountains represent a southward extension of the Hudson Highlands, composed of the same ancient Precambrian gneiss formed over a billion years ago during continental collision events that built the ancient Grenville Mountain belt.