Yesterday, I took the train to Mills Reservation and did a two-mile hike there. Mills Reservation is one of the few hikes in New Jersey accessible by train. I’ve gone there by train several times in the past, taking the Montclair-Boonton Line to the Montclair Heights station and walking up Normal Avenue to the park. But this requires an 0.4-mile roadwalk along Normal Avenue, a rather narrow and heavily trafficked street, which lacks sidewalks for part of the way.
For yesterday’s trip, I decided to detrain at the Mountain Avenue station, the next stop to the south. This way, I had only a short road walk on Laurel Place—a dead-end residential street with sidewalks. From there, I could climb a grassy slope and follow the Lenape Trail to the park at the crest of the ridge. This ended up being a far more pleasant and safe route.
Yesterday was a perfect day to visit the park, which affords magnificent views of the New York City skyline: