A friend suggested this hike, and off we went with a group of parents and kids. This was such an interesting hike to take. You walk past gnome and fairy houses, an iron forge, and abandoned house, a museum aptly titled “THE SOLITUDE MUSEUM”, and you end up at an awesomely huge dam.
It was pretty easy to find. Google responded well when I typed in “Columbia Trail, High Bridge, NJ”.
We parked at 79 Main street at High Bridge Commons Borough Park and then headed across the street toward the trail. We walked under a bridge, and saw some gnome and fairy houses on our left.
The adorable gnome and fairy homes:
We walked for a bit when we followed a trail to the right into the forest and came to where we could see the dam from above.
Then we veered to the right, past the abandoned building…
… over the bridge…
past the iron forge
Then we turned left, walked along the fence, through The Solitude Museum.
Turned left again to walk next to the lake and ended up by the dam.
It was a lot of fun exploring the stream below the dam. Bring water shoes, and watch out for leeches.
On the side of the dam there was a retaining wall and steps, which were also quite impressive:
On the way back we took a slightly different path going past the Komline Property, across the baseball field and straight to the playground. Hiking the Columbia Trail made for a great day. We even went for ice cream afterwards at the Gronsky Milk House.
A picture is worth a thousand words so here is a screen shot of the map:
If you want to know more about this hike, check out the Hunderdon County website describing the Columbia Trail.