Wanaque: Highlands Rail Trail, Wanaque River and Reservoir

Wanaque can be understood through three very different local features: the Highlands Rail Trail, the Wanaque River, and the Wanaque Reservoir. The trail is a named greenway for pedestrians and cyclists. The river is associated with a section included in a program and observations of wild brook trout, while the reservoir combines an extensive body of water with the history of a transformed landscape. If you are looking for a place to stay in Wanaque, you can start by deciding whether a specific trail, the river’s history, or the development of the waterscape has the strongest connection to your trip.

Highlands Rail Trail: a named route

The opened Phase I of the Highlands Rail Trail runs for about 1.72 miles from Union Avenue to F.A. Orechio Drive. In this phase, the former railroad corridor was transformed into a safe greenway for walking and cycling. For your outing, you can use the opened section on foot or by bicycle and follow the former railroad corridor between the two roads.

Wanaque River: program designation and trout

In 2008, a four-mile section of the Wanaque River at Back Beach Park in the Borough of Wanaque was included in the Wild Trout Stream program. Surveys caught 74 and 81 brook trout, respectively. A historical account also describes the section of the Wanaque River below the Wanaque Reservoir as known for producing some of the largest wild trout in the state. Together, these details offer a natural and fishing-history perspective on the river.

Reservoir and landscape history

The Wanaque Reservoir extends through the hollows of the Ramapo Valley as a ten-mile-long body of water and is fed by the Wanaque River. Its extent describes a different landscape feature from the Highlands Rail Trail route or the section of the river. The reservoir’s history also includes a transformation of the former landscape: the body of water replaced a paper mill and numerous homes scattered throughout the hills and valleys. Here, the geographic description of the reservoir meets the memory of former places of residence and work. The Wanaque River feeds the reservoir; the trout figures refer to individual river sections, not to the body of water.

Freedom Furnace and iron smelting

The iron-smelting tradition also adds to the area’s history. Freedom Furnace is associated with this tradition in the Wanaque area. Iron ore has been mined and smelted in the Wanaque area since colonial times; a photograph from 1903 shows Freedom Furnace. Several clearly distinct topics can therefore help orient you: a greenway you can use, the river and its trout history, the long body of water, and the local iron-smelting tradition.

Discover more destinations: Haskell, Clifton.

For the broader travel overview: Passaic.