Morris County High Point Trip Report

one point 2 miles west of Milton and 1000 ft SW of spot elevation 1388 (1,395 ft)

Date: October 2, 2000
Author: Michael Schwartz

The three listed points are all in a county park, Mahlon Dickerson Reservation, and are shown on a very nice map produced by the County Park Commission. Mr. Dickerson was governor of NJ from 1815-16, and served as Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Jackson and Van Buren. The 1380+' area listed in Andy Martin's book as "1 point 1000' southwest of spot elevation 1388" is shown on the park map with an elevation of 1395'. I checked with the County Park Commission's cartographer (this is a well-to-do county), and was informed that the Park Commission had the entire reservation surveyed about 1990, and that elevations are accurate to within plus or minus two feet. He is unequivocal about the 1395 elevation's correctness, and on my recent revisit, I found that the sign marking the high point now reads 1395, rather than the old 1388, which I remember from the 70's. Eyeball confirms the 1395 point is higher.

On a practical basis, spot elevation 1388 is about a one minute walk from point 1395, and no problem to find. What this does accomplish is to eliminate the need to visit point 1380+, measured by the county at 1381, on Bowling Green Mountain, which is a pain of a bushwhack.

From NJ 15, north of I-80, take the Weldon Road exit north. Enter Mahlon Dickerson Reservation, a county park, at 1.4 miles, pass Saffins Pond at 2.9 miles, and look left for a yellow blazed woods road bracketed by two yellow posts at 3.8 miles. If you reach a major turn off into the park "trailer area", you've gone too far. There's room to park one or two cars without blocking the woods road. Walk about three minutes up the yellow marked road to a trail junction, bear left toward a sign for the white blazed Pine Swamp Trail, then bear right almost immediately at another junction. The trail will be marked with white, yellow, and blue markers. In less than 15 minutes total you'll arrive at a sign for the "highest point in Morris County 1395 feet/425 meters above sea level." From the sign bushwhack gently uphill to the SW for about 150 yards through fairly open woods to obvious highest ground. Look for a three foot high boulder that butts against a double trunk oak. There is a cross scratched into the top of the boulder. Spot elevation 1388 is just ahead off the trail, maybe 100 yards past the sign.