Overlook Trail

Dogs Leashed

Features Fall Colors · Spring · Wildflowers

There is parking at both end of the Overlook Trail, both off Fiddler's Creek Rd. The parking at the west end is at Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain about a quarter mile from NJ RT 29. The lot is a fairly decent size and while not paved, improved with an embedded latticework. The parking lot at the eastern end is unimproved and can be quite muddy.

To start at the western end of the trail, follow the signs from the Baldpate Mountain parking lot across Fiddlers Creek Rd. The trail starts as a fairly wide path through lightly wooded area until reaching a fenced-in meadow which forms the bulk of the Fiddler's Creek Preserve. The path through the meadow is a wide mowed path. The meadow itself was farmland that is being restored to forest. The fences are to keep deer out of the restoration area.

Once in the meadow, the trail loops southeast, then east and exits the meadow through the southeast gate. Once through the gate the trail crosses over a wide mowed area running along the fence, which serves as an access for the vehicles used by the people doing the restoration, and enters a mature forested area. The trail heads northeast along the edge of the Fiddler's Creek Ravine, paralleling Fiddlers Creek and the Fiddler's Creek Preserve Ravine Trail, which runs below it and the Fiddlers Creek Preserve South Bank Trail, which is on the opposite side of the creek. The trail re-enters the restoration area through the east gate. From there it runs west northwest to the NW gate, where it ends.

The Fiddler's Creek Preserve is comprised of mature upland forest along Fiddler's Creek, meadow, and second growth forest.