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This is the largest park in the Morris County Park System, encompassing 3,494 acres of beautiful near-wilderness and recreational areas. The Reservation is the park to visit with over 24.5 miles of multi-use trails for novice and experienced skill levels. For off-road bicyclists, discover the challenge and adventure of the blazed biking trails. Horseback riding, seasonal camping, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and softball are recreational activities at Mahlon Dickerson Reservation. Digital trail maps are available online.
One of the outstanding features of the Reservation is the magnificent view from atop Headley Overlook, a 1,280 foot elevation, one of the highest points in Morris County. The Saffin Pond area is a most scenic location to enjoy a day of fishing. The Saffin Rock Rill area offers space for educational programs.
Some of the unique activities at Mahlon Dickerson Reservation include a radio-controlled car track, and model boat racing. All are operated by nonprofit groups comprised of interested residents.
Mahlon Dickerson Reservation (MDR) is a 3,590+ acre park with miles of trails and a Recreational Campground. MDR is a quiet place to enjoy hiking, biking, fishing, birdwatching and more. There are two (2) camping areas within the park. One (1) area accommodates Recreational Vehicle (RV) campers who travel with Motorhomes (Class A/B/C), Trailers/Fifth Wheels and Pop-up Campers. The second area is for Tent and Adirondack Shelter (Shelter) campers.
This campground is designated for recreational camping only.
This seasonal site is intended for short-term stays and does not allow for monthly or long-term reservations.
RV Sites - Reservations area allowed for up to fourteen (14) consecutive nights and cannot exceed 14 reserved nights in a 30 day period.
Tent and Shelter Sites - Reservations are allowed for up to two (2) consecutive nights, three (3) consecutive nights on a Holiday weekend and cannot exceed two (2) reserved nights , three (3) on a Holiday weekend in a 7 day period.
What a great park ! Clean. Calm. Restful. We will return.
Nice flat rail trail for easy hiking or biking plus plenty of other normal hiking trails. Loop around pond an dam is pretty and also saw 4 beaver lodges and 1 beaver dam.
Pleased with our experience. I was a little worried reading reviews but hopeful.
We were in tent site 8, all the way at the end of the tent sites. It was secluded, even from tent site 7. There wasn't anyone there the first night we stayed, but they came the second night. We didn't hear them at ALL.
The portapotty was very clean, considering its a portapotty and in the woods. I was expecting it to be full and smelly, but it was clean and had plenty of sanitizer.
There was nowhere we saw to dispose of propane canisters, so we ended up bringing them home.
It was buggy but in the woods, so not surprised. We walked to the stream a few times. We went into town and we hiked nearby. We were also able to get a few geocaches in the area.
Overall, very happy. Certainly worth the price!!!
Make sure you read the fine print. The RV sites do NOT allow ground fires. But that was our fault for not reading that. Beautiful campsites. I love that we arnt on top of our neighbor. Nice paths to the clean and maintained bathrooms. Nice council fire ring where you can have a fire and a large field to play on.
(This review is only for the hiking aspect.)
*Do not forget to bring/put on bug spray if you're going hiking. There are so. many. bugs.
Granted, the bugs are mostly flies and other flying insects, but they honestly made the hike really uncomfortable. I'm not even sure if bug spray would've made a huge difference. Maybe if you purchase those bug spray wipes and very cautiously apply to your face (avoiding eyes, lips, mouth and washing hands after applying).
The bugs pretty much followed/clung to us for the whole trip. There was constant buzzing in my ear. I'm not sure if it was because we had applied sunscreen, but there were very few areas where we wouldn't be constantly swatting around us. I think we expected some insects being that there are swamp areas, but even when not near any water or swampy areas, insects were a big nuisance.
These trails seem to be less frequented and less popular than other places, so expect walking into lots of spiderwebs as well.
The hike itself is farily flat with some gradual steepness here and there. We loosely followed the "Pine Swamp Trail" that is listed on All Trails (app was very helpful during the hike), which is roughly 7 miles. It took us 3 hours at a relaxed pace. If you hike frequently, most trails are casual.
The overlook was kind of underwhelming, as trees pretty much covered any chance of a vista. There was one small window of a view of distant mountains. But besides that, not much. Perhaps the overlook would be better in the winter.
I would definitely recommend planning the hike and deciding which trails to go on ahead of time. There are blazes and lots of different colored trails, but not much signage or maps once on the trail. The only signage we saw while on the trail was for Headley's Overlook. As I'm looking at the map now after the hike, I realized that we didn't hike close to "The Highest Point in Morris County" that's written on the digital map on the morrisparks.net website. We were at one point debating whether to continue on White or to go on Orange (we were coming from the east), and there were no signs about this highest point. We had assumed the highest point was Headley's Overlook.
One of the plusses about hiking here was that most of the trails are shaded, so hiking during 80-degree-plus whether was very comfortable. There are also porta potties at some stops where there were parking lots.