Photography-Grace Lord Park

Notes of caution:

The river is deceptively calm and has claimed lives, do not swim or go wading in the river!! The rocks and some of the paths are dangerous and can be slippery, be careful climbing and walking! The park is patrolled by police but not at regular intervals. Last but not least, the park is a wildlife area and to the best of my knowledge there is no hunting. Beware of bears and other animals, including humans.

The park is in the highlands of NJ and set in a gorge and the town itself is situated half on a small mountain. The photos of "Grace Lord Park" consist of the trails in the town of Boonton, Boonton Township, and/or Rockaway, New Jersey. Places that show up in my photography of GLP often are the first falls, second falls, footbridge, Indian rock, and the ruins of the old Iron Works factory. So with that said the river that runs through these towns and GLP is the Rockaway River and it empties into the New Jersey City (a.k.a Jersey City) reservoir. The Rockaway River is, or is part of the old Morris Canal. The first falls (on a normal day) are 10+ foot drop and quite obviously part of a canal, the second falls are a dangerous 20-25 foot drop over jagged rocks with a deep pool underneath. This pool is also known as "The Devils Hole" and has a few legends attached to it.

The foot bridge (I imagine) was made around the same time as the Iron Works or some other industrial stuff that was built before the Iron Works between the mid 1700's and the early-mid 1800's and it still stands strong even in the face of Irene which flooded the river so bad parts of the gorge and Main street collapsed.

Indian rock, The Rock, or Washington Rock is climbable (by adults, DO NOT let children climb it!) however use caution. Kids "party up there and do other things "if you take my meaning". At the top you will notice a large cut hole with a large iron ring set into it; or there was one the last time I climbed the rock almost ten years ago. I assume the hole had something to do with the canal since its a bit of a distance from the factory ruins.

Alright with all of that said we are left with the ruins. They I'm relatively certain cropped up in the 1830's and burnt to the ground in 1903 leaving just the shallow stone furnaces and some other ruins that I don't think are well known. On a spiritual standpoint all of the ruins are creepy in the extreme including the rock. There are local rumors and legends about rituals being preformed in said places, but I've never seen it first hand. There is however evidence that they are used by local homeless people during nighttime hours.

Okay I lied. So there is a bit more of the park that I have photographed and could pop up here or there. So there is an old train bridge and turn style/table (nothing to do with music production/playing equipment) on the path that was closed in the summer of 2011 due to tropical storm Irene. As I stated beforehand, the park is in the highlands of NJ and set in a gorge and the town itself is situated half on a small mountain and so is the trail leading to the old bridge and turn table, and it is blocked (not very well) by a fence sporting government trespassing warnings. I do not know when or if they will reopen it or give in if people keep going up there. If you come to the park and decide to go around the barricade (which was put there for good reason) there is another barricade farther ahead which is harder to get around and the trail is not steady or safe. It looks like it could collapse at any time.

Flooding in March or April of 2010 or 2011. There should be a short (about 4 foot) waterfall that is part of the old Morris Canal.

This is the same river as above, and part of the same flood.

Grace Lord Park, Second falls April 2014.

Grace Lord Park, Second falls April 2014. This is the closest I have gotten to depicting the feel of the actual size of the fall. The orange dot is a childs beachball.