Bubbling Springs Recreation Area
Macopin Road, West Milford, Passaic County, New Jersey

No Dogs.

Directions:

US 287/87 west; exit 15 for US 287 south; exit 52B for Route 23 north; turn right onto Echo Lake Road; turn left onto Macopin Road; pass by West Brook Road on the right and drive just 0.3 of a mile more and turn right into either the first parking lot or a little farther for the second parking lot.

History:

Across the park entrance is the Cahill House (the Parrot House) c. 1847.  Listed on the Local Register of Historic Sites, West Milford.

Samantha Vaughan and her husband own the house today.  She wrote that she wanted to find out if the Cahill family is from the William Cahill from Cork, Ireland. http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi?cahill::1216.html

Facilities:

gazebo, lake beach, children's playground, picnic pavilion, two baseball fields, trails

Trails:

5/25/2005.  Ceferino Santana and I found this park by serendipity.  We were looking for some other parks and just happened to run into this one.  We parked towards the back of the first parking lot near the dumping area.  There is a trail that goes uphill to the top and then downhill to a picnic pavilion by a lake.  We started up this trail but took a little side path to the left until we saw that it just leads down to the swimming beach.  So we turned around and got back on the main trail and walked up and then down to the picnic pavilion.  We saw some narrow trails heading off to the right, but did not follow them. 

Cefe stayed down by the picnic pavilion while I walked back to the car.  I drove the car around to the second parking lot and then back of the children's playground and swimming beach to the picnic pavilion.  I stopped just a little while to pick up a few new plant species.  I then turned around and went past the children's playground to park near the other, non-swimming lake.  Walked down a short path to the lake side to pick up a few more plant species.  We then left.  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney. 

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = plant found in bloom on date of field trip, 5/25/05

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula nigra (river birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya cordiformis (bitternut hickory)
Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
Castanea dentata (American chestnut)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Populus tremuloides (quaking aspen)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)  *
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Quercus prinus (chestnut oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Salix sp. (willow)
Sassafras albidum (sassafras) 
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)

Shrubs and sub-shrubs:
Chimaphila maculata (striped wintergreen)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Cornus racemosa (gray dogwood)
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)  *waning
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Rhododendron maximum (rosebay rhododendron) 
Rhus typhina (staghorn sumac)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rosa palustris (swamp rose)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)  *
Salix discolor (pussy willow)
Syringa vulgaris (common lilac) purple *  planted
Vaccinium pallidum (hillside blueberry)
Viburnum acerifolium (maple-leaf viburnum)
Viburnum dentatum (smooth arrowwood viburnum)
Viburnum plicatum (double-file viburnum)   *

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Achillea millefolium (common yarrow)
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) *
Aralia nudicaulis (wild sarsaparilla) 
Arisaema triphyllum (Jack in the pulpit)
Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort)
Aster spp. (aster)
Barbarea vulgaris (common wintercress)  *
Cardamine pensylvanica (Pennsylvania bittercress)  *
Cerastium vulgatum (mouse-ear chickweed) 
Cirsium arvense (Canada thistle)
Coronilla varia (crown vetch)
Cypripedium acaule (pink lady's slipper)  *
Eupatorium rugosum (white snakeroot)
Fragaria virginiana (common strawberry) 
Geranium maculatum (wild geranium)  *
Hieracium sp. (hawkweed)
Impatiens sp. (jewelweed)
Lysimachia quadrifolia (whorled loosestrife)
Maianthemum canadense (Canada mayflower)  *
Oxalis sp. (yellow wood sorrel)   
Plantago major (common plantain)
Polygonatum pubescens (hairy true Solomon's seal)  *
Potentilla canadensis (dwarf cinquefoil)  *
Potentilla simplex (common cinquefoil) 
Ranunculus acris (tall buttercup)  *
Ranunculus bulbosus (bulbous buttercup)  *
Rumex crispus (curled dock)
Rumex obtusifolius (broad dock)
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion)
Trientalis borealis (starflower)  *
Trifolium pratense (red clover)
Tussilago farfara (Carya cordiformis (coltsfoot) 
Veronica officinalis (common speedwell)
Viola sororia (common blue  violet)  *

Sedges:
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)

Grasses:
Anthoxanthum odoratum (sweet vernal grass)
Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Poa annua (annual blue grass)

Ferns:
Equisetum arvense (field horsetail)
Lycopodium obscurum (ground pine)
Dennstaedtia punctilobula (hay-scented fern)
Dryopteris marginalis (marginal woodfern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)