Camp Glen Gray
Mahwah Township, Bergen County, NJ
750 acres

Directions:

Take exit 58 off Route 287, and travel on route 202 north 1.9 miles to Glen Gray Road. Turn left and travel to Midvale Mountain Road (right) to the Camp entrance.

Or US 287 west across the Tappan Zee Bridge; US 87 north to exit 15 for US 287 south; get off at the exit for Route 17 (on the far left); get off at the second exit on the right for Route 202 south; turn left onto Route 202 south and drive about 4.6 miles to a right turn onto Glen Gray Road. Then drive 1.0 miles (crossing the bridge over the Ramapo River) to the park entrance and then 0.2 of a mile more for a small pull-off parking area on the left.

Geology:

Located in the Ramapo Mountains, southwest of Ramapo Valley Reservation and northwest of Campgaw Mountain Reservation.

The New Jersey Highlands region, in which Camp Glen Gray is located, has been deemed highly critical and in need of preservation by the state. The region has been losing roughly 10,200 acres to development each year over the past decade. The Highland region has been recognized in the State Development and Redevelopment Plan as the first Special Resource Area in New Jersey. Because of the significance of the region, the Green Acres Program has directed significant funds towards acquisitions in this region. Ramapo Mountain is also considered a priority area for conservation by the Highlands Coalition, which has designated it one of New Jersey's twelve Critical Treasure Areas.

The brook running from Lake Vreeland is Fox Brook. The mountain to the south of Lake Vreeland is Millstone Hill.

History:

On the local road up to Camp Glen Gray, there is an historical marker on the right before driving up the hill to the park. It deals with the "Dellbrook Estate--Baldwin Residence." It says here is the nineteenth century farm house that formed the basis of an 1861 settlement by the Ramapo River called "Dellbrook". Here also was the home of civil libertarians Evelyn Preston and her husband Roger Nash Baldwin (1884-1981). Baldwin was the founder and head of the American Civil Liberties Union. He was also director of the National Audubon Society. He donated land directly across the Ramapo River as a bird sanctuary. In 1981 he received the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

The camp is one of the nation's oldest Boy Scout camps. The camp includes the five-acre Lake Vreeland and approximately 20 camp buildings.

1917 -- Frank Fellows Gray establishes the camp. The sign for the camp says "Serving Boys since 1917."

1945 -- built a dam to create Lake Vreeland.

1999 -- a merger of four Scout councils to form the Northern New Jersey Council of the Boy Scouts of America; later the council considered the number of camps owned by the new alliance and made a decision to sell Camp Glen Gray.

2002 -- the Green Acres Program, the County of Bergen, and the Trust for Public Land partnered to purchase and permanently protect the area. The deal was orchestrated by the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit land conservation organization.

Funding for the $5.1 million purchase came from:
Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund (approximately $2.77 million);
Green Acres Program ($2.08 million grant to Bergen County); and the
Trust for Public Land (approximately $250,000 including grants from the Victoria Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and private contributions).

Bergen County Department of Parks and Recreation will manage the bulk of the land in conjunction with another 3,000 adjacent acres already owned and managed by the county. The core area of the camp will be managed by the Friends of Glen Gray (FOGG), a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the camp for traditional camping and scouting activities. The property will be open to the public for passive recreation and for organized group camping.

Source: Patti Quinby and Pam Thier; http://www.state.nj.us/dep/greenacres/feature2.htm
and
A website for The Trust for Public Land:
http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=6980&folder_id=629

Trails:

From the parking area you see the yellow trail markers and the red dot on white square background. Head uphill southwest; soon the red dot trail heads off to the right. Not much further along there is an unmarked trail heading east uphill to an open area with lots of sweetfern and hills covered with grasses/sedges and blueberry.

I stay on the yellow trail heading south into a wide shallow valley. Pass the remains of a small cellar. Descend gradually to a stream; cross stream; in a short distance the yellow trail starts climbing up the mountain with small waterfalls on the right. After I satisfied myself that it was going to be a long journey I just turned around and came back the way I came. At a different time of year when there is more blooms, I'll come back and go up the mountain on the red dot trail.

The yellow trail heads south and southwest to Todd Lake at Camp Todd (just southeast of Lake Tamarack at Camp Tamarack) and then with the white-blazed Todd Trail that going west and hooks up with the northern parking lot at Ramapo Lake and southeast and then southwest and west also to Ramapo Lake.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney 10/23/02

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Betula alleghaniensis (yellow birch)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
Carya tomentosa (mockernut hickory)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Ostrya virginiana (eastern hop hornbeam)
Pyrus sp. (crab apple)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)
Sorbus sp.? (mountain ash)?
Tilia americana (American basswood)

Shrubs and sub-shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Chimaphila maculata (spotted wintergreen)
Comptonia peregrina (sweet fern)
Cornus alternifolia (alternate-leaved dogwood)?
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) *
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Vaccinium sp. (blueberry)
Viburnum acerifolium (maple-leaf viburnum)

Vines and sub-vines:
Amphicarpaea bracteata (hog peanut)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Smilax rotundifolia (round-leaved greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Aralia nudicaulis (wild sarsaparilla)
Aster cordifolius (heart-leaved aster) *
Aster divaricatus (white wood aster)* waning
Aster spp. (small white asters) waning
Boehmeria cylindrica (false nettle)
Cirsium sp. (thistle)
Epifagus virginiana (beech drops)
Galium circaezens (wild licorice)
Gnaphalium obtusifolium (sweet everlasting) * waning
Hedeoma pulegioides (penny royal)
Hieracium paniculatum (panicled hawkweed)
Lechea sp. (pinweed)
Lycopus sp. (bugleweed)
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Polygonum cespitosum (cespitose smartweed) *
Potentilla simplex (common cinquefoil)
Prunella vulgaris (self-heal)
Pycnanthemum muticum (short-toothed mountain mint)
Solidago bicolor (silverrod) waning
Solidago caesia (bluestem goldenrod) *
Verbena urticifolia (white vervain)
Yucca filamentosa (Adam's needle)

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (loose-flowered sedge type)
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)

Rushes:
Juncus tenuis (path rush)

Grasses:
Cinna arundinacea (wood reedgrass)
Elymus hystrix (bottle brush grass)
Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stilt grass)
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem grass)

Ferns:
Asplenium platyneuron (ebony spleenwort)
Dennstaedtia punctilobula (hay-scented fern)
Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern)
Polystichum acrostichoides Christmas fern)
Thelypteris noveboracensis (New York fern)