Hiking Stairway to Heaven, to Pinwheel Vista and Appalachian Trail Boardwalk

On our last hike at Mercer Meadows, our 6 year old complained and whined during the hike and said that it was boring because there weren't many rocks and we weren't climbing a mountain. This time we wanted to make him happy by trying to find a hike with rocks and views. Pinwheel Vista fit the bill so we headed out to Vernon Township which was about 2 hours away. 

The parking lot at the trailhead was small and fit only about 5 cars so we had to park on the street. There are no bathrooms at the trail head.

The trail starts out flat and takes you through an open meadow where you have a great view of the mountains and where you are headed.

Then you enter the woods. It is flat for a little while in the woods.

Until you reach a boulder field and it starts to steadily climb. My 6 year old knew from early on that he loved this hike once the rocks appeared. 

When the trail climbs steeply, and there are slabs of rock forming steps, this is the "Stairway to Heaven". The kiddos loved this part. It was steep and a great leg workout.

When we came to this rock pile we turned left to follow the blue markers.

Where we soon hit the awesome views at Pinwheel Vista.

We had lunch on the rocks and just enjoyed the great views. It was such a great day for a hike and we still had lots of time that we decided we would head back down and also do some of the boardwalk trail.

 But before we headed back down, we found a nearby geocache. :)

We headed back down the way we came, I actually ran down parts of it (the safe parts) with my 6 year old. It was fun. We got back in the car and headed to the trailhead at the Pochuck Parking lot. More info about parking for both hikes can be found here. There are no bathrooms at this trail head either. I really loved the boardwalk. It is an easy walk because it is all flat.

There was this nice bridge and if you looked over the edge were many turtles.

 We walked about .75 miles to this suspension bridge. It's pretty neat.

 Then we headed back and called it a day.

We did a little over 4 miles with the kiddos on these hikes. They did great and I can't say there wasn't any complaining but at least 6 year old was happy on the first hike. The scenery was just gorgeous. The views combined with the neat boardwalks made this a great day of hiking! Definitely one of my favorites in New Jersey!