Search "Hemlock Falls" on any map app and you will land in nearly the same spot every time: the Tulip Springs lot off South Orange Avenue, or the smaller overflow lot near the Pine Grove Bridge a few minutes down the road. That is the West Orange side of South Mountain Reservation, and it is where AllTrails, Komoot, and most published trail guides send anyone looking for the reservation's best-known waterfall.
It is also where the complaints pile up. One recent Tripadvisor review of the park put it plainly: "Beautiful park, trails, and reservation, but far too crowded for my tastes." A New Jersey Monthly writer who followed an app-recommended route to the falls last October described getting turned around more than once, blaming the poorly marked trail junctions near the falls themselves. The short loop from Tulip Springs to Hemlock Falls, at 1.7 miles and roughly 45 minutes round trip, is the reservation's most-reviewed hike, and the reviews reflect a lot of people funneled through one entrance.
Millburn residents have a second way in, and it does not show up in the same search results.
The Southern Entrance Nobody's App Mentions
At the bottom of Glen Avenue, across from Lackawanna Place and around the corner from the Millburn Free Public Library, a small sign reading "Locust Grove" marks a driveway into South Mountain Reservation from the Millburn side. The parking lot there sits about a hundred yards from the Millburn train station, close enough that a resident stepping off a Midtown Direct train could walk straight into the reservation without ever getting in a car. The lot fills on busy weekends just like the West Orange lots do, but when it does, the overflow is street parking on a residential block, not a scramble for a second lot three towns over.
From Locust Grove, the route to Hemlock Falls is longer. AllTrails lists it as a 6.1-mile loop with 813 feet of elevation gain, taking two and a half to three hours, compared to the 45-minute version from the West Orange side. That is the trade a Millburn resident is actually making: a proper hike that starts at their own train station, versus a short quick walk that starts in someone else's parking lot.
| Locust Grove (Millburn) | Tulip Springs (West Orange) | |
|---|---|---|
| Distance to Hemlock Falls | 6.1-mile loop | 1.7-mile loop |
| Time | 2.5–3 hours | 30–60 minutes |
| Elevation gain | 813 feet | 298 feet |
| Access | Walkable from Millburn train station | Car only |
What the Longer Route Actually Passes
The Locust Grove loop is not just a longer way to the same view. It strings together most of the reservation's namable landmarks in one walk. Heading out on the yellow-blazed Lenape Trail, hikers cross Maple Brook at the cascades locals call Maple Falls, then Beech Brook a bit further on, both minor but genuinely pretty water features that the short Tulip Springs loop skips entirely. Around the 2.6-mile mark the trail reaches Ball's Bluff, where a pair of stone pillars, all that remains of a picnic pavilion built in 1908, mark a lookout over Millburn toward the Watchung Reservation. The falls themselves come into view a half mile later, followed almost immediately by the smaller Hobble Falls, easy to miss if there has not been much rain.
The Lenape Trail itself is worth knowing by name. It is a 36-mile trail that Essex County's park system built to connect 18 parks across 11 municipalities, and the section running through South Mountain Reservation is one continuous piece of a much longer network. A Millburn resident who starts at Locust Grove and follows the yellow blazes far enough is, technically, on the same trail that eventually threads through Maplewood, South Orange, and West Orange without a single road crossing needed to get there.
Why the West Orange Side Gets All the Traffic
None of this makes the Tulip Springs entrance a bad choice. It is simply the default one, because it is closer to the falls and it is what shows up first in a search. The reservation itself covers 2,112 acres across Millburn, Maplewood, and West Orange, and its layout was finalized by the Olmsted Brothers after Frederick Law Olmsted personally scouted the land in the 1890s, with much of the trail and bridge infrastructure built decades later by Civilian Conservation Corps crews in the 1930s. It was designed as one connected landscape, not two separate parks, but the digital shortcuts most people use to find it treat the West Orange access point as the only one that exists.
That gap between design and default is exactly why the reviews from the crowded side read the way they do. A trail built for one continuous 2,112-acre experience gets treated by most visitors as a single short walk to a single waterfall, all funneled through the same lot.
What Changes This Time of Year
Fall adds a few practical wrinkles worth knowing before heading out from either entrance. The Rahway River section of the Locust Grove loop is one of the better spots in the reservation for foliage, since the trail runs alongside the water for a stretch rather than just crossing it. Waterfall flow at Hemlock Falls depends heavily on recent rain, so a dry September stretch means a quieter trickle, while a wet week turns it into the version most photos show. A hiking guide last updated this spring flags several low sections along the Lenape Trail near the falls as reliably muddy after heavy rain, with stepping stones in some spots and plain mud in others, so trail runners in particular should plan footwear accordingly. Dogs are welcome throughout the reservation on leash.
Where to Find a Map That Actually Works
Given how often hikers report losing the trail near the falls junction, it is worth grabbing a physical map before heading out rather than relying on a phone. The South Mountain Conservancy sells a waterproof trail map that residents can also find locally at Words Bookstore and at the Millburn Free Public Library, along with a companion trail guide booklet that describes each named route individually. For a resident starting from Locust Grove, that combination, a paper map plus a route that begins two minutes from home, solves the exact problem the app-driven crowd runs into on the other side of the park.
The Backyard Most Residents Are Only Half Using
South Mountain Reservation sits inside the daily radius of anyone living in Millburn or Short Hills, but most of what gets written about it describes a park accessed from somewhere else. The version reachable on foot from the Millburn train station rarely makes the list, even though it reaches the same waterfall, passes more of the reservation's actual landmarks along the way, and does not require parking in West Orange.
Knowing which door to use does not require expertise. It requires knowing that the reservation has more than one, and that the quieter one happens to be the one closest to home.
If you are exploring what makes a specific pocket of Millburn or Short Hills work for daily life, not just for a sale, that is exactly the kind of local detail the Judith Daniels team builds into every neighborhood conversation. Reach out anytime for a complimentary market consultation, whether you are weighing a move or just trying to figure out where the good trailheads are.
