Discover West Orange

West Orange brings together several distinct visitor attractions: Thomas Edison’s legacy, activities at the South Mountain Recreation Complex, and trails in two extensive reservations. When planning your trip, it’s worth considering these highlights separately. This can help you decide whether your main interest is the laboratory and its collections, Turtle Back Zoo and other recreational activities, or the trails in the reservations.

Edison’s Laboratory, Estate, and Film Studio

The Thomas Edison National Historical Park preserves Thomas Alva Edison’s laboratory, his Glenmont estate, and collections. The Main Laboratory Building includes Thomas Edison’s library, workshops, a music room, and other exhibits. Different themes come together in the laboratory building: workspaces sit alongside the library, music room, and exhibition areas. Glenmont and the collections extend the park’s historical context beyond the laboratory. The Black Maria offers another highlight: visitors can enter a full-scale replica of Edison’s film studio. Thus, alongside the laboratory and estate, film history stands out as a distinct theme. Those interested in Edison’s life’s work can appreciate these as different aspects of the site.

Walking Trail, Zoo, and Aerial Adventure Course

The South Mountain Recreation Complex in West Orange features a 1.7-mile walking trail and includes Turtle Back Zoo. The complex’s recreational offerings also include the Essex County Treetop Adventure Course, an aerial ropes and obstacle course set among the trees. This brings together a range of activities: a walking trail of a specific length, a zoo visit, and a course among the trees. The trail can be considered in terms of its distance; the zoo and course each offer a different kind of activity. Turtle Back Zoo also has a miniature railway that takes visitors through the South Mountain Reservation. The complex and the reservation should be distinguished: the zoo is part of the Recreation Complex, while the railway runs through the South Mountain Reservation. This distinction helps clarify that the zoo is part of the recreational complex, while the miniature railway’s route goes through the reservation.

The Reservations and Their Trails

Eagle Rock Reservation is a park of more than 400 acres on the crest of the Watchung Mountains, between West Orange, Montclair, and Verona. Hiking trails and footpaths run through wooded areas there. South Mountain Reservation covers 2,000 acres and also has hiking trails. From Crest Drive, a leisurely walk leads to Washington Rock. The two reservations differ both in size and in their specific settings: Eagle Rock is defined by its location on the ridge and its wooded trails, while at South Mountain, the walk from Crest Drive to Washington Rock provides a specific starting point and destination. The size figures help compare their scale; for a particular walk, this route offers an additional point of reference.

Discover more destinations: Maplewood, Fairfield, Montclair, Bloomfield, City of Orange, Irvington, Newark, Roseland.

For the broader travel overview: Essex.