Denville has more lakes than most towns its size and almost none of them are open to the public. That surprises people who move here, and it disappoints visitors who show up at Indian Lake on a hot Saturday expecting a beach. Here is the honest map of Denville’s lakes, parks and trails, starting with the part that matters most.
The short answer on swimming
Cook’s Pond is the only lake or pond in Denville where a non-resident can buy access and swim. Every other named lake in town belongs to a private lake community with member-only beaches. If you are planning a day at the water in Denville, you are planning a day at Cook’s Pond.
Cook’s Pond
Cook’s Pond sits inside James F. Dyer Park at 19 Entrance Way and is run by Denville Recreation. It covers about 12 acres and is open for the summer season, Memorial Day through Labor Day.
There is a beach, bathrooms, outdoor showers, lifeguards on duty, and swim lessons. Memberships are sold to residents and non-residents alike, in family, individual and senior versions, with full-week and weekend-only options, a one-week trial membership, and day passes for people who just want an afternoon.
Sign up through CommunityPass, by calling Denville Recreation at 973-625-8300, or in person at the pond. Prices change season to season, so ask rather than assuming.
The private lake communities
These are residential associations, not public parks. Access comes with membership, which generally comes with living there.
Indian Lake is the big one, a 99-acre lake ringed by more than 1,000 homes. The association maintains three sand beaches with lifeguards in summer. Membership is required to use the lake and its facilities.
Cedar Lake is also 99 acres, with more than 300 families in the community. Two sand beaches and a floating dock. Private.
Estling Lake is the most closed of the group, a small summer community of roughly 60 houses owned by the Estling Lake Corporation. The Estling Lake Bridge is on Denville’s list of historic sites.
Lake Arrowhead sits near the Mountain Lakes border and is run by the Lake Arrowhead Club, with a clubhouse on the water.
Denville’s four major residential lake communities are usually named as Cedar Lake, Indian Lake, Rock Ridge and Lake Arrowhead. The township also contains Holstein Lake, Openaki Lake, Cooper Lake, Diamond Springs Pond and Rock Ridge Lake.
One nice piece of local history: several of these lake communities compete against each other in the Hub Lakes league, a summer sports circuit that leans directly on Denville’s old nickname.
Township parks
Denville runs 686 acres of municipal parks across 15 properties: Lakeshore Park, Cooks Pond, Gardner Field, Veterans Memorial Park, Veterans Field, Pocono Fields, Knuth Field, Ford Road Field, Todd Johnson Field, Muriel Hepner Park, Denbrook/Jaycee Park, Toft Hill Park, Birch Run Park, Beacon Hill Playground and Denville Park.
Gardner Field is the main one. It has tennis courts, basketball courts, and multiple soccer and football fields, plus a playground rebuilt in 2018 by volunteers through Project Playground 2.0. The playground is open April 1 through October 31, 8 a.m. to dusk, weather permitting. The Rockaway River runs through the property, and the Municipal Building, the library and the community garden are all right there.
Veterans Memorial Park on Zeek Road is the athletics hub, with both natural grass and artificial turf fields for soccer, baseball and football, playgrounds, and a walking track. There is a fire tower vista adjoining the property.
Den Brook Park on Openaki Road is where you go for an easy walk in the woods. The Denbrook Trail starts near Openaki Lake, is surfaced in crushed stone, and follows a creek.
McCarter Memorial Park is the downtown one, with a nature trail running along the Rockaway River. It is the park you can walk to from Broadway.
Real hiking
Jonathan’s Woods is the best trail system inside Denville’s borders. The Morris County Park Commission preserve runs over 500 acres in total, with 445 of them in Denville, across forest, wetlands, ridges and brooks. It is used for hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and snowshoeing, and it is the top-rated biking trail in town. Trailheads are on Old Beach Glen Road and off Mackenzie Lane South in the Regency development. The trails are maintained by a local volunteer group, POWWW, short for Protect Our Wetlands, Water and Woods.
Tourne County Park spans 547 acres across Mountain Lakes, Denville, Boonton Township and Parsippany, with 286 of those acres in Denville. More than 12 miles of trails, plus Rockaway River access for canoeing, kayaking and fishing.
Wildcat Ridge Wildlife Management Area is the one most Denville residents underrate. It is 5,800 state-managed acres, part of it inside Denville, connecting toward the Wildcat Ridge Hawk Watch and Split Rock Reservoir and feeding into the long-distance Highlands Trail and Four Birds Trail.
What Denville just added
Mayor Thomas Andes signed closing documents on Thursday, August 27, giving the township the first 17 acres of the former St. Francis property at 122 to 156 Diamond Spring Road. A remaining 33-acre parcel, which includes the historic barns, athletic fields and festival grounds, is expected to close in October, bringing the total to roughly 50 preserved acres.
Denville is receiving $5.7 million to preserve 57.29 acres across the St. Francis property and the Pocono Field tract, funded through the Morris County Open Space Farmland Preservation Trust Fund and NJ Green Acres. The northern parcel was originally bought in 1895 by the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother and ran as a senior living community for more than a century.
Nearby, the Ayres-Knuth Farm on Cooper Road predates the Revolutionary War and is one of the most talked about historic sites in town.
Where this is all heading
Denville has preserved more than 1,400 acres of open space, not counting county parkland. The township’s 2018 Trails Master Plan proposes 23 trail segments totaling more than 18 linear miles, designed to link the train station, St. Clare’s, the parks, the schools, the lakes, the ridgelines and downtown into one connected network.
Practical details
- Denville Recreation: 973-625-8300
- Program and membership registration: CommunityPass at communitypass.net
- Public swimming: Cook’s Pond only, Memorial Day to Labor Day
- There is no municipal swimming pool. Cook’s Pond is a natural pond beach.
Hours, fees and season dates change every year. Confirm with Denville Recreation before you drive over.
