Everything you need
before you arrive.

The lake runs to seven miles of open water and the house sits on it, so most of what you would come here to do starts at the end of the lawn. Kayaks, paddleboards and a canoe are yours to use.

Fox, Storms and Chapel Islands are the obvious first paddle — three wooded islands out in the middle, close enough for a lazy morning and far enough to feel like an outing. For anything with an engine behind it, Greenwood Lake Water Sports run driven wake and ski sessions out of the marina, and Jersey Paddle Boards rent and teach out of Willow Point.

Ten minutes down the same road, Monksville Reservoir is capped at ten horsepower, which is why it stays quiet all summer.

Bringing your own boat or jet ski is welcome, and there is dock space for it — tell us what you are trailering when you book, so we can make sure it fits. There is no public launch ramp on Greenwood Lake; boats go in through the marinas, and most charge a small fee for it. Sunnyside Landing on Route 17A takes any vessel and also rents slips, and DeFeo’s and Moosehead in the village both launch. Registration rules differ either side of the state line, so check which end of the lake you are launching into.

Fishing the lake Greenwood Lake, in numbers

The boathouse is where the lake actually starts. Everything that floats lives in it, and all of it is yours for the week — we would rather it was worn out than tidy.

The flotilla, such as it is: two kayaks, a canoe, stand-up paddleboards, a towable tube, and life vests in every size we could find. Paddles, pumps and the rest are on the wall where you would expect them.

There is dock space for a guest boat or jet ski if you are trailering one. Tell us what you are bringing when you book so we can be sure it fits. There is no public launch ramp on Greenwood Lake — boats go in through the marinas, most for a small fee, and Sunnyside Landing on Route 17A takes any vessel.

One rule, and it is the boring kind that matters: vests on children on the dock, not just in the boat.

Fishing the lake

Greenwood Lake has a real reputation for largemouth and smallmouth bass, and the water around the islands is where most of it happens. There are walleye, pickerel, perch and catfish in here too.

The lake straddles the state line, which sounds like a complication and is not: a license from either state is honored on all of Greenwood Lake, on the water and along the shore, so buy whichever is easier. Seasons, size limits and daily creel limits change — read the current regulations rather than trusting anything written on a website, this one included.

In a hard winter the ice fishing is a genuine local tradition. Ice is never guaranteed and never uniform; ask locally before you walk out on it.

Fishing the lake Greenwood Lake, in numbers

You are in the New Jersey Highlands, which is why there is more wild country at the door than the distance from New York would suggest.

Surprise Lake and the Bearfort Ridge in Abram S. Hewitt is the walk we would send a first-timer to, and the one with the biggest climb. Terrace Pond in Wawayanda is the dramatic one, with real scrambling on parts of the loop. Long Pond Ironworks is flat, historic, and the best of them in poor weather or with young children.

During the autumn and winter firearm seasons some of this ground is shared with hunters. Wear blaze orange on the state forests and wildlife management areas then — it costs nothing, and it is what locals do.

The hiking guide Five walks within twenty minutes

Bowling Green Golf Club in Oak Ridge is the closest serious round — a public eighteen running to nearly 6,900 yards from the back tees, a Geoffrey Cornish and Bill Sullivan design that opened in 1963, with a range and a proper shop.

If you want the better golf and do not mind the drive, The Golf Club at Mansion Ridge in Monroe is the one — a Jack Nicklaus design, and public, which is a rarer combination than it sounds.

For nine quick holes, Scenic Farms in Pine Island sits out on the black dirt north of Warwick. Book tee times ahead on weekends in season; this corridor fills up with day traffic out of the city.

Trails, if the tee times are gone

Start with the rule, because it is not negotiable: no firearms or ammunition come into the house, ever. Hunt as much as you like; store and transport everything off the property and in line with state law. New Jersey and New York both regulate this tightly, and they do not regulate it the same way. This is the one house rule we will end a stay over.

With that settled — there is a great deal of public ground here. Abram S. Hewitt State Forest is two thousand acres immediately north of the house, and parts of it are open for deer, turkey, grouse, squirrel, rabbit and woodchuck in their seasons. Wawayanda State Park, which administers it, is public deer ground as well. New Jersey is bow, shotgun and muzzleloader country — there is no centerfire rifle deer season here.

Across the line, Sterling Forest State Park takes big game, small game and turkey, but a New York State license is not enough on its own: the park issues its own permit for a small fee, you carry permit, license and photo ID while hunting or scouting, and the vehicle stub goes on the dashboard. There is no hunting in the park in September, and the Doris Duke Wildlife Sanctuary and the Appalachian Trail corridor are closed to it entirely.

The Newark watershed lands nearby are open too, but they need a City of Newark permit on top of a New Jersey license, and hunters there must be eighteen or over.

Seasons, bag limits and permit rules are reset every year by each state. Read the current regulations before you travel — do not plan a trip around anything you read here.

We will be straight with you: this is not big-mountain skiing and it is not the reason to come. But when the house is the reason you came, having two mountains twenty minutes away changes what a winter weekend can hold.

Mount Peter above Warwick is the friendly one, and one of the oldest ski areas in the country — short, well run, and forgiving to learn on. Mountain Creek in Vernon is the bigger, steeper, busier operation, with real vertical and night skiing.

Both live or die on the cold. Check conditions before you commit a day to it; in a warm week the answer is a fire and the hot tub instead.

A winter weekend

Wawayanda and Sterling Forest are better under snow than most people expect — the trails empty out, the ridges open up once the leaves are down, and you get long views that simply are not there in August.

On a hard freeze the lake becomes the center of the village: skating, ice fishing, and a good deal of standing about in the cold. Conditions vary enormously from year to year and from one end of the lake to the other. Ask locally, and never take ice on trust.

Warwick does Christmas properly, if you are up here in December.

A winter weekend

The Warwick Valley has more of this than anywhere its size ought to. Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery is the icon — wine, hard cider and Black Dirt spirits on one orchard property, and the default afternoon.

Applewood Winery and Pennings Farm Cidery are both close and both worth it, Pennings especially with a group. The Drowned Lands Brewery in Warwick is the serious beer stop.

Twenty-five minutes further, Brotherhood in Washingtonville claims to be America’s oldest winery, and leans into it.

The wineries guide

Autumn is the valley’s season. Masker Orchards is the big drive-into-the-rows pick-your-own; Ochs Orchard is smaller and better for produce; Pennings runs a market and orchard together.

Bellvale Farms Creamery is not optional — a multi-generation dairy scooping its own ice cream over a hilltop view of the valley, best at sunset, line and all. It runs roughly April to October, and closes for the winter, so check before you drive up for it.

If you are cooking one big meal here, shop these on the way up rather than after you arrive.

Echo Lake Stables in Newfoundland run guided trail rides out into the same Highlands country you can walk, which is a very different way to see it and an easy win with teenagers.

Call ahead rather than turning up — rides go by appointment, and fill on good-weather weekends.

The hiking guide

Greenwood Lake Airport sits just east of West Milford, close enough that you will hear the odd light aircraft from the deck. It is a public field, and Sky Training there is an FAA-approved school that will take one or two people up on a discovery flight — an hour with an instructor, most of it spent over the lake you are staying on, and you fly it yourself for a good part of the trip.

It is the best value view of this whole valley, and it converts a surprising number of passengers into students. Book ahead and expect weather to have a vote.

The terminal is worth the visit on its own: a Lockheed Constellation is built into the building. Further up the valley, Wurtsboro is one of the oldest soaring fields in the country and flies glider rides, which is the quieter version of the same idea.

Skydive Sussex operates out of Sussex Airport, about thirty-five minutes west, and will take first-timers on a tandem jump over farmland with the Kittatinny ridge behind it.

It is weather-dependent and seasonal, so book ahead and expect the possibility of being weathered off. If you want the air without the falling, Wurtsboro Airport up the valley is one of the oldest soaring fields in the country, and flies glider rides.

Not the reason anyone comes, but it rains, and somebody always wants an afternoon that is not a trail. The T.J. Maxx on Marshall Hill Road in West Milford is well stocked and well liked — a decent one, which is not something you can say of every branch — and it is the closest real shopping to the house.

For something better than errands, Warwick’s Main Street is a walkable run of independent boutiques, galleries and antique shops, and Sugar Loaf Artisan Village twenty minutes further is craft workshops you can watch people work in.

For groceries on the way up, the Warwick Valley farm markets beat any supermarket and are barely a detour.

Wineries & cideries

LEGOLAND New York in Goshen is the big one, twenty-five minutes off, though it closes from January until late March — check before you build a day around it. TreEscape in Vernon is aerial courses and ziplines in the trees.

For weather that has ruined the plan: The Castle Fun Center in Chester puts go-karts, mini-golf, bowling, laser tag, an arcade and a climbing wall under one roof, and Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg is interesting underground.

The Warwick Drive-In is the rare one — a real drive-in cinema fifteen minutes away, running spring through autumn.

A group weekend

Peak color here usually lands mid-to-late October, but it moves with the year. New York State publishes a foliage report every Wednesday through the season, which is a better guide than any average.

The ridges turn before the lakeshore, so a walk up Bearfort or Sterling Forest buys you a week either side of what you can see from the deck. Warwick Applefest, on the first Sunday in October, is the valley’s biggest day — wonderful, and completely impossible to park for.

A perfect autumn weekend

The house is set up for people who barely leave: a cedar hot tub on the deck, a fire pit, a gas grill, and a kitchen built for cooking for a crowd rather than reheating for two.

Indoors there is the stone fireplace in the great room, a felt-topped poker table, a board-game library, and streaming on every television.

The local ritual is simpler than any of that: a drink on the deck while the sun goes down over the far shore.

Inside the house The story of the house