+Lost Destinations::Stone Living Room+

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S T O N E L I V I N G R O O M

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral --Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Stone Living Room, West Milford, New Jersey

explored & photographed by: Shady

[Clinton Road] [Demon's Alley] [Stone Living Room] [Route 23 Pole Art]

We sought out this weird site on our trip to explore the more curious corners of the odd town of West Milford...

We waited a long time to see this strange and legendary NJ landmark, and boy was it well worth it when we finally did. We had long been curious about this weird stone 'living room' made of large rocks and perched high atop a remote mountain peak like something out of the Flintstones, so we couldn't wait to see it.


There are some hiking trails in the area, so we parked in one of their lots. When we started off at the base of the mountain, we had no idea how far up we were going to have to hike to find this place, or just how damned steep it was. And a long hike- I think it took us around 45 minutes before we even started nearing the top of the mountain. At that point, we were hot, exhausted, and just dyin'... I was wishing for some cool water, the other Scoobs were wishing for a cold beer AND some food. And we were all wishing for some insect repellant!

When we finally reached the summit of the mountain and laid eyes on the amazing Stone Living Room, we saw that there were two guys hanging out there already. They were super-friendly and invited us to join them- and lo & behold, to our (happy) surprise, they had cold bottled water, beer, even insect repellant! Ha. We were all laughing about how our 'wishes' came true. They also had the goods for a cookout, and were planning on grilling some burgers. We helped them get a fire started, then the boys all kicked back with their beers while we talked about how weird and amazing the Stone Living Room was. The guys said they had visited it many times, and that it had been there as long as anyone knew...

It's such an awesome site- a series of giant rocks set into a semicircle shape, complete with armrests and foot rests and even a fire pit in the middle. It looks just like a Prehistoric living room! And the view from it is just mind-blowing. We'd heard that it was constructed by some local people many years ago as a hangout spot; I'm not sure exactly how long it's been there. But it's been there a very long time, that much is known.

We had such a good time hanging out there we almost forgot about the rest of our explorations that day, heh. The guys were expecting a few friends to join them later, and they were gonna hang out late into the night enjoying the night sky and the beer and the fire and the ambience and... whatever. We were invited to stay for the festivities, but as we had a few more places we had planned on exploring in the area, we reluctantly tore ourselves away finally and headed back down the mountain.

On the way down we saw some strange sights, such as a HUGE rock completely balanced on three small rocks (kinda like Tripod Rock), and another gigantic rock that looked like it had been chopped in half. Another bizarre thing we saw as we descended was what looked just like an unmarked grave alongside the wooded trail- eeep! I have no idea what exactly it was, but the creepy, mounded, human-sized-grave-shape of it gave us all goosebumps. We didn't linger there long.

All in all, the Stone Living Room is really an amazing place. I hope it's still there for hundreds more years. And if you're in the area, I highly recommend a visit.

And I also wanna send out a great big thanks to the guys who were so very hospitable to us up there... dammit, I can't seem to remember their names, but, THANKS guys!!

After we left the Living Room we decided we had enough time to check out one more West Milford curiosity... the mystery poles of Route 23...

BACK TO DEMON'S ALLEY CONTINUE ON TO ROUTE 23 POLE ART

Do you have any background information or stories to tell about this enigmatic site?

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