Manorville Hills County Park

Location: Manorville, NY

Size: 6,000 acres

Date of hike: Oct. 14-16, 2016

Manorville Hills County Park is a huge and hilly woodland that boasts the longest expanse of roadless land on Long Island.  I visited the park on a friend's recommendation and I liked it so much that I went back three days in a row.  My favorite thing about the park is it's so big the hiking is pretty much limitless, which is right up my alley.  In addition, parts of the park are so isolated that hours can pass without a sign of civilization, which is also up my alley.  In fact, it's safe to say this hilly heaven might be my new go-to hiking spot on Long Island.

Before exploring, I did a little research to learn more about the park's history and habitats.  Manorville Hills County Park is located at the core of the Long Island Central Pine Barrens with terrain created more than 22,000 years ago as glaciers stopped, melted and receded during the Wisconsin Glacial Episode, according to local forestry technician David Waring.  "The Manorville Hills are located along the Ronkonkoma Moraine (the debris line left at the southernmost edge of the glacier)," Waring's website said.  "The topography is considered 'knob and kettle,' which consists of various mounds (knobs) and depressions (kettles) that formed as blocks of ice left behind by the glaciers melted."  More recently, Manorville Hills featured several small farms with their once-cleared fields now undergoing succession and "slowly returning to a more natural state," the site stated.  Today, the park is managed by Suffolk County along with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.  Despite all those details, Waring's warning most stood out to me: "The area is expansive, which is great for getting away from the rush of Long Island, but it can quickly turn into a maze of winding trails that all look the same.  Make sure you know where you're going." 

The park's entrance is on the east side of Captain Daniel Roe Highway (County Route 111) between the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway.  The parking area is a quarter-mile drive from the road and leads to separate trails for hikers, bikers and horseback riders.  The hiking and biking lot is a gravelly patch that's big enough to fit about six or seven cars.  Prior to hiking, I snapped a quick pic of the park's maps displayed in an adjacent kiosk in case I needed to refer to them out on the trails, which I must say were very well-marked.  Needless to say, that's imperative for a park of this size.  The hiking commences on the yellow trail, a half-mile path that is followed by orange and white trails.  The orange is a seven-mile loop that reaches deep into the park and periodically coincides with the epic Paumanok Path, which is lined with white blazes.  For those who haven't heard of it, the Paumanok is a 125-mile trail that stretches from Rocky Point to Montauk Point.  However, the path only covers 9.7 miles in Manorville Hills, up to Suffolk County Community College.  Bald Hill, the highest point on the East End at about 295 feet, is also on this section of trail.

The yellow trail is like a little treat whetting your appetite for what's coming later in the park.  It cuts through a flat tract of land lined by ferns, eventually leading to a grove of white pines.  The path zigzags right through the pretty pines like some sort of outdoorsy hall of mirrors, which was certainly an early highlight.  Before long, I reached the white and orange trails.  Since I plan to one day hike the whole Paumanok Path, I skipped it to follow the orange.  What an experience.  I felt like I was riding a wilderness roller coaster up and down the undulating hills.  Even better, I didn't see a single person.  I felt like I was Tom Hanks in "Cast Away" or Will Smith in "I Am Legend."  After a while, I did a little geocaching and came across a cache last logged six months earlier by my friend Chris.  I sent him a pic, and he replied saying he found a few caches in this park that hadn't been logged in years, which shows you how isolated parts of the park are.  That's why it's vital to hike at a pace that lets you complete the loop before sunset.  I got stuck hiking in the dark for 10 minutes.

The heavenly hills called to me again the very next day, so I returned to explore some more.  This time I went with the blue trail, a 13-mile biking loop that begins at a big boulder named "Terrapin Rock" and is maintained by CLIMB (Concerned Long Island Mountain Bicyclists).  It was already midafternoon, so it was unlikely I'd finish the whole loop.  This is where that picture of the maps came in handy.  Luckily, there are a string of fire-access roads that run north to south across the park, each one separated by a mile more or less and labeled with different numbers up to "6."  There is also a dirt road running along the edge of the park just north of County Road 111, which my geocaching app called Hot Water Street.  I'm guessing it was once a real road since there's an actual Hot Water Street on the other side of County Route 111.  Regardless, the roads were the perfect shortcut to help cut the bike trail in half.

I covered most of the park's remaining trails during the third day.  Since I'd already done the orange trail and half of blue bike trail, I decided to hike the rest of the blue trail and save the horseback riding trails for a future visit.  There were a bunch of bikers out, likely since it was a Sunday, and they all announced their approach as they spotted me.  Of course, I'd politely step aside as they whizzed by.  I also kept the volume low on my iPod so I could hear them coming and avoid a potential collision.  Speaking of my iPod, while I can't recall everything I listened to, I do remember rocking out to some of Pain of Salvation's 2004 masterpiece, Be.  It's a progressive metal concept album that explores the many facets of human existence.  

When I returned home, I did some additional research on the park and was surprised to read a body was found there in 2012.  Apparently, a St. James man dumped a woman's body and it was found shortly thereafter by a jogger.  The article said the man and woman had injected heroin and taken Xanax, resulting in her death.  Another story said a fully-decomposed body was found nearby a month before that by a man and his dog.  Also, two torsos linked to the Gilgo Beach killings have been found in Manorville Hills.  Thankfully, I only saw a deer skull.

Without a doubt, all local hikers should make time to immerse themselves in Manorville Hills County Park.  Never before have I felt so way out in the wilderness at a park on Long Island.  At other local parks, you're still within a stone's throw of other human beings.  But not here.  It's just you and the pines for miles.  And miles.  And, for me, that equals miles of smiles.   

(Updated: Nov. 16, 2019)

Map: Manorville Hills County Park (Google Maps image)
Parking: 40°51'50.3"N 72°46'06.7"W
Video: Manorville Hills County Park (360-degree view)

Click here for more photos