Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park
New Jersey
Tonight
🌗 46% moon
6.3 h fully dark
Crowds
low
Open today
Open
Entrance
Free entry
June 29 - July 5 - Street Closures and Alternative Parking Information
Due to a special program sponsored by the City of Paterson, McBride Ave. Ext. and Spruce St. will be closed and the parking lot at Overlook Park at 72 McBride Avenue Extension will be unavailable. Limited parking within walking distance of the park is located at the Paterson Museum on 2 Market Street, and the lot across from the Museum. The park grounds will remain open and park tours will meet outside the Paterson Museum as scheduled. Please click "more" for tour schedule.
Official NPS alert →2:00 PM Tour Will Not Be Available – July 10, 2026
The 2:00 PM guided tour on Friday July 10, 2026, will not be available. Visitors are welcome to explore the park using the self-guided “Mill Mile” tour—click “More” for information.
Official NPS alert →Note About Using GPS for Directions
Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park is located at 72 McBride Avenue Extension, Paterson, NJ 07501. Use this full address when searching using a GPS device or map app or use GPS coordinates N40.91533° W74.17992°
Official NPS alert →Overlook Park Lot Unavailable After Dark
The park parking lot at 72 McBride Extension is open from dawn to dusk every day. Any vehicles left in the parking lot after dusk (i.e. sunset) are subject to towing at owner's expense.
Overlook Park Parking Lot - Vehicles Must Be Parked in a Designated Spot
Parking is extremely limited on weekends & event days. Overflow parking is available at the Paterson Museum, located at 2 Market Street. On weekends only, additional parking is available at the lot across from the Museum.
Official NPS alert →Silk cloth and steam locomotives; textiles and continuous paper rolls; firearms and aircraft engines. What do these things have in common? All were manufactured in the same place - Paterson, NJ. In 1792, Paterson was established as America's first planned industrial city, centered around the Great Falls of the Passaic River. From humble mills rose industries that changed the face of the nation.
Topics
No entrance fee.
Hours & seasons
Grounds are open 7 days a weel and Rangers are available 9:00AM-4:30PM Wednesday-Sunday . Please call 973-523-0370 or 201-458-3475(park cell number) the day of your visit to ensure tour availability. Grounds open suggested time for visiting grounds between sunrise-sunset. The National Park's main visitor parking lot at 72 McBride Avenue Extension will be closed every day sometime after dark and reopened every morning between 7:45am and 8:45am.
Generally open:
winterspringsummerfallHours are reported by the park — verify before you go.
📞 973-523-0370
✉ ilyse_goldman@nps.govConditions
Quietest months (fewer crowds): Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Typical crowds: low
Weather now: ⛅ Partly cloudy, 92°F
🌦️ 93°/76°
🌦️ 95°/76°
☁️ 93°/72°
Typical monthly recreation visits · NPS avg 2023–2025 — orange months are the quietest by crowds.
Quietest months
Relative crowds by month — lighter is quieter; ringed months are the calmest by crowds.
Jan
22%
Feb
22%
Mar
33%
Apr
42%
May
46%
Jun
100%
Jul
93%
Aug
96%
Sep
62%
Oct
37%
Nov
51%
Dec
30%
Log a sky reading
Measured the sky with an SQM meter or app? Add your reading (16 = city glow … 22 = pristine). Opt in under “Travelers like you” to share it on the community leaderboard.
Accessibility
Reported by the park — verify before you go.
Parking
Overlook Parking Lot · 42 accessible spacesaccessible
Not an official safety source — always defer to NPS.gov and rangers for life-safety decisions.
By the numbers
A visual read on Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park — its character, trails, sky, and weather.
Park fingerprint
How this park scores across the dimensions travelers care about.
3-day forecast
Daily high and low temperatures (°F).
Audio & media
🎧 Ms. Bunny Kuiken Remembers Life in the "Botto House" 2 ↗ · 1 mintranscript
🎧 Mr. Gerry Gemian Remembers Life in Paterson ↗ · 4 mintranscript
🎧 Mr. Al Marocco Remembers Hinchliffe Stadium ↗ · 6 mintranscript
🎬
🖼
Learn more
The National Park Service congratulates the regional recipients of the 2025 Excellence in Volunteerism Awards. These nominees embody the values of service, engagement, and stewardship fundamental to our national parks.
An overview of the life and accomplishments of Alexander Hamilton.
Meet Floyd Myers, who is the Chief of Business Development and Partnerships for the National Parks of New York Harbor. He was previously the acting Deputy Superintendent at Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park and worked at several other parks before that, including the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, Selma to Montgomery National Historic Site, Booker T. Washington National Historic Site, and others.
How Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park connects
This park's activities, topics, location, and on-the-ground places — one hop in the graph. Drag to explore; click an activity, topic, or related park to follow it.
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