Five best-kept secrets of Rockland and Bergen counties

Explore a “ghost town” in Bear Mountain State Park.

Lived in continuously from circa 1762 to 1965, the hamlet of Doodletown was abandoned in the ’60s after a long period of land acquisition by the Palisades Interstate Parks Commission, which had planned to build a cross-country ski network on the land. The project never progressed, and Doodletown is now a town of ruins you can explore, from cemeteries and church/school ruins to a swimming hole and roads that are said to have been used by the British in 1777. 
   

See wild monk parakeets.

You don’t have to schlep into Brooklyn to see wild monk parakeets, as some live in Bergen County, NJ, and have been spotted in Edgewater, Leonia, Englewood, Cliffside Park, and Palisades. Though in New Jersey, you won’t find an informational tour.
   

Snap a photo with the original fearless woman.

Rosie the Riveter, who has become an iconic symbol of women’s achievements, stands in bronze in Wood-Ridge, NJ. During World War II, more than 6 million women went to work in plants that produced munitions and other war supplies. The Curtiss-Wright facility, also in Wood-Ridge at the height of the war, employed many women during the war, producing engines that powered aircrafts. Rosie the Riveter is located at 100 Rosie Square, Wood-Ridge, NJ.   
   

Bask in the glow of fluorescent minerals.

Did you know that some minerals found in the area glow in the dark? While the Franklin Mineral Museum is almost an hour drive from Rockland and Bergen counties, we didn’t want to leave its fluorescent minerals off this list. The 32-foot-long display features hand-sized to large specimens of local fluorescent minerals that glow in hues of red, blue, green, orange, and yellow under ultraviolet light. Franklin Mineral Museum is located at 32 Evans St., Franklin, NJ.