West of the ridge is a narrow valley dividing the tall peaks of the Preakness Range (part of Second and Third Watchung Mountain) from Goffle Hill.

The southern ridge is distinguished from the northern part of Goffle Hill by the presence of trap rock glades and vertical basalt cliffs which rise abruptly on portions of its eastern flank.

[2] The northern part of Goffle Hill, underlying the area of Sicomac and the boroughs of Franklin Lakes and a section of Oakland, exists primarily as a low, broken ridgeline lacking in large precipices and running northwest to southeast.

Modern maps show only one named peak on the northern ridge, a small trap rock prominence known as Knob Hill41°00′30.29″N 74°12′39.92″W / 41.0084139°N 74.2110889°W / 41.0084139; -74.2110889 which attains an elevation of 518 ft (158 m).

This peak, which is located just north of Summit Ave in Franklin Lakes, marks the only significant trap rock found at the surface of the northern ridge.

Later, with the arrival of Europeans, the hill’s streams powered mills, aiding in the settlement and farming of the northern Passaic River valley.

[8] Trap rock and sandstone (freestone) quarrying on the hill served the building boom that occurred in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

After the rift failed in the early Jurassic, the range was elevated as erosion removed the sandstone and shale surrounding the basalt lava flows of Goffle Hill.

[11] The northern part of Goffle Hill, except in a few locations, is buried under a mantle of glacially derived sediments and sandstone, greatly reducing its topographic prominence.

This contact reveals the presence of indurated red sandstone that has been baked into a grey hornfels by the heat of the First Watchung lava flow.

The majority of the remaining trap rock glades straddle the ridgeline of Goffle Hill along the border of North Haledon and Hawthorne.

Development along Goffle Hill has accelerated in recent years, with new homes and backyards being built atop former trap rock glades and forests.