Stokes comprises 16,447 acres (66.56 km2) of mountainous woods in the Kittatinny Mountains, extending from the southern boundary of High Point State Park southwestward to the eastern boundary of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

Trails through the forest were made in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps as well as white pine trees being planted.

Around five hundred million years ago, an arcuate chain of volcanic islands collided with proto-North America.

The islands overrode the edge of North America, creating the Highlands and Kittatinny Valley which is of the Ordovician Martinsburg Shale.

Then around four hundred million years ago a small continent, long and thin, collided with proto-North America, compressing the bedrock.

The Kittatinny Mountains were created due to folding and faulting of the Silurian Shawangunk conglomerate which is made of quartz.

This stone was in a shallow sea above the Martinsburg shale when folding occurred, producing heat in which the quartz bent.

The glacier left end moraines, kettle holes and periglacial rock fields.

The Big Flat Brook is a shallow stream which starts in the mountain swamp of Steam Mill and travels in a southwesterly direction.

This mine, which is filled with water today, is not far from the Kittle Field picnic area or about a mile and a half north of the forest office.

Stokes forest is in the northern deciduous forest in the north eastern Appalachians composed of various oaks, hickories, maples, as well as birch, chestnuts, beech, sycamore, cherry, walnut, ash, elm, and other hardwood tree species.

Rhododendron, mountain laurel, high and low bush blueberries, grow in the forest as well as various mosses and ferns.

Tillman Creek joins the Flat Brook in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area two-miles south of the hamlet of Wallpack Center in Walpack Township.

[1] The NJSOC was founded in 1949, and occupies facilities in Stokes State Forest built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.