All Blog Posts (324)

It was a day for just me and Orion to hike. The weather was perfect. The drive up to Water Gap was beautiful (we go up Rt. 31 from South Jersey. It's a 2 hour drive but it's worth it every time.) So we parked at the lot by Buttermilk Falls on Mountain Road. The plan (plan A that is) was to go up the Buttermilk Falls trail to Woods Trail (southbound), around Blue Mt. Lake, back to Woods Trail and back down the Falls trail.…

My daughter and I had a great opportunity to hike up to Sunrise Mountain on Easter Sunday...of course our dog Orion came with us.

We were fortunate to pretty much have the trails to ourselves, possibly due to the holiday or the weather forecast (70% of storms which never happened.)…

Although there is nothing overly spectacular about this hike, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The highlights are a view of the Delaware Water Gap and Kittatinny Mountains and two NJ1K high peaks - Allamuchy Mountain and Allamuchy Mountain North, all reachable via unmarked trails.  The park map is not good at all and shows no unmarked trails.  The NY/NJ Trail Conference will have this park included in their new map set coming out the end of this…

While returning to Ringwood Manor via the Hasenclever Iron Ridge Trail, after a climb of Hasenclever Hill, I passed this trail marker. I think only in New Jersey could you find a blaze on a discarded tire!

This is one of those hikes that I had not considered worth doing. In my mind, it seemed like the hike would be too urban, too crowded, too noisy, a waste of a good hiking day.  Did I want to be looking straight at New York City and Yonkers across the river while listening to traffic on the Palisades Interstate Parkway? But I needed to stay closer to home this past weekend so I did start to consider it and researched the possibilities.  I found myself drawn to the northern section and decided…

We only had time for a short hike today, so we headed over to the Manasquan Reservoir in Howell. It's been quite some time since we'd been to this very pretty park, as it's more of a stroll around the reservoir rather than a hike. But by adding in the Cove Trail we managed to get in about 5.9 miles.



For 5.1 miles, just do the Perimeter Trail and skip…

Decided to check out Stephens State Park once we stumbled on a trail map that showed the potential for long loops here. This park is located right next to Allamuchy State Park, which we'd been to before, but we'd skipped Stephens because the official map only shows a few short trails around the parking lot.



10.2 miles,…

This is a long route in the northern part of Pyramid Mountain Natural Area and around Butler Reservoir. The reservoir and Pyramid is really pretty, but a lot of this route is just so-so. The trail runs near a LOT of houses (which would be less visible when the leaves are on the trees), and there is a lot more road walking than we like... you literally walk on several…

We tried this loop in early February but the slushy snow caused us to cut things short. This time the snow was all gone, and we were able to hike the entire park. There is a nice mix of pine trees and deciduous forest, the Manasquan river, and a lake and swamp area.

8.1 miles. Trail surface is easy and level; this hike is moderate only due to length.…

We decided we couldn't bear to trudge through even one little bit of slushy snow today, so we opted to head down south again. The weather did not disappoint - 50 sunny degrees that felt more like the end of March than February.

This may be our favorite hike in the Pine Barrens. It's the typical pine trees and packed sandy trails, but adds in views along the…

This is a small trail system located in Monroe Township. The wooded trails are easy, with a bit of rolling hills and a meandering stream.

This another addition to our list of close-by parks for a quick hike. At even less mileage than a park we did last week (…

This is a small county park located in Old Bridge, NJ with a very nice trail system tucked away behind a ball field.

There are several well marked loops, with mileage marked on the park map. We managed to put a 5.1 mile loop together, and it would be easy to do less if you like.

Trail surface is very easy: level and soft pine needles, with boardwalks…

Walking along the Spruce Run in Micquin Woods this morning, things are still looking pretty wintery, looking closer, however, there are Skunk Cabbages coming up! Can Spring be far behind?

Anyone else seeing hopeful signs?

Spruce Run: Micquin Woods, Lebanon Township, Hunterdon County.

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We tried this hike nearly one year ago to the day, but had to cut it short due to snow. So this time we waited for the snow to be finally gone from South Jersey before we headed down.

9.9 miles - This trail is a great sample of the pine barrens: endless pine, sandy trails covered in pine needles, and cranberry bogs. It’s also a hike that is…

Finally, a nice day to do some hiking... unfortunately, since I only had a couple hours, a longer hike was out of the question. I decided to head to the southernmost state park in NJ, down to Cape May Point. when I left the house it was 68 degrees, however only 55 when I get to Cape May, but more than acceptable for February. Can't miss the entrance to the park, it is where the Cape May lighthouse stands. The park only has 3 trails, and 2 of them run together for most the distance. I was to…

These two parks are a few minutes down the road from each other, in Ocean County.

Jakes Branch seems like relatively new park, with a 4 mile trail in addition to the usual ball fields, tennis courts, and picnic areas that county parks usually have. Be sure to head up the center's observation deck for a view of the park from 5 stories up.

Trails are…

This is a small park with very easy hiking, but with snow still on the ground and us needing something close-by that day... it fit the bill.



We planned a roughly 5-7 mile hike from Nomoco parking area, but that lot was closed. We headed to the main entrance off Georgia Rd. and parked at Oak Point.



We ended up cutting the hike short because sinking…

I don't know about everyone else out there, but I am Very excited about warmer weather this year. I'll be taking advantage of all the killer info on this site to make sure I have some fun things to do each weekend.

Anyone have an plans? My first simple hike will be Cheesequake. I just love a nice springtime walk/hike through the park. Then from there, I plan on heading north. Maybe some Jenny Jump? And then, by April, I plan to kick the butt of Wawayanda. Or maybe it'll kick…

Opted for a hike in the Pine Barrens, somewhere with little snow left on the ground and some green on the trees. Temperatures were around 25 degrees but it really wasn't that bad once you got moving.



4.1 miles + about a mile walking around the Village - Easy terrain. Mostly level, packed dirt and some softer sand (frozen solid today),…