Monmouth Battlefield State Park - 1/30/11

[njHiking.com]

We hadn't been to Monmouth Battlefield State Park in ages, and we were not enthralled with the lack of trail markers the last time we were there - but we thought the level trails and open fields may be a good choice for snowshoe.

It was, and apparently a lot of people thought so too, as we saw lots of snowshoe and cross-country ski tracks. In fact, the snow was so deep that without one of those, I think you'd get tired out pretty fast just trying to hike the trails.

We stayed in the south trails area, taking the main trailhead (go behind the visitor center, it is to your left down the hill if you are facing the field). We turned off onto the yellow trail, where the snow was unbroken most of the way and followed that back to the fields, where we just wandered around. Lots of tracks here too, plus large areas of unbroken snow glistening in the sun.

Read the full post here...

[Linda Frank]

Thanks for this post about conditions at Monmouth Battlefield.  Plus, restroom facillity-updates are always appreciated. :)

We were considering Monmouth Battlefield for snowshoeing just today (Sunday, Feb. 6th), but we weren't sure there'd still be enough snow remaining.  Guess I should have logged in here sooner,  and I would have found out there was more than enough snow for a good snowshoe.  We wound up opting to return to Holmdel Park where we knew from friends that the trails & fields were still quite blanketed. They were and the hilly terrain provided a great workout.

If The Battlefield can still hold onto some decent snow cover till next weekend, that will definitely be our choice then. Thanks again for the heads up.

 

[njHiking.com]

On Feb 6th we were a bit south of Monmouth Battlefield at Turkey Swamp, and the snow there was melting quite a bit... it was too deep and slushy for hiking really, but too wet for snowshoeing.... it's getting tough trying to guess trail conditions.

I like using this map to try and gauge snowfall cover when picking a park:

http://www.weatherstreet.com/local_forecast_files/new-jersey-snow-c...

 

Glad the restroom info is appreciated! I hate driving far or to a new park and not knowing if you should stop somewhere before or not.

 

Dawn

[GetOutsideNJ.com (Jeff C)]

Thank you for sharing the snowfall coverage map. I had not ever seen one that is so specific to NJ. I'll keep that for future use/

I use the following when I need to see how much snowfall we may get during the next storm moving through:

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/phi/StormTotalSnow/index.php

[njHiking.com]

Jeff - The NOAA maps and forecasts are really good too. I have the jersey snowfall and a bunch of other links on our Winter Hiking page.

 

Dawn