Detailed hike info and directions on our Estelle Manor Park page.

The weekend after New Years we found ourselves in southern Jersey for post-holiday gatherings two nights in a row, and took advantage of hotel stays to check out some smaller parks we wouldn’t normally drive down to: Estelle Manor Park and then Wenonah Woods the next day. We even lucked out with a gorgeous upper-50s day.

We hit Estelle Manor Park on our way out of Atlantic City. Trails here are super easy – flat, level, packed sand typical of Jersey’s Pine Barrens. This park is more of a ‘hey let’s go for a walk or have a picnic” kinda park and not a remote hiking destination but it’s worth a visit. A big highlight of this park is the long section of boardwalk called the Pine Swamp Trail.

The trails are not really blazed, there are some directional signage at junctions… so it’s a bit vague. Make sure you print out a trail map or pick up one at the nature center.

There is also a nature center, playground, picnic areas, bike rentals, fields, etc. The trails are multi-use and the north section is a mountain bike trail. The easy trail surface here may make this a good choice when snow is on the ground.

Miles: 6.5 [actual miles: 7.4 due to a wrong a wrong turn in the mountain bike section]

Parking: N39 23.895 W74 44.565

Route: Pond Trail – Exercise Trail – Point Trail – Cribbers Road – Swamp Trail – Smokeless Powder Trail – Duck Farm Trail – North End Trail

Bombs Away!!!: This area was used as a munitions plant in WWI, check out some history and photos about the Bethlehem Loading Company.

After a few weekend obligations and my nagging cold kept us from getting in any hikes other than a couple jaunts at Cheesequake, we were happy to get back out this weekend.

Since we were dog-sitting in south Jersey we took advantage of having lodging only about a half hour from Belleplain (normally would be about 2 hrs from central NJ). Bela is an avid hiker, but at age 15 with cranky joints is now retired from long hikes, so we couldn’t take her along (although she’d still try and hike all day if you let her!)

Belleplain State Forest is in the New Jersey Pine Barrens… so it’s all endless pine and Atlantic white cedar – quite different from the north part of NJ. South Jersey is also flat as a pancake so the hiking is easy.

We parked at the Interpretive Center by Lake Nummy and picked up the East Creek Trail from there. The trail is typical pine barrens but with several wet crossings to manage (even small sections of water are the distinctive tea-color of the area).

Other than Lake Nummy at the start/end of this hike, they are no views until East Creek Pond along Rt. 347, and again of the pond later as the trail finally skirts near the water… just once. It’s a nice hike still.

Miles: 7.2. Easy, flat, packed sand trails, negligible elevation changes. There are several long boardwalks over wet areas, but also a few deep wet areas without them that were tricky to cross.

Parking: N39 14.702 W74 51.468 (Lake Nummy trailhead parking area)

Route: East Creek Trail (WHITE)

Wildlife spotted: Nada. We weren’t lucky enough to spot any bald eagles this time.

Misc: In addition to the campground, the East Creek Cabin is a large rental unit with bunks, bathroom, kitchen etc that sits right on the pond. We’ve been to a couple gatherings there and it’s pretty fun. Many years ago we spotted our first bald eagle – ever – while canoeing on the pond.

History Stuff: The Civilian Conservation Corps
When reading up on parks in NJ, the Civilian Conservation Corps is often mentioned as having built this structure or planted this grove of trees etc.

Many of New Jersey’s parks and forests benefited from this depression-era New Deal program that combined unemployment-relief with conservation efforts. In a nutshell, unemployed young men joined work camps around the country and were paid $30 a month (with $25 of that going back to help their family at home).

The results of their hard work is still enjoyed today. In Belleplain, for example, CCC workers turned a cranberry bog into Lake Nummy, built many of the park’s structures and roads, and improved the forest. For a little more info about the CCC check out:

• The Civilian Conservation Corps: A Legacy Lives On In New Jersey’s State Parks – nice 2-page summary on NJ CCC
• Brief History of the CCC
• High Point State Park and the Civilian Conservation Corps (NJ) - Images of America book
• My CCC Days – memoir of day-to-day CCC life by Frank C. Davis

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.

9.6 miles. Trail surface is level, soft sand and pine needles, barely any elevation change. We’d rate it between moderate and challenging only due to length, the trail itself is very easy.

All trails are well marked with mileage signs along the way and at intersections. As with any hike in the pine barrens, keep an eye on the blazes to make sure you don’t wander off onto one of the many unmarked sand roads.

Route: Mullica River Trail (YELLOW) – Beaver Pond/Quaker Bridge Trail (PURPLE) – Wilderness Camps Connector (GREEN) – Mullica River Trail (YELLOW)

Directions to Atsion Recreation Area: (from North): Turnpike S to Rt. 206S. In the town of Shamong just at Atsion Lake, turn left into the parking lot.

The office is closed for the winter, until Mar 31, and the trail kiosk had no maps. The trailhead is to the right of the building, follow the YELLOW blazes down the sand road.A composting toilet is across the field. To pick up the trail from there, walking out of the toilet, head straight to the sand road and turn left onto it.

From either starting point, follow the sand road past an old church on the left and a gun club on your right, and watch for the YELLOW blaze on a brown post on the left where the trail turns into the woods. (A building and a gate are on the right)

The only downside to this area is it is heavily used by off road vehicles. They are not on the trail, but on the many sand roads. Many times it felt as if we were in a secluded pine forest, only to suddenly see a car or dirtbike drive by on a sand road we didn’t even realize was nearby.

Wharton State Forest – park site

Wharton State Forest Trail Map: Haven’t found one online; will add when we get a chance to scan ours in.

This trail is a great sample of New Jersey’s pine barrens: endless pine, sandy trails covered in pine needles, and cranberry bogs. It’s also a hike that is more about the journey than the destination: Mt. Misery is the end point but there is not much to see… just the back of some old, uninteresting buildings. And it’s not even a hill, let alone a mount!

9.9 miles. While long in length, we’d rate this hike somewhere between moderate and challenging. Moderate, since the trail surface is level, and covered with soft pine needles or sand roads. Challenging, because it still is almost 10 miles plus we feel it can be easy to get lost here. If you’ve never hiked 10 miles but regularly do 7 or 8 (or even 6) mile hikes on the hills and rocks of Northern Jersey, this could still be doable for you.

Route: From Pakim Pond, take Batona Trail (PINK) to where Mt. Misery Trail (White) starts. This route follow the entire Mt Misery WHITE trail. Arrive at Mt. Misery more than halfway through. There are 3 white blazes indicating the end of the trail… but it’s not.

Cross the sand road, follow the trail that runs behind the buildings to pick up the WHITE trail again. Follow WHITE through the cranberry bogs (lots of unmarked trails here).

Where Mt. Misery trail ends at RED, turn left onto RED (this is not entirely clear) and take it back to the parking lot. Eventually RED will be co-joined with Batona Trail (PINK).

NOTE: Pay attention to blazes in this park, and make sure you have a map and compass (or better, a GPS). There are marked trails, unmarked trails, sand roads, park roads… and endless pine that all looks the same. 

And this time, we ran into some hikers at Mt. Misery who were following the Brendan Bryne hike in the “50 Hikes in New Jersey” book – they were so off track that where they thought they were on the map was actually a couple miles off from where they actually were. (that hike in that book can be confusing) So, please be careful when you hike here.

Also NOTE: The pine barrens in the summer means hot sun and lots-o-ticks. We prefer the barrens in the winter for this reason. Bug spray, sunscreen and a hat if you go in the summer.

Directions: Turnpike to Exit 7, Rt. 206 S to the circle at Rt 70E, Rt 70E to the circle at 72. Right onto 72 and the park is not too far down on the left. Big sign. (or you can follow the directions on the park site)

Once in the park, take the first right and the park office is on your left. Restrooms if open, or a porta-john in the lot. This hike starts at Pakim Pond which is further down the road (didn’t see signs until close to the pond). The restrooms were open there, as well as a composting toilet.

Brendan T. Byrne State Forest - park site. We have a scan of the Brendan Byrne Trail Map, and the trail kiosk at the park office should have a copy.

Bonus: There is a Wawa just as you get on 72, for pre- or post-hike sustenance. Shorties! (hey, it’s just not south Jersey if there isn’t a Wawa on the corner)

But, somehow, we never had in all our years of hiking. Mainly because the New
Jersey Walk Book listed it as having only a 1.5 mile trail, and driving an hour for 1.5 miles just isn’t our thing. I decided to look into it again recently and found that there are trails in addition to the 1.5 marked nature trail. I also found Jakes Branch County Park right down the street so we decided to do both in the same day.

The trails are actually sand roads to service the cranberry bogs. It’s interesting walking around and between the bogs… but it’s not really what we consider hiking. It’s better for a little stroll or taking the dog for a walk, but fine for a cold weather hike too. Some of the sand roads were still covered in packed snow or ice, even though there wasn’t much snow elsewhere.

The sand roads are unmarked, so have the map with you – though it’s pretty easy to figure where you are at any time.

We did the 2.25 mile Perimeter trail and the 1.25 mile Reservoir Sawmill Loop.

The Perimeter trail goes through the center of the village, and around the cranberry bogs.

The Sawmill Loop passes a little cemetery for the Crabbe family, and ends up at Mill Pond Reservoir. The return portion of the loop was the most interesting section as it was actually a trail through dense pine (as opposed to a sand road), and running next to a creek.

The 1.5 nature trail is an inner loop of the park and overlaps some of the Perimeter trail, so we didn’t do that one. On the map there is also a note of “to Lacey Road 2.5 miles”, so there is an option of doing an out-and-back on that too.

Double Trouble State Park - Park info. There is a historic village with buildings to tour, an active cranberry farm, and canoe/kayak access.

Double Trouble Trail Map – Print out ahead, didn’t see a copy with the other brochures.

Double Trouble Nature Trail Guide

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. The visitor/nature center is large with nice displays and looks brand spanking new.

Be sure to head up the center’s observation deck for a view of the park from 5 stories up (this is ADA accessible with an elevator and automatic door). The pines around the park are visible, as well as the hanger the Hindenburg was kept in is viewable in the distance.

The trailhead is marked with a big sign and maps, to the right of the visitor center. We took the BLUE Tindey Trail which is a big loop. To cut things shorter, take one of the sand roads or the RED trail.

All trails are VERY well marked (even the intersections with sand roads have posts with names), and the map is easy to follow… it would be hard to get lost here. Trail is typical pine barrens and is easy and flat, with no real viewpoints. There is traffic noise due to being right off the Parkway.

The trail is very suitable for beginners, or for anyone looking for a quick hike or trail run. It’s not for someone looking for a challenge or long hike. We did pass a WHITE trail that was not on the map, so it’s possible there is a new trail that could add some distance. Since we planned on hitting Double Trouble that day, we opted to not check it out this time.

Restrooms are located in the visitor center. (They are accessed by an outside entrance so it’s possible the restrooms could be available when the park opens at 7am, before the center is open).

Jakes Branch County Park site – directions, info

Jakes Branch County Park Trail Map

4.1 miles + about a mile walking around the Village - Easy terrain. Mostly level, packed dirt and some softer sand (frozen solid today), occasional roots, very minimal elevation change. There was some hard-packed snow/ice on the trail, about 40% of the route, in patches.

Route: White Trail, from the back end of the visitor center parking lot. Trails are well marked and very easy to follow, pick up a detailed trail map at the kiosk outside the visitor center. There are other routes here of varying length, including the Batona Trail.

This is typical pine barrens terrain, which is very different than northern Jersey’s forests. It can be wonderful or monotonous depending on your tastes!

We didn’t have time to do a long hike today, but after the White Trail we also walked around Batsto Village. This is a restored 19th century village that used to produce iron and later, glass. It’s interesting to check out, and many of the buildings are open with displays of 19th century life.

The visitor center is nice as well, and has bathrooms located inside. It’s open 9 – 4pm; there was another building near the picnic area at the trailhead that was not open but did not seem to have bathrooms anyway, so plan ahead if you like an early start.

The drink vending machine in the parking lot worked, but we were bummed the candy machine did not. We figured that being in the cold for a few hours had earned us a Snickers as a reward.

8.7 miles on sand roads. Mild, sunny day. About 1 hr 20 min from Central NJ via 206. Get the trail map from the park site.

We went in search of the Pygmy Pines in a section of the pine barrens called the “Pine Plains” where the trees average 5 feet tall and you can see over tree tops for acres.

We’ve never hiked Penn State Forest before and didn’t know much about it, other than seeing a few pics of the pines, and they are mentioned in both an older (1998) “50 Hikes in NJ” book as well as a 2009 “Hiking in NJ” book and sounded intriguing – both as an interesting hiking destination and as a photography subject.

We parked at Oswego Lake and followed the route in the “50 Hikes” book (8.7 miles) but were quite disappointed to never find trees less than 7 or 8 feet high – certainly too tall to see over. I re-read the trail descriptions after the hike, and sure enough, we were on the right paths. The books made it seem like you would be strolling right thru these awesome, unique short pines.

The hiking here is 100% on wide sand roads – not a favorite trail surface for us (hence our annoyance at hiking all day on less than favorable conditions and not seeing what we hoped for). It ranged from hard packed to the soft bright white “sugar” sand. There was still some avoidable snowpack on some trails, and it was quite wet on one road.

The roads are not marked. Get the trail map from the park site, there are none at the trail kiosk, it’s just an overview of the pine barrens. It’s mostly easy to find your route but there are a couple extra unmarked roads along the way, so a GPS is nice insurance. On our GPS map, the roads were named which made it super easy.

Oswego Lake in the beginning is pleasant enough for brief views, then its non-stop straight sand roads and relentless pine. We “climbed” Bear Swamp Hill – which is probably nice when the abundant mountain laurel blooms… but was the “limited views” the book mentioned were so limited you basically could see nothing.

As we approached the pine plains, the trees did get gradually shorter and were interesting… but never low enough to see over. We passed a path on the left, then on the right and afterwards we wondered if we had needed to veer off the main road in order to see the short pines.

I searched when we got home and found this link talking about “Spring Hill” as being the best place to see pygmy pines – so it looks like we needed to take a trail on the right in order to get to see any short pines. Neither book mentioned this, and if I’d known ahead, we could have checked it out. A lot of the area around this park in posted “private property” and I can’t be sure these paths don’t go into that.

We saw no other hikers but passed a gravel pit with a bunch of vehicles parked for dirtbikes, then some quads as well. A couple of trucks passed us, and McGuire AFB is nearby so planes go overhead. So we can’t even give this park a thumbs-up for solitude.

To get there…. take Rt 206 south to 536 S thru Chatsworth and turn left on Oswego Lake Rd. Just over a small bridge, turn right into the parking lot. There was a composting toilet that was not locked. Make sure you have TP with you. You can also come via the Parkway. It was about 1 hrs 20 min from central NJ via 206.

It’s important to note that all the roads are sand/dirt but google maps and our GPS showed them as just roads. If you have a car and are looking at driving thru the park to get to either the lake or Bear Swamp Hill (there is parking there, sort of)… just be aware none are paved.

Our route… From parking at Oswego Lake and using the online map: take Jenkins Rd, left onto Cabin Rd, right onto Sooy, right up to Bear Swamp Hill, come back down, right back onto Sooy, right on Chatsworth, left on Stave (not marked on park map) thru plains, left onto Lost Lanes to it’s end, then left again, follow back to lot.

Park site here. Scanned the park map here.

Rt 206 South to Rt. 70 E. (Red Lion Circle). At 4 Mile Circle, take Rt. 72. Park entrance is on the left, not too far, big sign. Follow the signs to the main park office, or to the Pakim Pond lot where we started from.

There were maps in a kiosk at the main park office. Note on the building said the office is closed weekends until April 1st. We drove to the Pakim Pond parking lot a few miles down the park road. The composting toilet was unlocked (yay!). There is also a larger bathroom building there, which is seasonal. Another composting toilet was along the Orange trail later in the hike.

We headed to the Mt Misery trail (WHITE) from the lot, which is reached from the Batona (PINK) as it crosses over Pakim Pond.

The trail had a decent amount of foot traffic for the first mile, and ranged from bare pine to 3-4 inches of snow. I used YakTrax which were half-helpful – but it was so slushy in places it just kinda got stuck in them and in some areas it was just muddy pine. We didn’t see anyone all day, except at Pakim Pond. In fact, after the first mile, the trail was down to one set of previous footprints, which shortly disappeared. It was neat at first having no prints, but the wet slushy unbroken snow quickly got annoying.

The snow was only half of the problem, too. These trails usually are lined with short shrubs (blueberries usually), and the weight of the snow had caused a lot of them fall into the trail, blocking it. Add in a lot of fallen branches/trees to move or walk around… and, well, it wasn’t the funnest hiking conditions. I’d put on gaiters just for the heck of it, and they ended up protecting my legs from the bushes more than the snow.

In fact, we cut our hike short to 7.6 miles and did not end up at Mt. Misery. We bailed on the WHITE trail because it just became unenjoyable, and so we don’t have a video and hike write up for this hike… we’ll give it another go sometime.

We backtracked using the ORANGE bike trail, which is actually a wide road. Several trucks and snowmobiles had been down this, and it was somewhat easier to walk on. The snow was still deep enough to be tiring to trudge through.

Snowshoes wouldn’t have helped on either terrain – it was too wet and would have stuck to them, plus with the branches on the narrow trail they would have gotten caught. Usually the pine barrens are a great option to hike in winter, but this year has just been too much snow everywhere. Think we’ll have to wait for the trails to thaw out some more before we head here again.

We hike on New Years Day every year – it’s a great way to kick off the new year. Weather was cloudy when we started out but not windy. The sun came out around noon and it got up in the mid-40s and was very comfortable.

Located in Ocean County, super easy access – right off the Parkway at exit 69, left onto 532 W, entrance is about 2.5 miles down, on the left. This is a no-hunting park. Get the trail map here.

This was our first time here and we wished we’d check out this park sooner, it’s just really nice with well maintained facilities and trails. It’s also a great intro to the terrain of the Pine Barrens. Right at the start of the hike you walk through an Atlantic white cedar swamp which was just really neat – and pretty.

The terrain switches to just pine barren with areas of cedar swamp sprinkled throughout. There are many narrow boardwalks over wet areas or streams which can get slippery when wet or icy…

There are bathrooms near the parking lot, a map kiosk, a playground and a nice visitor center which was closed. The bathrooms are seasonal, and I don’t recall passing anything on 532 so the best bet is a reststop on the parkway (traveling south there was one around 74).

We did the WHITE blazed 8.4 mile Penns Hill Trail, in roughly 4 hrs. There are other trails that allow you to make shorter loops. The hike starts behind the visitor center and is very well marked, there wasn’t one instance where we questioned which way to go. There are also some mileage signs along the way so you know how far you’ve gone – a nice touch. Some minor road noise wasn’t too bad. The park has a secluded feel but the trail is within earshot of the road which would remind you that you weren’t really in the middle of nowhere.

The trail surface is rock-free, pine needles and sand. There are some minor rolling hills… which is unusual in the pine barrens. (really minor – the elevation of Laurel Hill is only 130′!!!)

We had snow the day before which was mostly melted, leaving some slush and several inches of water in spots. The trail seemed to get sandier as you went, and in warmer weather that may prove to be more tiring… it was frozen and easy to walk on today.

*Tick warning… even tho it was January we ended up with 1 tick on a pant leg. We don’t use bug spray in January but I guess it got warm enough for them. So if you can get a tick in January, imagine what you’d end up with in the summer – be prepared!