This is a small county park located in Old Bridge, NJ with a very nice trail system tucked away behind a ball field that we had no idea existed until I stumbled on the Middlesex County Parks and Recreation website one day… and found they have map PDFs for all their parks. Nice!

We managed to put a 5.1 mile loop together, and it would be easy to do less if you like. It’s not worth driving from far away to, but if you are in the area it’s a nice close-by park to get an easy hike in. We often go to Cheesequake for quick hikes, and now we have another option.

5.1 miles. There are several well marked loops, with mileage marked on the park map. We made the longest route we could, without taking out-and-backtrack spurs. Trail surface is very easy: level and soft pine needles, with boardwalks to cross brooks and wet areas.

The trail became a little less traveled and more remote after crossing Pleasant Valley Road, with some wet areas to hop w/o boardwalks. In this section we also ran into snow on the trail in many areas… a surprise after the warm spell and rain we had. Read more…

NJ Hiking NJ General Central NJ, Easy Hike, Middlesex

Complete hike details, photos, and video on our Merrill Creek Reservoir page.

We didn’t have time for a long or far away hike this weekend so we decided to try out Merrill Creek Reservoir in Washington, NJ. It’s about 50-60 minutes from central NJ (New Brunswich-ish area). It’s a nice park with easy hiking, well marked trails, and a very nice visitor center. There are some ruins of farm buildings along the trails near the visitor center.

Directions: 287 to 78W to exit 4, then meander through back roads… Get the detailed directions on the Merrill Creek site. Also, there is a trail map there.

6.7 miles. Trail surface is mostly easy, with some rocks/roots in areas. The end of the loop we did was very flat – mostly level dirt or gravel.

You could make the hike .9 miles longer if you added on the orange trail loop, and perhaps added a bit more if you overlapped some trail portions around the visitor center… but otherwise, that’s all the trail here.

ROUTE: RED – BLUE – YELLOW – BLACK.  We started from behind the visitor center and took trails that hugged the reservoir, then picked up the Perimeter Trail (BLACK). The trails are very well marked, and at intersections there were plaques with “you are here” maps.

Read more…

NJ Hiking NJ General Central NJ, Easy Hike

Complete hike details, photos, and video on our Great Swamp page.

Ended up doing two small hikes at Great Swamp as we had a busy weekend and only had time for a short hike, need one under an hour away. (GS about 35-45 min from central Jersey)

7.25 miles total (approx., our GPS decided to drop us at end of hike #2) 1st hike: 2 miles, 2nd hike: 5.25. Terrain is level, very easy to easy. 1st hike on boardwalks, 2nd hike had a lot of roots but no rocks. The trails on the 2nd hike can be pretty soggy (you are in a swamp) but they were not at all the day we went (probably due to our lack of rain). Read more…

NJ Hiking Other Central NJ, Easy Hike

Complete hike details, photos, and video on our Washington Valley page.

We were looking to do less driving during the holiday weekend. I didn’t have a lot of info on the park, it’s not in any of our books, no trail mileages to really gauge the park by… but it was only 30 minutes away so we didn’t have much to lose. Boy was it HOT though …. 95-ish and sunny HHHHOT. The weather has been brutal for hiking lately.

The park was just OK for trail interest and scenery. Other than walking by the reservoir on the RED trail… not too much to see. The hawk watch looks over a quarry. While interesting… it’s not the best view.  It’s certainly decent for a park in Central NJ, but it lacks ooomph.

This is a biking-allowed park and the trails are geared as such… some seemed to twist around more than needed. We find that a bit tedious to hike, but since there are less parks available for bikers than hikers in NJ…  it’s not really a complaint… just an observation.

Slight road noise throughout the park… you are never far from a road.

9.5 miles roundtrip (8.8 if we hadn’t got off track a bit) – easy to moderate trail surface. Hard-packed and rocky, but with loose, smaller rocks… easy to slide on. Minimal elevation changes. Read more…

NJ Hiking NJ General Central NJ, Hawk Watch

Complete hike details, photos, and video on our Headley Overlook page.

7.5 miles – Easy-moderate… first half on the Highlands trail was more rugged than the 2nd half on the Pine Swamp trail. Ogden Railroad is flat, level, cinder path. A good shorter hike would be to just do the Pine Swamp Loop from the main parking lot; that would be 3.8 miles with options to bail along the way.

It was Memorial Day so we wanted to head away from the traffic and the beach. We thought we were taking a gamble going to Mahlon, as there are campgrounds there, but we only saw a handful of people.

The first part of this route has a view point at Headley Overlook of Lake Hopatacong and lots of greenery towards the east. The view is nice but somewhat limited and not as grand as some viewpoints in the state – but worth checking out anyway. The Pine Swamp loop has no views but is nice, easy hiking and passes the “highest point in Morris County” at 1395′. Read more…

NJ Hiking Morris County Parks Central NJ, Moderate, Morris, Viewpoint