New Jersey Travel Guide - New Jersey 2025 Official Travel Guide
City Escapes
2024-12-16 07:25:31
Happy Trails & High Summits
For those looking to escape the city lights and busy streets of the city, it’s time to shake the misconception that NJ is all industry and highways. Find untouched beauty and serenity atop our many mountain peaks or rugged pinelands. With 12 national park sites and 49 state parks and forests to choose from, your weekend escape just got a lot more adventurous.
Outback Wilderness
Break out the binoculars in Pinelands National Reserve, the country’s first National Reserve spanning a staggering one million acres of farms, forests and wetlands. Located less than 30 miles from NYC’s Times Square, Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge provides a natural oasis in an otherwise largely suburban area where foot traffic and trails prevail over all other forms of transportation. With skyscrapers in the distance and trails built off of old logging roads, Norvin Green State Forest is a great place to test your abilities and elevation stamina along the Highlands Trail. For more than just a hike, check out Worthington State Forest, and you might stumble upon one of NJ’s Seven Natural Wonders, Sunfish Pond.
Gaining Elevation
The Garden State’s highest point, aptly named High Point State Park, dishes out spectacular panoramic views of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania at over 1,800 feet of elevation. Kittatinny Mountain Range includes a sweeping overlook of the Delaware Water Gap on Mount Tammany, and is a prime spot for challenging hiking, rock climbing and wildlife watching. Saddle up in the Watchung Mountains, with great riding trails and a public stable, or explore unmarked trails with your pup along one of the three low ridges of volcanic origin. Experience some of the state’s best trout fishing at the Musconetcong River, or grab your adventure buddies for mountain biking and sledding in Allamuchy Mountain State Park.
Just Passing Through
For 72.4 miles, the prestigious Appalachian National Scenic Trail runs through New Jersey along the long-winded ridge of Kittatinny Mountain Range. Thru-hikers will also venture into Worthington State Forest, Wallkill River National Wildlife Reserve, High Point State Park and the Ramapo Mountains’ forested chain fringing the New York/New Jersey border.
Action-Packed Resorts
Mountain Creek Resort in Vernon offers four seasons of outdoor fun. When snow falls, skiers and boarders flock to the slopes and freestyle terrain, while warmer weather attracts adventurers to the bike park and a mountaintop zip-line course.
Fish the quarry, hike wooded nature trails, test your archery skills and grab your clubs to play on the 18-hole natural grass putting course at year-round playground Crystal Springs Resort in Hamburg.
For winter family fun, grab your day or season passes for an alpine escape to go cross-country or downhill skiing at Campgaw Mountain Ski Center in Mahwah. Snow tubing is also always a crowd-pleaser.
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City Escapes
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