Phenomenal park with a good length of paved path that goes around a lake. This park hosts free…read moresummer concerts. Comes with a gazebo and plenty of trees to escape the sun

Nice little park with tennis courts, playgrounds and basketball courts and enough space to go for a…read morenice couple of laps of walking or running. It's kept very clean and well maintained by Middlesex county. There's some parking in the front and there's a giant parking lot in the back. They have a gazebo if you need to do wedding or photo shoot as well

Huge park with nice views of the river. The cute little bridges are very scenic. Nice and quiet…read more There are some nice playgrounds. You can choose a shadey path with trees or sunny grass. It was a very relaxing interlude before heading out of New Jersey

It's a small park right off of route 18 New Brunswick. We like to take walks here especially during…read morecovid since it's the closest park to us. There's a nice long well paved pathway surrounded by tons of trees. There's a small playground by one of the parking lots. They have a nice stadium like area with tons of seating. This is my favorite spot in the park. It's nice to just sit here and relax and enjoy the nature outdoors. On the weekends the park gets really packed. Better to go in the morning if you want to walk. My only complaint is that the park is not very big, I wouldn't run here because not much mileage would be covered unless you run back and forth a few times. Overall, it's a nice park in the middle of the city.

New Jersey has a lot of excellent hiking spots. It's understandable that most of them are in pretty…read morerural areas with tons of room to roam/explore. So when I found out there was a 5.7-mile hike in the immediate vicinity of Bridgewater/Somerville, I was pretty skeptical. This is a pretty chaotic section of the state, with a lot of major highways interconnecting and a mall and heinous traffic circle thrown in for good measure - it's not the first or 100th place I'd think of for a hike. That remains the case. You can't force the design of a hike, and this is a clear example of a situation where you should have had, say, a mile's worth of trails and left it at that. My chum and I came here on Saturday to take advantage of the unseasonably warm early December weather. It was mostly cloudy throughout the hike, but the temperature steadily rose and the sun was largely out by the end. It had been raining pretty steadily the prior day so we were expecting and encountered a lot of mud and some mild rock hopping, but nothing egregious. Both of us opted for running shoes over hiking/trail shoes; it was a LITTLE rockier than I expected and in hindsight I would have gone with the latter for better support, but I didn't suffer any consequences for the decision. Our trek started at the entrance/parking lot off of Newmans Road (spacious, easy to spot with a pretty clean port-a-potty; there were drops on the seat but that's people being animals and not a reflection on the park) following the red trail running roughly parallel to the Washington Valley Reservoir before crossing Chimney Rock Road and heading up and down the orange trail in a quasi loop that runs alongside the East Branch Reservoir before another brief foray on a road (this one Gilbride Rd) and then doing another loop on the yellow trail that goes up to the Chimney Rock Outlook before circling back to Gilbride, at which point you basically complete the prior orange loop and then head back on the other side of the Washington Valley Reservoir to the parking lot. If that sounds overly complicated, you're right. There are two huge issues that mar this hike for me. One is that whoever designed the trails/blazes for this place had no idea what they were doing. Literally every possible trail and offshoot is painted with a blaze, always the same color as the "main" trail. As such, it's incredibly difficult to follow an official hiking itinerary because every fork in the trail has two choices with the same color blaze. Incredibly foolish and short-sighted. We had to VERY carefully stop each time, look at the map in our book AND double-check the GPS/map on the AllTrails app (which I hate doing) just to make sure we were on the right path. There's no reason to put a blaze on literally any walkable route like that; no idea what they were thinking. The other problem is what I alluded to earlier - this is a populated area with minimal room to hike so you end up by definition having to cross and briefly walk alongside busy roads. Chimney Rock was incredibly busy midday on Saturday, and cars were whizzing by us the entire time (the first section was probably about two minutes long, while the second was five minutes - believe me, it felt longer). I'm stunned people don't get hit there, especially since there's not a lot of room off to the side for pedestrians. If you're at the point where you're brainstorming a hiking trail and you can't avoid having the hikers come into contact with moving vehicles, that's probably a clue to scrap the plans. The big selling point of this hike is Chimney Rock, which was apparently a lookout point for George Washington during the Revolutionary War. That's all well and good, but for the money they spent to put up a protective fence and pave the trail here, they couldn't be bothered to maintain the actual rock, which is covered by broken beer bottle glass. And I'm sure General Washington had a much prettier view back in the day than we did; we were treated to the gorgeous scenery of the Stavola Bound Brook Quarry - crushed stones as far as the eye can see! The best part of the hike by far was the last section on the northern side of the Washington Valley Reservoir, and this is the part I'd actually preserve for walking, etc. It definitely helped that the sun was out at this point, but there was a cute bridge and a lot of bird activity. My chum is an avid birdwatcher and will likely be returning to this part with her camera. We also encountered a fallen tree (picture attached) that was taken down by a beaver. Very cool sighting. Head over to Watchung Reservation if you're in the area and want to commune with nature. You may hear the sounds of Route 78 but at least you won't be crossing that highway as part of your hike.

The Washington Valley State Park parking lot is basically a hidden driveway with a small,…read moreinconspicuous sign that suddenly pops up out of nowhere after you've been driving for a while on Newmans Lane. Recommend using GPS to navigate lest you miss the entrance. The park is also accessible from Vosseller Avenue at Millers Lane, though Google Maps will default to Newmans Lane when you chart a route to "Washington Valley State Park". The Newmans Lane entrance seems to be popular with mountain bicyclists and dog walkers. The highlights of this park are the Washington Valley Reservoir and raptor watching in autumn. Otherwise, the trails are pretty low-key (boring even) which make for some relatively quiet walks, which are only interrupted occasionally by the sound of scurrying chipmunks and teenagers jumping into the reservoir in the summer. As another reviewer noted, some of the more remote parts of the trails are not thoroughly blazed, but you should be able find your way even without trail markers. Be sure to grab a park brochure from the wooden bulletin board at the trailhead if you need help navigating. The brochures are also great for swatting away gnats. The red trail has a lot of rocks/gravel and multiple changes in elevation, so you might want to wear shoes with sturdy soles and firm grip. The reservoir does not have a boat ramp but has various trails and rock formations for shoreline fishing (license required, of course). Random trivia: back in 2015, a convicted sex-offender was sighted here fishing before being arrested. With that being said, remember to curb your dog and be sure to leave before the park officially closes 1/2 an hour after sunset.

This is a great place to hike, walk, bike or walk your dog. The trails are well marked and…read moremaintained. The terrain is hilly but not steep. Everyone from children to elderly can handle it. A great place for the family.

I recently found out about this park from my good friend Lisa G., so I wanted to say a big thank…read moreyou to her! I have been traveling near this park for years and never knew about this nice little escape located off Harlingen Road. The kid's playground looks good and they even got a zipline for them, so I'm sure kids really enjoy it because it looks like fun. The Veterans and 911 Memorial is a great addition because it reminds us of the many innocent people who lost their lives fighting for this country or those who were just in the city working on that unforgettable day on September 11, 2001. I love being in nature and the Arboretum is the perfect place to just relax and explore while listening to the birds sing to you! I added this info below from park's website: "Upper and lower park entrances on Harlingen Road passed Devon Rd. Playground, pathways, restroom, picnic/pavilion area (2),grills, fire pit, lighted basketball courts (2), lacrosse fields, softball fields, sand volleyball. Paved loop path and cross-country trails. It includes: The Montgomery Veterans Memorial and the 9-11 Memorial  A short paved pathway away from the upper parking area. The Montgomery Arboretum A natural area which can be accessed from the lower parking area, where there is signage."

The park has basketball and volleyball courts, a small playground and asphalt walking/riding paths…read more They ask the you park in every other spot (due to the pandemic) but we saw many cars all parked side by side, otherwise people were respecting social distancing guidelines. We rode the paths (2x around) for about a 3.5 mile distance. In the more wooded sections we saw a family of deer from no more than 15 feet away, they watched us as we watched them crossing the path. People all had their dogs on leashes and everyone was polite/friendly. A nice scenic place to ride/walk if you want to get out of your neighborhood these days.

What a hidden gem . It's a beautiful preserve that has trails and indoor education center. They…read moreoffer many classes for the community. We happen to arrive here for a plant swap event. I was pleasantly surprised with the kid friendly activities too.

The Plainsboro Preserve is a lovely, serene space to walk. It has many trails. We walked the white…read moretrail as the other takes you along the lake. It's very pretty with the lake and the trees especially at this time of year in the Fall. There is an environmental center in the front with educational materials, bathrooms and educational displays.

Really nice and quiet area to walk, with pretty views. We only trekked 2 miles of the trail this…read morefirst visit, but I would enjoy checking out further down the trail sometime. Loved the fun gnome art along the trail. Tip: if you have a fear of heights, there are a few spots in the trail that may make you feel a bit woozy, but never anything unsafe on the path, just large drops on the side of the trail occasionally.

***3 1/2 stars***…read more I'm a native of the Kingdom of Hunterdon but this is an area I'm not that familiar with - I grew up on the opposite, western side of the county, so my experience with High Bridge, Califon, etc. is pretty limited. I came here this past Saturday though (with a cameo appearance by one of my chums) to get some non-mountain hiking in on a gorgeous day. It had its moments, but ultimately I'm not crazy about completely flat surfaces and there just wasn't much variety in the adventure. My chum and I set off a little after 9am from the parking lot right off Main Street in High Bridge and just north of their main drag. Again, this is not a town I drive through often but it was very easy to locate the parking area once I'd gotten a quick look at the map. The parking is adjacent to some playing fields, and thankfully that meant multiple port-a-potties. I used one afterwards, which was about as clean as they get. The itinerary was pretty straight-forward - I walked from the High Bridge parking lot north through Ken Lockwood Gorge, and probably got about 15 minutes north of Califon before turning back. It took almost five hours and I would guess was about 12 miles all told (I love my Fitbit but I think it exaggerates constantly). The gorge is by far my favorite part of this walk. The optics are the best here - you're surrounded by high cliffs above and the Raritan River below, and it's pleasant to hear the roaring water in the background as you saunter through this section. There's also some gorgeous old houses off to the side with oodles of character (I made a mental note to look some of them up on Zillow when I got back), including multiple ones with little bridges and chicken coops. There's a makeshift fairy village situation off to the sides of the path, which is a nice little quirk. I think the one over in Maplewood at South Mountain is more intense, but this version covers more ground. And of course because it's Hunterdon, one of the fairy/gnome houses had a Confederate flag decoration. Who says the War of Northern Aggression stopped at the Mason Dixon Line? Once you get past the gorge though, the walk for me is pretty bland. I'm certainly very pro woods and whatnot, but the lack of distinguishing features makes this a bit of a snooze. I did enjoy the quick trip into downtown Califon, especially the little preserved railroad station from the 1800s. It looked like there were a few possible eating options as well a block or two off the trail that I briefly pondered before continuing on my journey. The canine chum situation was excellent - it was truly a bevy of pooches from beginning to end, with a curiously high percentage of German Shepherds. The wildlife situation was active as well, with a great many squirrels and chipmunks scampering around in the unseasonably warm temps. This one was just okay for me. I liked the clean bathroom accommodations and the ease of the path, but I need my walks/hikes to have a little more pizzazz to them.

Large and expansive park! Could use some more mature trees, but that will come in time. Dog run has…read morethree areas -- two for larger dogs, one for small dogs.

A park on the former site of a mental institution??? I had to check it out as soon as I heard that!…read moreOpen about ten days, this cute, 256-acre park certainly has a rich and storied past. The tract of land started off as three private farms in the 19th century. Those properties were purchased by the state of New Jersey in 1898 to establish the New Jersey State Village for Epileptics. In 1952, it was converted into the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute, and in the 1970's into a center for those with mental and developmental disabilities. Sadly, none of the 100+ state buildings stand today. Much of the land had become an environmental brownfield over the last century. That has now been fully remediated. The only visible remnant from its institutional past is the layout of the idyllic 2-mile, tree-lined, paved trail that's built along the original road. That layout dates back to 1901! So now that the crumbling buildings and wastelands are gone, what will you actually find when you visit? An easy-to-navigate, system of scenic flat trails, almost all paved, that meanders through a combination of grasslands, light woods, and streams. In creating the landscaping, Somerset County Parks clearly attempted to make the area as pretty as possible, particularly along Rock Brook and its tributaries. Smack, dab, in the middle of the park, though, lies an elementary school. The largest parking lot in the park sits across from this school. Montgomery High School lies just outside the park's borders. This is my second visit. Both times, we were the only people on foot. Everyone else was a road cyclist. That may change as more people hear about the park. If you're looking for an easy 2-3 mile walk or run, try this little gem!