Beautiful nature spot for walking hiking biking bird watching, dog walking, year roundread more

I have never seen anyone in the water. However, it's a great place to walk your dog or take a…read morewalk. You just have to be careful not to trip on the exposed tree roots.

This is a rather special Yelp. Its not for a restaurant or hotel or cafe or salon. Its for a ghost…read moretown. Yep. In New Jersey. In the Pine Barrens. Scared? No need to be. Its a superb day trip--a place unlike any other. You wont find tourists here; or probably any other living soul for miles around. Its just not that well-known enough. Its not an excursion accompanied by a lot of tourist-board support, advertising, or fanfare. There are no audioguides, no pamphlets, no maps. There's also no fees, gates, ticket-stands, trinkets, permits, or clerks. You can just park on the shoulder of the expressway, and mosey right in off the roadside. Its just a tract of deserted woodland. Its a part of New Jersey only a few people ever have reason to explore; its for the imaginative and intrepid. In the course of a year, the site probably only gets a couple photographers, an artist or two, or perhaps an author once in a while. Some 4WD-nuts pass by occasionally. [And this Yelp won't change that--even if I told you about great dining here, this place will always be forlorn and neglected.] Its the location of a vanished Piney town which sprang up in the 1800s around an iron-smelting furnace; and which has now almost completely disappeared from above-ground. Iron? There were iron mines in New Jersey? Not exactly. Its a strange chemical process, organically-occurring, whereby it forms in the swamps and bogs around here. You'll notice all the water is naturally 'tea'-colored. But all the left-behind equipment and abandoned buildings are now, just as if they never were. You might only notice some strange shapes --hummocks, berms--in the terrain and that's about it. This is where your imagination comes to the fore. You're strolling around on top of a village. Chalk one up for NATURE! If it doesn't grab your fancy, then..no matter--just wandering around in the Pine Barrens is in itself, ethereal and stupefying. Take care not to get lost; because the trees have an eerie manner of all looking exactly the same. A few unmindful steps can get you turned around. The Pine Barrens are just a fabulous and unique environment. People love to discredit the Garden State without ever having heard of forests like this. To try to explain: the soil is flat, level, and sandy and without underbrush--covered only with a carpet of pine needles. Thus, with the trees racing up so tall and straight--like columns in a church--and also branching so high; the effect is quite cathedral-like. Sun slants through as if coming through high windows. And its uncannily quiet. Like a big empty room. Just the coolest. Bring boots (its occasionally muddy) and a survival knife *just in case* of feral dogs. I recommend this excursion to all the Yelpers who like to make a fuss over their daring and adventurous, active lifestyles. You're not impressing me with your tour-guide led whitewater rafting adventures. Try exploring the Pine Barrens. .

The Batona Trail is one of the most underrated things to do in all of South Jersey. One possible…read morereason people don't know about it is because nobody makes money off it. It's not a business. It's a 53.5 mile trail through the Pine Barrens. It starts at Ongs Hat in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, continues south through Wharton State Forest, and ends at Bass River State Forest. You will see lots of abandoned cranberry bogs, cedar and pitch pine forests, and ruins of colonial era iron furnaces. It was started in 1961 by a hiking club. The trail is well blazed with pink. Be careful of ticks. The trail is only moderately difficult because of length. You can hike it all at once as long as you have three or four days, but you need to camp. You need a camping permit from the state forest office. I've been doing it in stages as day hikes as I'm just parking at one of the roads that cuts through it each time.

Best park.on the area with tons of trails for mountain bikes and hikers. The trails are very well…read moremaintained and clean. You can spend an entire day here just exploring the various trails. They also have a bathroom in addition to porta potties. Highly recommend and the entrance is free.

Nice big spot with lots of trails and fun and adventure…read more Parking areas, private areas.

Cool and nice place to be wish it was a little bit cleaner from trash but nice off-road trailsread more

Truly enjoyed the serenity and bliss of walking the paths. It is good for an intimate stroll with…read morekin or romantic escape for lovers. Definitely Recommend.

A nice addition to Galloway for hiking and mountain biking. No motorized bikes are supposed to be…read morehere. Although several occasions there have been. The dirt bikers have always been respectful of distance, though. Plenty of trails to hike. Several go down into the pit, one large loop around the pit, plus new ones created in the woods recently by the New Jersey Mountain Bike Club. They've been using this space for quite some time--years! There's a lot of parking in a gravel lot, pavilion with stationary benches over looking the preserve, and plenty of trash cans and dog poop bags to use. Several areas in the preserve have water that fills and recedes with the rain. May get very buggy as the temps rise. No bugs late winter and early spring so far!

Be careful dirt bikes out of nowhere show up Very dangerous…read more The paths are narrow ,and no where to yield to.Dangerous if you have kids

Decided to visit a different part of the beach in ocean city and saw these markings in the sand…read more Thought they were so cute and clever I had to take a picture. Corson's inlet was a beautiful beach and mostly empty as it was after Labor Day.

We took a day trip here in August. Loved the area, it was quiet. Nice place to relax and watch…read morepeople fishing or boating. I do recommend bug spray, green head flies can be an issue.

This place is awesome, good hiking paths and good fishing areas. We ended up finding several…read morespecies of frogs, toads, turtles, etc while there. Only downside is that there are tons of ticks and the map could be better but thats no biggie.

Love this place. Two play areas for the kids. One for the younger kids, and one for the older kids…read more The county tries really hard to keep this place nice. Wish they would fix the fence around the younger kids' playground.