Kayak rentals. Chipmunks scurrying. Picnic tables expertly positioned in bucolic settings. Paved and gravel trails with lake viewing platforms. What a gem.
We discovered Franklin Lakes Nature Preserve in late July and loved it. The stroller-friendly/wheelchair accessible trail is short, about 0.25 mile, but we just lapped it back and forth, picnicked, and watched chipmunks dart amongst the trees. Simple, but that was adventure enough for our little guys. I can totally see our family coming back here to kayak when our youngest son gets a little older.
The Park Mama Tips:
Weekday mornings are the best time to visit if you’re looking for relative seclusion. As you can imagine, it gets pretty busy in the afternoon and on weekends here.
Many Google reviewers mentioned that the trail gets uncomfortably muddy after it rains. You might want to reconsider your trip here if it rained the day before.
Today, I hiked 2.5 miles solo with my almost 2 year old and 4 year old without a stroller. We played “I Spy” with binoculars in hand and spotted turtles, frogs, owls, hawks, fish, cardinals, sparrows, squirrels, butterflies, and so many chipmunks that we dubbed the blue trail “Chipmunk Way”. I let my 4 year old choose the trails we blazed, taught my boys how to follow trail markers, walked the plank along wooden footbridges, hopped over tree roots, and stood still and named the sounds we heard in the moment – the harmonious tweets of birds, rustling leaves, and the scurrying feet of chipmunks racing along trees.
To our amazement, we observed a chipmunk eating a worm, two others eating leaves until their cheeks ballooned, and yet another burrowing deep into an underground tunnel. We pondered why some trees had been uprooted by recent storms while others stood firm. And when our legs were starting to get tired, we fueled up on snacks before taking one last peek at the owls. It was joyful. Exhilarating. Freeing. And a wonderful reminder of just how far we’ve come this summer.
2.5 months ago, we had barely left our couch fort in 12 weeks. I was at germaphobe level 10, had no idea where to enjoy the outdoors safely during a pandemic, and could think of a million things that could go wrong if I ventured out solo with the boys. If you told me then that I would later write a blog filled with places our family has enjoyed to help other mamas get a breath of fresh air, I would have told you that you’ve got the wrong person.
But you see, God does that. He redeems things. He turns fears into triumphs. He places people in your life to encourage you. To build you up. That’s what my Hoboken Grace dinner group did for me. They gave me our first park recommendation, motivated me with this awesome quote below, called me “The Park Mama” before I felt like it, encouraged me to write a blog, and edited all of my first drafts. If you don’t have a community like that, and want one, join us.
“What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?”
Winnie the Pooh
The Park Mama Tips:
There are 7 trails to choose from, ranging from 0.3 mile to 1 mile in length, and easy to moderate difficulty. We found the white and purple trails easiest, and the blue and red trails more difficult with gradation, but still enjoyable.
Ditch the stroller and baby wear. There’s really only one place that we visited – the Raptor Aviary – that you can feasibly bring a stroller, but it’s so short that you’ll be packing it back in the car in no time.
My sons LOVE dinosaurs, so when a Park Mama reader recommended Lasdon Park and Arboretum for its small, but epic, dinosaur garden, we couldn’t wait to explore it!
A scenic drive along the Taconic Parkway hinted of fall – golden and crimson leaves were already peeking through and the nip of cool air as we started along the trails reminded us that autumn is near.
“Mama, DINO, DINO!!”, my almost 2 year old squealed. My 4 year old was equally elated: “Mama, there’s a T-Rex and a triceratops and there’s MORE!” There’s only like 6 dinosaurs in total, but it was enough to put the biggest smiles on their faces. Don’t be fooled by the size of the dinosaur garden though – there’s plenty more to see.
We picnicked on an open lawn, strolled along paved paths dotted with conifers and fragrant gardens, enjoyed hydrangeas in full bloom, studied trees planted in honor of poets and historical figures, and admired the Chinese Cultural Garden complete with indigenous plants and a stunningly crafted pavilion. Our favorite part was stumbling upon a lovely fish-filled pond. A frog even leapt out to greet us as we made our descent along the water’s edge to appreciate the stillness. What a delightful place.
The Park Mama Tips:
Arrive early. The dino garden is popular and was starting to feel crowded around 11am on the Sunday we visited.
There’s a few parking areas, but the one closest to the dinos is beside the Veteran’s Memorial. Go to #13 on the map.
The park is stroller-friendly, with the exception of the dino garden. Stroller parking out front is easy though.
Bathrooms are closed, so plan ahead. Travel potty for the win!
The park has done a wonderful job engaging kids – check out this scavenger hunt or download this interactive app to make the dinosaurs come alive.
An ecological wonder, Richard DeKorte Park is New Jersey’s first park built atop a landfill, a feat accomplished using a liner made of 400,000 recycled soda bottles. Now that’s turning trash into treasure!
Boasting 3.5 miles of stroller-friendly trails, an environmental center, and butterfly pollinator garden, there’s something interesting to explore around every corner. All 6 trails are short, ranging from 1/4 of a mile to 1 mile, and 5 of the 6 are also wheelchair accessible. We really enjoyed the 1/2 mile Marsh Discovery Trail and spotted 6 egrets, many of which were in flight and even one catching and gulping down a fish lunch! As we meandered down the trail, 2 tortoises rested on a log, ruddy ducks enjoyed a leisurely swim, and spiders spun artistic webs along the scaffolding. We even spotted a bird’s nest perched atop a tall tree on the 1/4 mile Kingsland Overlook trail.
Richard DeKorte Park has a similar vibe to Mill Creek Marsh and Richard Rutkowski Park, but what made this park stand out was the striking and harmonious juxtaposition of the Manhattan skyline, NJ turnpike, and abundance of wildlife in its shadow. Larger than other parks, Richard DeKorte offers much closer views of birds in their natural habitat and has even been recognized as one of the top birding spots in the nation.
The Park Mama Tips:
Pack sunscreen and plan an AM visit to beat the heat. Most of the Marsh Discovery Trail (our favorite one) is sun exposed, though there are several shaded resting spots strategically placed along the path.
The railings widen the further along you walk down the Marsh Discovery Trail. Be especially attentive with little ones, as the water’s edge is very close to the trail.
Situated adjacent to the Hackensack Riverfront Walkway and the expansive Stephen R. Gregg Park (both of which I also recommend), Richard Rutkowski Park is perfectly suited for leisurely strolls, biking, scooter riding, picnics, and bird watching. There are (2) quarter mile paths to explore – a paved and largely shaded biking path and a mostly sun exposed boardwalk along the water. The park isn’t heavily trafficked, so we’ve found it to be relaxing and quiet and such a wonderful breath of fresh air.
Teeming with wildlife, we’ve spotted wood ducks, sea gulls, red-winged blackbirds, robins, sparrows, and even egrets and herons here. We’ve also admired dozens of butterflies of all different varieties thanks to the lovely butterfly garden. There are different types of flowers in bloom every few months – at the time of posting this, there were hibiscus, sunflowers, and marigolds. Just gorgeous.
The Park Mama Tips:
Bring binoculars. While you can easily spot many birds without them, there’s a cool factor for kiddos when they can use binoculars to spot things further out.
The park does a terrific job with signage to help you identify which birds you’re viewing, but if you want to learn even more, I recommend Cornell University’s All About Birds site. Here you can explore photos, sounds, diet, and other fun facts about birds. Here’s the link for egrets as an example: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Egret/id
Pack bug spray. We’ve occasionally seen mosquitos here.
Spanning 4 towns (Peapack, Gladstone, Far Hills, and Bedminster), Natirar Park is HUGE and traverses hundreds of acres of fields, meadows, and woodlands, offering river access, paved and gravel walking trails, and plenty of space for running, biking, scooting, ball playing, and picnics while socially distancing with ease.
Fun facts: Natirar is the reverse spelling of Raritan, the river that runs through this park. Natirar is also home to Ninety Acres, a philanthropic mansion turned Moroccan King’s home, turned present day farm-to-table restaurant, cooking school, and wedding venue with majestic views.
We picnicked in the shade, made makeshift goalposts out of sticks, played a lively game of soccer, and *think* we spotted a bear cub in the distance. After debating whether it was a cub or a big dog, we continued our hike along the gravel nature trail, and admired wildflowers. On our descent, we noticed a barn where, to our delight, we discovered a DOZEN bird’s nests. The sweet sounds of chirping hatchlings echoed all around us as one after another after another popped its little head out to take a peak at where mama was with lunch. Our preschooler just studied birds in depth a couple of months prior, so this was such a treat to show him the mama birds swooping through, feeding worms to their open mouthed babies. I’ve never seen this many nests, and think it’s terrific that the park is taking special precaution not to disturb them.
The Park Mama Tips:
Natirar Park is in active bear country. While our probable cub sighting was very far away and totally harmless, you should know and review bear safety tips with your children before hiking.
No bathrooms here, but porta potties are available.
We were on the hunt for a beach-like experience without the crowds and stumbled upon Hooks Creek Lake at Cheesequake State Park. Open for swimming from 10:30am-6:00pm daily with 2 lifeguards on duty, Hooks Creek Lake is shallow enough for babies to enjoy, doesn’t have waves, and is a great place to teach young kiddos to swim. If you’ve been to Lake Welch in NY, this is the NJ equivalent.
We planted ourselves under the shade of a tree and listened to the sounds of crickets chirping in the grass and a flock of geese honking overhead while the boys busily dug in the sand to their heart’s content. This park is huge with 5 easy to moderate trails, a camping site, nature center, playground, and picnic areas, but our kids were satisfied to just dig and dig and dig some more. I found it to be peaceful and secluded and would happily return again.
The Park Mama Tips:
The admission fee for NJ residents is $5 on weekdays and $10 on weekends per car (not per person). However, it’s cash only at the entrance. If you’re paying with a card (which I did and regretted), you have to park, exit your vehicle, and stand in line outdoors to pay. If you’re traveling solo with kiddos, that means unloading and reloading into car seats unnecessarily, so just bring cash and save yourself a headache.
Parking is reduced to 50% capacity to allow for adequate social distancing. Staff told me that weekdays are uncrowded, while weekends are peak visiting times. Friends recently visited at lunchtime on a Saturday and found it uncrowded though.
Home to Historic Longstreet Farm, an arboretum, pond, and 10 miles of trails, Holmdel Park is akin to Duke Farms in its design. A picnicker’s paradise, there are large swaths of shaded grassy areas, more than enough space to socially distance, play ball, walk the dog, ride a bike, scooter, go fishing, and learn about 19th century agricultural practices.
My toddler and preschooler were enamored with this place when, at first glimpse, they were greeted by friendly sheep. My 22 month old gleefully exclaimed, “Mama! Baa. Baa.”. Set in the 1890’s, this active working farm also features horses, chickens, cows, and a peacock roaming the grounds, a vegetable garden, museum complete with old timey wagons, and farmhands in period costume providing live seasonal demonstrations – from milking a cow and sheering sheep to knitting and woodworking. Check out the website for the demonstration schedule.
Hopping back on the trail, we stumbled upon David C. Shaw Arboretum which we pleasantly had all to ourselves. We enjoyed hunting for four leaf clovers, discovering fallen leaves bigger than my toddler’s whole body, and admiring the beautiful wildflowers before exploring more of the trail. Meandering across a wooden bridge with scenic views of a tranquil pond, we spotted turtles sunbathing and youngsters fishing for catfish. My 4 year old pleaded, “Mama, can we go fishing here?” We’ll be back again soon, but next time, with a fishing pole in hand.
The Park Mama Tips:
There are open and clean bathrooms across from the farm, but timing is of the essence. They’re currently closed for cleaning between 11:00am-11:45am and 2:00pm-2:45pm.
Dogs are permitted within the park on-leash, but are not permitted at the farm or arboretum.
While we didn’t encounter any ticks, Monmouth County is reporting higher than normal tick sightings, so be sure to follow CDC’s tick prevention recommendations to avoid illness.
My local mommy group recommended Mill Creek Marsh as an uncrowded stroller-friendly walking path within a short drive and, as always, they did not disappoint. We visited on a dreary day, had the place all to ourselves, and enjoyed running and bird watching here. A flat and easy 1.5 mile loop was the perfect outing to run off some energy and explore a new place.
Fun fact: The cedar tree stumps pictured in the mudflats above are hidden at high tide, but lucky for us, revealed at low tide. Dozens of cedar tree stumps dot the mudflats, and are interestingly the remains of trees used as hideouts for pirates in the late 1700s and later served to construct nearby Patterson Plank Road in the mid 1800s. Now home to 200 migratory birds, we spotted egrets resting among the barren stumps. Cardinals, robins, and at least a dozen butterflies greeted us on our trek, dancing above us and landing on nearby wildflowers for a snack. We appreciated the signage that educated us on the types of birds and butterflies that call the marsh home.
We enjoyed a lovely, leisurely walk and would recommend it for anyone looking for a mini nature escape close to home. The only downside here is the street noise – it was hard to get away from it all with the constant sound of tractor trailers zooming by – but the proximity made it worthwhile.
The Park Mama Tips:
The entrance is beside Bob’s Furniture, and there’s plenty of easy parking on the side.
Bring bug spray. The marsh is known for mosquitos, and while we didn’t experience any while here, we wore our bug spray just in case.
Walking into Deep Cut Gardens is like walking into your grandma’s garden – you know, the one with the green thumb. You’ll find vegetables like kale, potatoes, and peppers interspersed with a rainbow of fragrant blooming flowers serving as inspiration for home gardeners. Milkweed ensures there’s an abundance of butterflies throughout the gardens – every few seconds a butterfly gently flutters above – what a lovely surprise.
Greeted by a cute sign asking us to close the gate to keep the bunnies out, our little guys were off exploring the plants and flowers when they spotted their first garden gnome, and then to our delight we realized there were several hidden throughout. Think South Mountain Fairy Trail type attraction, but less crowded, stroller-friendly, and minus the poison ivy and cliffs. Winning. Our boys were gleefully on the hunt for gnomes, and while this portion of the garden is the smallest, they could have stayed here all day.
There’s a mix of largely shaded dirt and grassy trails – both super easy to navigate with a stroller – and plenty of picturesque spots to rest for a picnic. Kiddos will also love the lily pond – home to koi and goldfish.
The Park Mama Tips:
Bathrooms are closed due to COVID, but Tatum Park (across the street) has clean restrooms, a playground, and shaded trails.
The Park Mama 