Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge, NJ - Wildlife Drive

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

There is a $4 entrance fee.

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 39.46491, -74.45081

TRAIL MAP: 

Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge Map - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The track stopped recording so there is a gap.  It was actually a continuous loop. The hike was 8.9 miles.

HIKE DISTANCE:  8.9 miles

THE HIKE:

I had hiked the trails 10 years ago but now dogs are not allowed on some of the hiking trails.  This time I wanted to hike the Wildlife Drive.  It is amazing how much you see when you walk instead of drive.

At the far end of the parking lot there is a payment area for the entrance fee.

To the left of the payment area is the Bristol Trail.

At the T intersection at the bottom of the steps we turned right and would be returning from the left.

It's a short distance to the gate where we continued straight on the Wildlife Drive.

The cars passing by are quite annoying, especially when you are trying to take pictures but early in the morning there were lots of car-free stretches.  Not so much later in the day.

It was a last minute decision to hike here based on what the weather was doing at 6 AM before I left the house.  There was rain and considerable cloudiness everywhere else.  This sliver of New Jersey turned out to have quite nice weather.  Windy but 60 degrees with some blue sky and sunshine.

Great Blue Heron with breakfast.

Looking for more to eat.

Juvenile Bale Eagle

Observation tower up ahead.

Looking back from the second level of the observation tower.  It was too windy to go any higher.

Northern Pintails in the foreground with three Green-winged Teals behind them.

Another young bald eagle with his head not completely turned white and no white tail yet.

Atlantic City

All kinds of gulls.

Northern Pintail

Northern Pintail Couples

Northern Shoveler - there were lots of these around.

Sleeping Northern Shovelers

Male Bufflehead ...

... and a group of female Buffleheads.

Brants

Dunlins

American Black Duck

Snow Geese

Great Egret

Snow Geese

A little bit of everything.

Great Egret in flight.

Great Blue Heron in flight.

American Black Ducks

Having gone 3/4 of the way around the Wildlife Drive and with traffic increasing to the point of highly annoying, it was time to head off to the hiking trails  up ahead.

A little pond off to the left of the trail.

Meeting back up with the Wildlife Drive where we turned right.

The Bristol Trail leaves the Wildlife Drive to the left.

Turning right back up the steps ...

... to the parking lot.

Hilltop Reservation, NJ

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Hilltop Reservation - Essex County Parks

DIRECTIONS:

GPS Coordinates 40.84284, -74.25963

Parking at the Hilltop Reservation Dog Park (entrance to the trails is at the gate where the trash cans are to the right of the dog park sign)

TRAIL MAP:

Hilltop Reservation Map - Hilltop Conservancy (even though the map shows trails colored, other than the Lenape Trail there are no color blazes and the shaped markers are are sometimes sporadic)

HIKE DISTANCE:  3.4 miles

THE HIKE: 

A hike in freshly fallen snow with my 7-year-old granddaughter.

Starting straight ahead beyond the gate to the right of the dog park, however ...

... some technical difficulties resulting in a very sad face.  The mittens she brought were slippery and thick making it impossible to hold the trekking poles.

Grandma's mittens worked.   I always keep extras in my backpack in the winter.

Proceeding with a happy hiker.

We hiked a loop to the far end of the reservation and back the other side but trails were hard to distinguish in the snow so sometimes we had to backtrack to find the trail we needed to be on.

Looping back the other way via the Lenape Trail.

Up ahead to the left of the trash can is the Meadow Trail that traverses where the sanitorium used to stand.

All that remains is the wall along the road.

We noted the fact that it was Christmas Eve and we were on a trail marked with Christmas trees!

Count them, eight dogs.  Wow.