November 27, 2024.
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In our tour de East Coast highpoints, we traveled to the northern tip of New Jersey to visit the aptly named “High Point.” Despite going to college in New Jersey for four years, I never ventured up to this part of the state. In fact, I explored very little of New Jersey while I was there and I left with a pretty negative vibe about the state as a whole. On this cross country road trip, I intended to challenge the story I’ve been telling myself the past 20 years.
We pulled into the Lake Marcia Day Use Area in the state park, where a small berm of snow lined the concrete. We’d even seen signs for a ski area, which seemed ridiculously out of place. High Point is only 1,803′ above sea level. It felt like we traveled into another dimension. This was nothing like the strip malls and highways that I’d remembered from living in New Jersey.
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Although you can drive to within a few yards of the actual high point, we decided to make a hike out of it. I plotted a roughly 4 mile loop that traveled through the lowlands before climbing up onto the ridge. We could see the monument atop the high point from the parking lot, but I knew there was more to see than just that.
The air was cold and crisp. We walked past the lakeside visitor center, which was shuttered up for the season. I could picture a hot summer day with people swimming in the beautiful blue lake, kids playing in the sand, flying kites, eating ice cream. But in the dead of winter it was desolate, quiet, eerie.
We walked through surprisingly diverse habitats. I was glad for the interpretive signs placed along our route. There were cedar bogs, huge rhododendron bushes and pitch pines. It was beautiful in a way that I thought, this can’t be New Jersey?
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The flat trail gave way to a quick, steep climb up to the Monument Trail and turned to walk down the ridge. There were a few peek-a-boo views through the scraggly trees lining the trail. We looked over into New York and marveled at having such wonderfully clear weather for the hike. When we got to the summit area, we found a huge parking lot, a closed concession stand and a tall obelisk. The base of the obelisk was roped off for repairs, which was a bit of a disappointment. All the interpretive signs at the top were behind the ropes. Nonetheless, we got our selfie and began the walk back to the van.
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Back at the lake, we found some educational signs along a nature trail so we stopped to read them all. I learned about mountain laurel and other native plants. I imagined how pretty it would be in the spring and summer when all the deciduous shrubs were leafed out and the wildflowers were blooming. We hoped this nature trail would take us all the way along the south side of the lake and back to the van, but it abruptly stopped in some shrubs. Not willing to backtrack, we picked our way along the water’s edge, following the footsteps of previous stubborn visitors. It’s not a real high pointing adventure without a little bushwhacking.
On our way to the campground at Stokes State Forest, we spotted a wobbly little porcupine running along the road in front of us! I added my porcupine butt photos to the others I’ve gotten on this trip; the few views I’ve seen have always been from the back!
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My first day back in New Jersey taught me that, just like all the other states in the US, it’s diverse and unique and interesting. Travel really opens up your mind to discovery. I look forward to see what other secrets I have yet to unlock in the Garden State.
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