Five great fall hikes in New Jersey

A few weeks ago, a reader I know sent an email asking for stories and guides to the outdoors in New Jersey. I live there, after all, and grew up following my camouflage-clad dad through the trails and forests in Medford and the Pine Barrens. That weird, sandy swath of the Garden State is filled with unusual animals and mysteries and it’s among my favorite places in the world.

I like to think that a big draw of hiking for me is the challenge and I assumed most hikes in New Jersey, which is mostly flat, were too easy. But who am I kidding? I also like to lie in my new hammock in my backyard and stare up at my willow tree. There’s something to be said for being able to hike and enjoy the scenery as opposed to sweating, struggling for breath, and staring at your boots as you slog up a hill.

With that in mind, here are five great fall hikes in New Jersey, large and small, easy and hard. I even included some elevation. I’ve done some of them and have the rest on my list, too. Get out there, quickly, because fall’s the best season to hike, but it also feels the shortest.

Sometimes I need to be in the woods, quickly, and Crows Woods Nature Preserve in Haddonfield is a five-minute drive from my house. While it’s not very big, the trails are winding and you can make the trek last an hour or two if you take it slow. There’s also a surprising number of elevation changes and stairs, enough to make it interesting and give your quads the kind of workout you don’t often get in South Jersey. It’s a great place for trail running, but watch out for fallen branches.

While it’s not exactly quiet there — it’s alongside the PATCO line — it’s a great place for dogs, very convenient, and stunning in the fall. You could walk or bike from the Haddonfield PATCO stop, and then grab lunch downtown with Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto and other Phillies who live nearby at Cafe Lift, a beer at King’s Road Brewing, or eat what is possibly my favorite cheesesteak ever at Gouldsburger’s.

The ever-popular Alltrails.com App (I love it) rates Crows Woods as an “easy” 1.5-mile loop. It has water features, small bridges, and some wooden huts folks have built out of fallen branches. There’s also a rope swing hidden back in Crows Woods if you’re adventurous.

And, if you’re driving, you can always finish the day at Tonewood Brewing in Barrington, my hometown. I’ll probably be there with my dog, Wanda.

When I was a young reporter, a colleague I admired set out to hike the Batona Trail, which traverses a huge swath of New Jersey’s Pinelands, for a story but failed to complete the trip. It hasbeen a mission of mine ever since. While I love mountains and try to see bigger ones every year, I need to get back to the Pine Barrens every couple of months. There’s an energy to the Pine Barrens I can never pin down, and a mind-boggling amount of biodiversity in such a small place. (My son was stung by a velvet ant there once!)

The Batona is one of the few trails in South and Central Jersey rated “hard” by AllTrails.com. That’s mostly because it’s a little more than 50 miles from start to finish and will require overnight camping in a tent, along with packing food and some type of water filtration system, or plan to boil your drinking water. I’ve only done small portions of it, and to do the entirety, you need someone to pick you up at the terminus.

One thing to remember, even in fall, is that the Pinelands are home to two monsters. I’m not talking about the Jersey Devil or the rattlesnakes. Ticks abound in the taller grass and undergrowth there, including an invader from the south whose bite can make you allergic to red meat, pork, or dairy. Seriously. And then there are chiggers, which resemble microscopic ticks and can cling to you by the thousands, crawling upward and feasting. There’s nothing worse than the itch from a chigger bite.

I don’t mess around with ticks and chiggers. I spray the socks, hiking pants, and boots I plan to wear with Sawyer’s Permethrin a day or two ahead of time. I couldn’t live without cheesesteaks. The other option is to wait for an overnight frost or, if you’re super cautious, hike the trail in January. I’d be nervous bringing my dog unless it was winter.

Back to that former colleague: The Batona chewed him up, his feet to be exact. He didn’t finish. It’s a sandy trail and he was wearing new boots. Hiking on sand is deceptive. Yes, it’s flat, but it slows you down. You sink a bit with every step, so it’s not the place to break in new boots.

The Maurice River is in a far-off corner of New Jersey that few people pass through unless they’re taking Route 55 and Route 47 south to the Jersey Shore. Even then, few people stop, unless it’s for coffee and gas at a Wawa.

While I’ve been on the Maurice River and have driven through and gotten lost in Cumberland County plenty of times, I’ve never been to the bluffs trail. Just the word bluffs is intriguing, though, because it implies vistas and elevation. Turns out that’s true, based on photos and reviews.

“A bit buggy at times and more elevation gain than would be expected for this area of South Jersey. Great hike overall,” one reviewer wrote on AllTrails.com.

Oh yeah, bugs. The same advice would apply to the Bluffs as the Batona Trail. There could be ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, and other biting insects there so be careful and bring the appropriate repellent. Or, again, wait for a good frost.

On the opposite end of that, you could see ospreys and bald eagles there. It’s one of New Jersey’s truly rural areas.

AllTrails rates the Maurice River Bluffs Preserve as an “easy” hike, a 5.3-mile loop with 265 feet of elevation gain.

I spend a ton of free time in Salem County and its vast, wide-open farmlands, but I’m in a kayak, fishing, 99% of the time and never thought of it as much of a hiking destination. A few people have mentioned the Elephant Swamp Trail to me, including a bicycle shop owner I spoke to recently while writing about rural cycling safety.

The 11.1-mile, easy trail encompasses portions of Gloucester and Salem Counties and is known for being a birding, biking, and hiking destination. As I’m still haunted by a sprained ankle running on a road at night, knowing the trail has “hard packed ground” that’s “great for running,” as one reviewer noted, is going to get me out of the kayak. I was also eyeing a gravel bike at the shop.

I’d say no visit to Salem County is complete without a trip to Cowtown Rodeo, which is, surprisingly, the oldest weekly rodeo in the country, but it closes up in the fall. The adjacent farmers market, where you can buy cow bones, knives, pretzel cheesesteaks, and all sorts of stuff you don’t need, is a gem too, though.

Odd fact: the swamp was named, supposedly, after a circus elephant that escaped and disappeared there.

While Mount Tammany, up north in the Delaware Water Gap, is the farthest hike from the Philadelphia area, it’s one of the rare treks that’s rated “hard” in New Jersey by AllTrails. The Mount Tammany hike, just off Interstate 80 in Worthington State Forest, has 1,123 feet of elevation gain. You’ll be sweating and breathing hard, even in October. It’s an honest-to-God real mountain in New Jersey and worth the drive.

Even better, the summit, at 1,527 feet, offers spectacular views of the Water Gap area, arguably the crown jewel of the Delaware River watershed. You’ll have the opportunity for major leaf peeping — check the foliage calendar — and you might even see a black bear. (Remember, yell at black bears and stand your ground. Don’t play dead.)

When you’re done, head into the quaint little town of Delaware Water Gap, over the bridge in Pennsylvania for apple pie, hot dogs, or ramen and sake.