We have been hiking a lot in Somerset County, New Jersey lately, and in particular areas in Franklin Township. It's not too far from us, and as far as we can
tell, it didn't sustain as much Sandy damage as places up north. Most importantly, though, even if there was Sandy damage, the parks are all open! Sure there might be
blow-downs, but we can get over and around them! Hmmm, maybe there are less trial lawyers in Somerset county. Today we headed to an area just east of the Griggstown Native
Grasslands Preserve and south of the Butler Road Natural Area (both of which we hiked two weeks ago).
Using this map we started at the small parking lot on Bunker Hill Road and covered just about every trail in the area, an amazingly varied area. We first headed north on Yellow, then continued north on Brown, crossing a small creek along the way. We took Brown all the way to its end, at one time bordering a nice farm, at Old Vliet Road. We then retraced our steps back to Yellow, which we took counter-clockwise completing that loop. We next headed west on Blue, which is a bit messy since the hurricane but without too many blow-downs. We then continued west on Red (crossing Bunker Hill Road) but turned back before it ended because there were too many blow-downs and the area is quite a mess. We took Red east back to Yellow and then back to the car. Total distance hiked today was 4.6 miles in 2.5 hours.
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Kiosk on Bunker Hill Road |
Beginning of Yellow |
North on Yellow |
Birdhouses |
Native grass |
Downy woodpecker |
House Finch |
|
|
Wildflower over path |
Thanks a lot Sandy! |
|
Shagbark Hickory on Brown |
Target practice |
Stream icing up a bit |
Mushrooms |
Stream crossing ... |
... and blow-down on Brown |
|
Beautiful cliff |
Icicles |
Slippery crossing |
30-foot cliffs |
Fields east of Brown |
North on Brown |
Bunker Hill Golf Course just west |
Row of houses east across field |
View south |
Cool treehouse! |
Colorful vines |
Antenna tower south |
At northern tip of field |
Treehouse from below |
Old farm equipment |
Red-tailed hawk |
Hornet's nest |
I scare them away! |
Blow-down on Brown |
Nice evergreen tunnel |
Gate to private farm |
Brown continues along farm |
Yellow-bellied sapsucker |
Kiosk at Old Vliet Road |
Grass along path |
Evergreen tunnel |
Stream along Brown |
View west |
Tricky crossing |
|
A lone bench |
On Blue |
Tall trees on blue |
Sandy damage! |
Blow-down on Blue |
Red crosses Bunker Hill Road |
Bench on Red |
On Red |
Blow-down on Red |
Laura on the blow-down |
Bat house off Yellow |
Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh Web design by Dan Balogh |