Pinelands National Reserve

8/24/12. After sailing in Barnegat Bay this morning, we decided to visit the Pinelands National Reserve to get a National Parks Passport Stamp. We had never been there before, but discovered it was only about a half hour out of way to the northern part of the reserve - the Brendan Byrne State Forest.

We found the entrance with no problem, and parked in front of the Visitor's Center. Luckily, we had read on the website that the center was closed and there was a trailer used by the Fire Intervention staff that was functioning as the park center too. We asked for the stamp, and with the typical lack of warmth that we too often find in our home state, the women there reluctantly found it and helped us.

As we left the visitor center parking area, we saw a sign for Pakim Pond and decided that would be a good place to start our visit. We meandered through various roads and sandy trails - some that were too sandy for my Mazda. We wished we had brought one of our 4-wheel drive cars instead!

Along the way we came across a bog that was rather dry but still fascinating, especially since we had never visited this area before. Eventually we came across the pond, with the help of GPS and Google Maps. It completely empy and we sat at the end of the water for a long time, listening to the cicadas and breeze in the trees. It was so quiet otherwise - especially no road noise, people noise, or any other man-made sounds. It was hard to tear ourselves away, but we finally decided it was time to head back to the main road and work our way home.

We loved this reserve and we are looking forward to visiting more of this huge area in the future.