This past weekend, we took our spring trip down to visit my husband's family in NJ. They live in the part of the state that gave it the name 'Garden state' - there's lots of farms and forests and open space where his family lives, and if you ignore the rednecks, it's a beautiful area! Usually when we're there we don't have time to do anything like hike, but this trip we had some time while the older nephews were still at school and went out with my sister-in-law, a cousin, and the youngest nephew.
Merrill Creek Reservoir is a really nice area about a 20 minute drive from where my sister-in-law lives. It's a 650 acre reservoir surrounded by about 2000 acres of woods. There are miles of trails around the water, but we did maybe a mile total since we had a 4-year-old with us (he did a great job though!) We saw some deer running away from us in the woods, ruins of some old farm houses, and sat at the water for a little while. It was beautiful and maybe 70-75 degrees out, perfect day for a hike!
My sister-in-law was saying how she wants to start taking her kids (4 boys in total) to do more hikes since she loves it so much. We always want to take the kids out when we're visiting, but don't usually end up having the time. I'd like to try to make time for it going forward though... at the very least I want to take her oldest (12) on some hikes since he's a scout and loves hiking too. Hoping to explore more trails in NJ after doing this!
Looks like a nice little trek! Getting the kids involved in hiking is a great idea. I wish someone had got me hiking at a young age. I feel like I missed out on a lot because no one I knew really did that stuff. The earlier you can introduce them to it, the better!
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It was really nice! Sometime if we have time I'd like to do the whole 5-mile circuit around the reservoir. I hiked with my parents a bit as a kid but nothing too regular, I think it's really important to get kids out and into the woods! We're camping with sister-in-law & the nephews this summer at Niagara and I really want to take the 12yo on a serious hike!
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