Highways and treatment plants are never fully obscured from view here – but neither are history, nature conservation, islands, beaver dams and every kind of habitat imaginable.
Park either at the east end by the Tulpehaking Nature Center and head down the hill past the historic Isaac Watson House down the hill to the marsh’s edge. – or use the Roebling Memorial Park lot to the west, abutting Spring Lake. The two locations are less than a mile from each other.
At the far east end, a footpath cuts under the intersetion of highways 195 and 295 making for unconventional, if muddy, adventures. Tucked between the foot of the hill and the marsh, Watson Woods offers a sweet trail meandering trail that skips across boardwalks and stepping stones. A broad trail runs westward along the marsh, meeting the trail that loops (in square fashion) around Spring lake in under a mile. At the southeast corner of Spring Lake trail, you’ll find a beaver dam – as well as a connecting trail to an island that’s fun to explore. Presiding over the Roebling Park lot – and Spring Lake – is a palatial historic stone staircase that once led to White City Amusement Park and now goes nowhere.
The Tulehaking Nature center is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10am-4pm, with regular programming and a new Beaver Reading Hut for kids. The Isaac Watson House is the headquarters of the New Jersey State Society of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
DIRECTIONS
AS A WINE….
Barolo – for its tar and its roses.
