New Jersey Highpoint (1,803 ft) - High Point of New Jersey
From the Park Entrance Parking Lot
February 16, 2009
Trip Report

Okay, so the Highpoint of New Jersey is essentially a 100 yard walkup from a parking lot.  But, I had my rules, and one of those rules was a minimum of 2 miles roundtrip for any highpoint.  This would require Nabeel and I to park our car just outside the park gates, for a 2.8 mile roundtrip job.  Before that though, we decided to go ahead and tag the high point, and take our pictures and video first.  First off, I didn’t want to carry the camera on a jog.  Secondly, the park was closing in 20 minutes, and I didn’t want to miss this highpoint, just in case they chased us off the grounds during our jog.  After our pics and video, Nabeel and I drove back out of the park, and prepped for a nice little jog to close out this great trip.

Almost immediately, both of us were feeling the aches and pains from our tough trip.  Both of us struggled to get running.  We cross back into the park, and ran along the road towards the high point.  This turned out to actually be a very beautiful run.  A nice park road, with a beautiful lake, and just an overall beautiful setting.  About half way to our destination, one of the Park Rangers stopped me and simply asked where we were parked.  When I told him that we were outside the gate, he was okay with that.  As I started running again I noticed that Nabeel hadn’t really stopped.  As I caught up to him, he sort of indicated that he was afraid to stop running, for fear that he wouldn’t be able to start back up again.

As we approached the last bit of road that leads to the upper parking lot, and in turn the high point, I noticed that I nice dirt trail took a short cut around the left side of the high point.  So, we took the trail instead.  About half way up that trail, I was wishing that we had taken the road instead.  The trail was steep.  Or, at least it felt steep on my poor sore legs.  Ultimately we made it to the highpoint marker and made a quick loop around the top.  I should mention at this point that the people of New Jersey must really be proud of their high point.  Although it certainly isn’t a mountain per say, it is definitely probably one of the overall prettiest high points that I’ve done.  There is a wonderful monument at the high point mark, and as I mentioned before the park is just beautiful.  The only gripe I have is the name.  "Highpoint!"  That is equivalent to calling your dog, "Dog!  Here dog, come dog!"  :)

Nabeel and I headed back to the car.  Total round trip was right around 25 minutes.  We packed up the car, and headed back towards Hartford to get a hotel and prep for our flight out tomorrow.
Pictures
Click on Picture for larger Picture

Route Information

TRAVEL TIMES
Approx Time Est. Distance
Elevation (ft)
TH to Highpoint
13 minutes
1.4 miles
291 gain (TH at 1,512)
Time on Highpoint
1 minutes
-
at 1,803
Highpoint to TH
12 minutes
1.4 miles
291 drop
ROUND TRIP
26 minutes
2.8 miles
291 Gain/drop