thats pretty sweet. seems like a perfect late fall tripLooking for a fun weekend sight-seeing trip across New Jersey without the highway? Why not check out the Trans NJ Trail! At over 460 miles long you are sure to see something amazing. Like a McLaren on a dirt road... gotta love NJ. Here's how my personal adventure across this beautiful state went.
Who would have guessed you could do something like this across NJ? Not me, and my wife was born here and we've lived here together now for 8 years. With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, skipping the highway that could take me from one end of the state to the other in just a couple hours for a much longer backroads adventure sounded fun but also like the unknown. I came across an article about this trail on OK4WD.com but when it's time to finally go for it, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. For those of you wondering, I planned a 3 day event out of this but I highly suggest taking 4 days in total to see it all without rushing. (My first day was 15 hours behind the wheel.)
What do you pack for a multi-day vehicle trip? Thousands of avid off-road enthusiasts would say the number one thing to bring is a friend and another rig. While I technically agree, there's something so freeing about going at it alone. A few months before this I took a passenger across the country to Moab and completed a couple Jeep Badge of Honor trails and did some off-roading in Arches National Park. We didn't bring another rig along but it was nice to have an occasional spotter and "hey, what's that noise?" checker. But besides that, I have thousands of miles logged all by my lonesome. And yep, I've been there. Stuck in above door-height water with my shoes off and pants rolled up digging winch line out and over to a safe recovery point. At least there was no one to be embarrassed infront of. And sure it's just New Jersey, you're never too far from help.
You have to be prepared for anything when you're alone. So on this weekender I had my food and cooler for a few days worth, all my camping gear including stove and extra tarps/blankets, a full set of recovery equipment including traction boards, d-rings and soft shackles, a snatch block, tree savers, winch, and what I like to call my anti-u-turn kit which consists of an electric chainsaw with 2 extra batteries, a few gallons of gas, a shovel, pickaxe, hatchet, and some chains along with a hi-lift tractor jack. Oh. And I still had a companion.
The route can be taken in either direction, but I think starting in the North provides the best views. That's because you get to start with the beautiful sunrise over High Point State Park and end days later with the sunset in Cape May.
From the start, you make your way down winding and hilly roads and find yourself driving through a single lane park and campground. I was there on a perfect Fall day and watching the leaves roll up into the air as I drove by was refreshing and I already knew this trip would be great. Not far past the start you reach the very first off-road trail and it truly is a gatekeeper. Many guides state that this trail is completable in a regular sedan and that cannot be further from the truth! This very first 100ft of off-road is a rock garden, likely put in place to avoid erosion of the hillside. You will likely need 4WD here as you climb basketball sized rocks at a good incline of about 10 degrees. I was on 35"s and a 4" lift and went straight into 4lo to be safe.
After that though, the majority of the day is various paved or gravel backroads as you wind past historical sites. There were only a handful of vehicles on my first day on the trails, a few people at each site taking photos or having a picnic but nothing too crowded. Even at the waterfall that seemingly comes out of nowhere to say hi. Additionally, this trail is popular with adventure-bikes so drive safely and keep your eyes peeled as they zip by.
Before reaching my day 1 stopping point there was one more trail that really got in the way. Severe erosion here will prevent anyone without careful preparation. There was what looked like a stream running straight down the middle of this once gravel through road that forces you to straddle a 2ft drop with water running underneath. That wouldn't be so much of a problem if it didn't wind back and forth. I gave it a good try in 2wd and did get stuck, but 4lo brought my back up in place and I continued on. I will add a note, some trails have signs that say something along the lines of "no way through" but I believe that's just for safety so my mom doesn't try to use it as a shortcut to the store. All my research appears to show that it's still legal to take even with the posted signs. At the end of day 1 I was close enough to home to call it and sleep in my own bed.
On day 2 I met up with the NJ Jeep Association (njjeep.org) as they made a club event of driving this middle portion of the trail. We started right where I left off the night prior at Assunpink Lake and made our way through multiple counties and passed horse farms, old brick factories, and of course more historic sights. This middle section of the trail also passed what locals call the "poor man's safari" which takes a dirt road outside of the Six Flag Great Adventure animal exibits. We saw quite a few animals in there, I'm sure on a Summer day it's a neat way to see some animals up close without a crowd.
On this day 2 there was only 1 small trail that would be any issue. In the Pinelands section there was one erroded trail that had exposed a metal pipe but continued use had crushed it and left it mangled below. One of the 2dr JKs got stuck for a moment but I think the longer wheelbase kept most of us out of trouble. We used a spotter to guide us around the sharp part of the pipe and had no more issues.
The NJJA ended the day at a very nice semi primitive camp in Wharton State Forest. It needs to be reserved in advance but had a large parking lot to fit the whole club, plenty of flat tent areas, and a small outhouse which I did not even attempt to brave. That night we had a small campfire and ate warm food and chatted late into the night. There was a pack of coyotes that made their way around us that night but never came close enough to see. Other campsites are within earshot but we couldn't see each other which was nice for a campground. The next morning was relatively short for the club, making our way to Moore's Beach to end the ride.
But then I was off again by myself to finish the trail on day 3. In reality it only took a few more hours and I made it to Cape May Lighthouse just in time to see the sunset. This remaining section is all paved backroads and neighborhoods except for one small dirt trail connecting road.
This was a great weekend and it was nice to be with myself and my dog just listening to music and thinking about life and just taking it all in without any of the daily distractions. I would love to know that someone reading this takes the trip one day, and I myself can't wait to do it again.
I know I'm not the best writer, I ramble a bit and I'm sure I left out some good info. Please comment or ask anything that comes to mind about this trip or my rig or past experiences. Here's a link to the original article that got me started:
https://ok4wd.com/blog/traveling-the-trans-new-jersey-trial/
For those of you looking for the GPS route, I used a link from a user post on this thread:
https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/the-official-trans-nj-trail-thread.19163/
Just be aware the route changes and gets updated do to various conditions including construction and the hunting season.
