Monksville Reservoir Kayaking

Monksville Reservoir in Ringwood NJ is right in my backyard, but I’d never heard of it until the other day. Somebody saw my kayak on top of my car and struck up a conversation on paddling. When we were done discussing what we liked about our boats, we shifted to where we paddle and he said he always goes to Monksville.

Monksville Reservoir boat launch

Huh, really, where is that? I punched it into Apple Maps and realized I’d driven over it many times on my way to Mountain Creek Ski area. It looked like an cool spot so I went ahead and pencilled it into my list of stuff to do on my week off. So I looked up the stats.

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High Point State Park Monument Hike

On Saturday, I had to drop off Junior at a school far from home, and was scheduled to come back and pick him up five hours later. It was a structured academic thing so there was no way to stick around the school, nothing to watch. It was either spend that time reading a book in my car, or find something to do in Sussex County, New Jersey.

High Point Monument

Some quick research revealed that the school was not far from the High Point State Park Monument. After failing to find my New Jersey Atlas/Gazetteer around the house I printed a trail map from the park’s website instead. As the name implies, High Point State Park is the highest point in the Garden State. Don’t be too impressed; it’s 1800 feet above sea level at the summit.

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Action Park NJ Reopens

Most people in New Jersey are familiar with the legend of Action Park. Even those too young to remember have heard the stories.

Action Park excitement

The drownings, the broken bones, and in one case electrocutions that marred the park’s reputation and left it buried in litigation until it was forced to close down in 1996. This summer the park found a way to reopen.

We drove to Vernon early last Saturday with a plan to arrive as soon as they opened and cover as much as the park as possible. We reached the compound just after ten to find the parking lot empty save for two teenage attendants and the old familiar rainbow banner from the 90s. Parking is six dollars.

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