by Alison Mitchell, Co-Executive Director, New Jersey Conservation Foundation
Mountains, cliffs, ridges, and rises…anyplace that can be climbed or offers a vista can inspire us!
There’s way more than meets the eye at New Jersey’s highest points. A fascinating geologic history lies beneath these features. But where can you find them?
The New Jersey Geological and Water Survey has figured this out! Using satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) computer modeling, Alexandra Petriman Billings calculated the highest natural elevations in each of our 21 counties. Man-made elevations, such as landfills, weren’t counted – though they were the highest points in five low-lying counties!
Petriman Billings created two lists: the absolute highest points in each county – some of which are on privately-owned property – and the highest points on publicly-accessible land. Since it is illegal to trespass, stick to publicly-accessible locations.
It probably comes as no surprise that the highest point in this state we’re in is named High Point. At 1,803 feet, High Point State Park is located at the summit of the Kittatinny Mountain ridge in the state’s northernmost county, Sussex. For a true bird’s-eye view of the beautiful landscape, visitors can climb the more than 200 stairs to the top of High Point Monument! At the top of New Jersey, you can walk on rocks that were originally laid down at the bottom of ancient seas and coastlines before there was animal life on land, where 450 million-year-old Martinsburg shale pokes above 425 million-year-old Shawangunk conglomerate.
The lowest high point is in flat, sandy, peninsular Cape May County. At just 62 feet above sea level, Cape May’s high point is along a sand road located in the Peaslee Wildlife Management Area. You’ll be walking on sand deposited on the ocean floor, about a half-million years ago, before the emergence of modern humans.
Thanks to state, county, and local open space preservation programs, many county high points are in public parks and preserves, though not all have trails leading to the precise highest spots.
The ancient New Jersey Highlands contain the oldest rocks in our state, formed during continental collisions and breakups between what is now eastern North America and other fragments of the supercontinent Rodinia, well over half a billion years ago. Mountains that rivaled the Himalayas were thrust up, but today only the deep cores of those mountains remain as the hilly Highlands.
The Highlands’ high points are almost all on public land, so go stand atop Precambrian rocks that were once buried deep in the Mount Everests of Ancient New Jersey. In Passaic County, at 1,487 feet, the highest elevation is along the Bearfort Mountain ridge in Abram S. Hewitt State Forest in West Milford. The Bearfort Mountain Natural Area sports some of the most spectacular mature forest in New Jersey’s Highlands, as well as Terrace Pond, a mountain lake carved out during the last ice age: https://www.nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/maps/abramhewitt-area.pdf
In the less hilly areas, the counties with high points found in public parks include Essex (Hilltop Reservation in Verona, 691 feet), a former basalt lava flow from when New Jersey and Morocco – yes, Africa – were breaking apart, giant amphibians wallowed in lakes in the Newark basin, and carnivorous dinosaurs were on the evolutionary rise.
Mercer County’s pinnacle is at the Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain, a similar former diabase lava flow in Hopewell Township, at 484 feet. Monmouth County’s Telegraph Hill in Phillips Park in Holmdel stands at 349 feet and is a Cretaceous hill that used to be part of the coastline when the comet crashed into the Yucatan and wiped out all the dinosaurs except the birds. In Ocean County, Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township, which is a 231-foot rise, is a wonderful public resource that sadly is being damaged by illegal monster trucks.
The highest accessible point in Burlington County is in the remarkable Pygmy Pines Plains of Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area. Pine Barrens wildfires – set by both lightning and groups of indigenous peoples – have shaped the genetics of dwarf pine trees spanning Route 72 for at least 6,000 years, in one of the most unique plant communities in the world.
Try visiting a few high points in the New Jersey counties near you. It could be a fun road trip, particularly in colorful autumnal landscapes. Reduce your carbon footprint by carpooling with friends! A copy of the New Jersey Geological and Water Survey will be hugely helpful, with photos, maps, and coordinates for every site! Go to https://www.nj.gov/dep/njgs/pricelst/tmemo/tm17-1.pdf.
If you visit High Point State Park, the field guide to the park’s geology is essential: https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/njgws/enviroed-freedwn/freedwn/hiptspgeology.pdf
And to learn about preserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
