Great Egg Harbor National Scenic and Recreational River
Estell Manor, N.J.
Visited: December 6, 2006
NPS Site Visited: 332 of 353
NPS Website
WHAT IS IT?
A series of State Parks, Wildlife Management Areas and County Parks that border the 50-mile long Great Egg River as it flows through the pinelands and into the Great Egg Harbor Bay. The National Park Service owns no land in the area and operates no federal facilities along the River.
BEAUTY (3/10)
The Great Egg Harbor NSRR's parks all boast their own collection of poor soil, sandy earth, scrub oaks, pitch pines, bogs and marshes. Birds think the area is wonderful. Aesthetically judgmental humans are not as praiseworthy. The river boasts a reportedly unique "tea color" due to tannins and irons it ingests from fallen cedar leaves.
HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE (1/10)
John James Audubon visited the Great Egg Harbor in 1829, did some hunting and remarked on the area's terrific birding opportunities. Then he went back home to Pennsylvania. His visit was much like ours. Except for the hunting part.
 CROWDS (4/10)
Not to say we did not run into hunters. At the Estell Manor County Park, our pleasant pinelands rails-to-trails boardwalked hike abruptly ended when we ran into yellow tape. As in yellow caution tape with the posted sign: Area Restricted to Permitted Hunters. We had heard nearby gunshot-type sounds but Michael had insisted it was construction noises. He was wrong and we turned around.
EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
Unlike the greater Pinelands N RES area, of which this Site is a part of, the Great Egg Harbor NSRR has its own Park brochure as well as an NPS-determined touchstone location where the aforesaid brochure can be procured: the Warren Fox Nature Center in Estell Manor County Park.
This Park's entrance is alongside New Jersey Route 50 near the hamlet of Estell Manor. In the north, Route 50 meets the Atlantic City Expressway at Exit 17. In the south, Route 50 joins the Garden State Parkway at Exit 20. Everything in-between is essentially National Park land except that the National Park Service owns none of the land.
From Estell Manor County Park southward to the Great Egg Harbor Bay no roads on our map spurred from Route 50 to the Great Egg Harbor River. So, yes. We spent a few hours walking and driving around a Scenic River National Park area but never actually saw the river.
CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (1/5)
The Warren Fox Nature Center has no bookstore.
COSTS (4/5)
No fees for any of the Park's 20+ non-contiguous sites. The Estell Manor County Park offers free use of its Muppet Movie-esque bicycles during your stay.
RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
One County Park Ranger shifted between the Nature Center's warm greenhouse and sunny deck.
 TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
The Warren Fox Nature Center's rows of reptile-filled aquariums, shelves of taxidermed critters, myriad BEWARE OF TICKS signs, array of random newspaper clippings and wall-sized flying bird cutouts highlight a quirkiness and individuality not found at federally-run National Park units. Michael felt like he had been transported back to his fifth grade science classroom. An instinctive and involuntary search for the jarred pig fetus came up short.
FUN (3/10)
We were having a great morning walk before the gunfire realization. The boardwalk trail was in perfect shape, birds sang and flitted in every direction around us and the weather was unseasonably warm.
WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (2/10)
If the National Park Service owns AND administers no land in a Park then how can that Park be an official National Park Site? And how can the Great Egg Harbor River be called a river and a harbor at the same time? Mustn't it choose? And why is the Great Egg Harbor River's harbor called the Great Egg Harbor Bay? Isn't that redundant?
We struggled with those questions with the doggedness of a Jean-Luc Godard character but found no answers. We did find terrific birding spots...right down the road in the birdiest town of them all: Cape May. Go there instead. Only the most persistent of National Parks Passport Stamp collectors need come here.
TOTAL 26/80
|