I grew up near this amazing park and it's always been a special place for me. I played on the…read moreswingsets here as a kid, worked at the Summer Camp here as a teen, and continue to enjoy walking here as an adult. This park has everything--brand new playground equipment for 2022, tennis courts, soccer fields, baseball fields, body-weight fitness equipment like parallel bars and a horizontal ladder, paved walking trails through the woods, a pond, and more! The free public bathrooms are inside a building so there's hot and cold running water, flush toilets, light and heat. There are also several water fountains with drinking water. In summer the local theater group offers Plays in the Park at the amphitheater. Most of the park is flat, accessible to wheelchairs and strollers, and easy to walk around. There are benches near the pond and a pavilion area with picnic tables. Lots of people bring their dogs here.

PROS This is a very nice park that has a amphitheater, pool, some courts, and walking trails…read more Excellent place to spend time at! CONS: there's no directory anywhere so it's easy to get lost and parking is minimal if the park is jam packed. The amphitheater also has an uncomfortable place to sit since it's on a downhill angle OVERALL: I would love to come back to this park, as long as it's during the right time

Starting to the right of the restroom building, we took the Grand Loop Trail (Yellow) to the Pink…read more(K) trail, jumped on White (W), Teal (H) and Pink (K) for a few minutes before ending up on the Falling Waters Trail (B). Saw the beautiful waterfalls during our 2+ mile hike. The trail is well marked and pretty easy however around the waterfalls it gets a fair bit rocky and more difficult. We did the hike with two kids, so it's overall not that hard.

A beautiful venue. One of my closest friends got married here this past weekend and it was…read moreabsolutely perfect! The staff were great in helping us with set-up and facilitating the events while the backdrop was everything a person could love for a fall setting. Something about the glowing golden leaves, the massive fireplace, and the all around good feelings made the place seem like Imladris, the House of Elrond from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." Highly recommend this place and the staff!

woohoo is right! What is not to love?? We have a dog park, soccer fields galore, lacrosse,…read morefootball and baseball. plus one of the best playgrounds in the area? I'm very lucky to live close to this park. The playground is wonderful - broken into 2 sections - 1 for big kids one for small kids. When we go, we typically stay for at least 2 hours. I bring food to take a break in the picnic area (no food in the park please!!) and then my kids go right back at it. The dog park is great too - so far we have only met very nice dog owners. no aggressive dogs either. Great running area! Bathrooms are well maintained. Sometimes (not sure of the schedule) they even have a snackbar! Only downside is parking - they have plenty of it but you often have to walk far to either the park (if soccer games are going on) or an event in the park. The township holds many events here - which can make for an overcrowded playground experience.

This is a really cute park! I do think that it's a great central location for the county and the…read morearea, because it's large enough to host many many events but also it's out of the way so it doesn't really get to a point where the streets are crowded or anything like that. I also really appreciate how much parking it has. It's well kept and a beautiful area. It is pretty hilly at certain points so I can't see it as a recommendation for like walking or running. But overall, I think it's a very nice area especially if you have kids. This is where I lost boarding events are held and a lot of community events as well.

Loved it here. We came here for a morning walk. There weren't many people here and there were some…read moreflowers and plants. I'm sure there are more in the spring and summer. I loved the paths and sights here. I'm excited to come back here in the warmer weather to see more of the flowers.

Our visit to this arboretum marked my first public outing post-partum. The arboretum itself is…read morelovely and most of it is stroller accessible, which I appreciated. However there are no public restrooms at all, which was a HUGE challenge for me, especially so soon after having a baby. There was one restroom, which closed at 4:00pm. I showed up exactly at 4:00pm, but was turned away by the staff. I tried again 15 minutes later, but they informed me that they clock out at 4:00pm and letting me use the bathroom would delay them getting home. I have been an hourly employee before and totally get this, but I was a little disappointed by the lack of humanity. Being out for the first time was physically (and emotionally) challenging, and I was hoping for a bit more understanding from the staff.

My little queens were tired of the same playgrounds. My bro's yelp review and pix impressed us all…read more We parked right in front and my kids (ages 3 and 5) ran to the castle-themed jungle gyms and had fun and freedom for the next 2 hours. There were so many structures that all the children had plenty of personal space. Special features included a roller-based slide, a zip-line, and a rope climb. It's an excellent playground I can add to the rotation. Come out and play! NOTES/TIPS: **Picnic tables, plenty of benches, and 2 porta-potties on-site. **If the main parking lot is full, additional parking is 200 ft. away. **The playground is next to a basketball court, baseball field, and soccer field.

Drove in around 12 noon on a Friday, noticed right away that although there was plenty of parking,…read morethe playground was packed. Benches for eating are at the entrance located close enough to watch your kids playing basketball or on the playground. This playground is neat... truly a castle inspired theme. Great for playing peekaboo with your toddlers with many mazes to get lost in and still be sure your child is safe and can't fall out the sides (too easily). There's also a slide that can be climbed which my son was very intrigued with, once he got to the top he'd jump on the big boy slide and come out the other end, he's 14 months so there's really so much for him to explore. There's also bigger slides for older kids, different monkey bars to climb, kiddie and big kid swings, little castles with benches and tables to picnic in, and plenty of benches surrounding the playground for parents to hang out in. We lived up to our mantra: PLAY HARD NAP HARD! Baby was knocked out as soon as we got in the car so I must say it was a good day. My name is Francis and I approve of this playground. YSA (yelp service announcement) When you come here punch into your GPS this address: 651 Shunkpike Rd. Chatham NJ otherwise you will get lost.

I thought our parks were nice in Somerset County but we may have some competition. Whew - this spot…read morewas beyond gorgeous! And we discovered it by accident. Wesley was amped up after his vaccines so I decided to look for a park where we could eat our lunch and enjoy the spring weather. I legit just looked up parks on Apple Maps and chose the closest place. Oh my god - there was a lake - accessible by walking or by car. So many lovely places to park right by the water. An ABUNDANCE of benches. So many beautiful cherry blossom canopies. And dog friendly to boot! We saw elderly couples, teenage friends, young lovers, new moms, athletes, dog dads, people fishing. There's also swimming and aquatics there once the summer rolls around. It was just so perfect. For history buffs, there was also a war memorial to departed soldiers from the area since The Revolutionary War(!!). What a sweet little afternoon break!

some thing for everyone it seems!…read more You'll find a playful area called Imagination Station, shady spots, a little "sprinkler park," fishing spots, and courts for basketball and volleyball. The park has a large 40 × 80-foot pavilion, a covered stage, and a gazebo on "the Island" with benches nearby--ideal for parties, ceremonies, or even just relaxing with family, That's where we had our picnic--enjoying lunch with a view of the lake. this ares also marked as Roxbury Rotary pavillon. Concert/big gathering, and Roxbury's Memorial Day Parade and ceremony spot. The grounds are tidy and well-maintained, with scenic views of the horseshoe-shaped lake that's especially beautiful at sunrise or sunset It is a relaxed and welcoming spot for families, friends, and big gatherings. From playgrounds to trails, sports fields to peaceful lake views, it offers a bit of everything.

The area we were directed to park made me initially think I had come to the wrong place (the…read moreinitial path went thru an overgrown but worn path thru the woods that looked like we were headed into more woods). Eventually the path ended to a grassy area with a sign pointing to the mansion where we found the water tower and garden area. The garden was quite nice. Loved seeing the water tower (and appreciated the signage explaining the history and inner workings). Pro tip for newbies like us: You can walk on the road or drive closer to the mansion instead of taking the woodsy path. Oh, also there are NO trashcans at this location (even for doggy doo bags, diapers, etc), so come prepared. No nearby restroom to the garden either.

Beautiful garden that is well maintained. Free admission. Keep place clean! Restroom is far, see…read moreflyer for instructions. Parking is limited. See images and video for reference

Black River County Park is full of awesome hiking trails and picnicking areas. The Black River…read moretributary which runs through the Park is one of my favorite local trout fishing destinations. The NJ State Fish & Game regularly stocks this River and anyone with a valid Fishing License and Trout Stamp can have access to this activity along the River. Disabled Veterans and Kids under 16 are allowed to Fish freely without either. Plenty of excellent sites to check out including the Nathan Cooper Gristmill, Kay Pond, The Black River, and the picturesque Waterfalls. The Mill was built in 1826 and is still in operation as one of the only remaining water powered mills that has been restored in NJ. The Park often has guided tours and you can take home stone ground flour & cornmeal that's made right on site which is pretty cool. Open Wednesday - Sunday 10 till 5 [12 till 5 Sunday]

Black River County Park has a lot going for it. It's in a convenient location right off of a county…read morehighway and is only a few minutes away from downtown Chester aka a solid handful of post-hike meal options. In terms of the actual hike, you have high quality water features, with the Black River itself and its accompanying rapids the notable highlight, along with one of my all-time favorite hike characteristics - ruins. But the positives are slightly tainted by the lack of overall maintenance, which is a shame. I came here for a 6.4-mile hike with one of my chums last Saturday. It was a nasty, humid scorcher of a day and predictably we didn't see too many brave souls out there. It was character building at least. For those familiar with the park, we took the blue trail from the mill, which more or less runs parallel to the river, following it up past the environmental center to Pottersville Road, and then took the red trail on the right down to the Black River, meeting up again with the blue trail. The first part of the hike is in a lower-lying area with a lot of muddy sections, but the park has been pretty accommodating in building a lot of little bridges to get over those parts without getting your feet sopping wet. We're also in the midst of an epic drought, which at least helps for these types of adventures - I've seen it much muddier than this. A significant portion of the trail early on takes place on top of an abandoned railroad bed, and you could see a few ancient wood pilings down the slopes here and there. All of the trail markings here were pretty decent, and you have some pleasant visuals this time of year, including Kay's Pond. Once you start climbing up toward the environmental center, the trail markings and maintenance begin deteriorating. Both of us are experienced hikers, and we had to stop several times to make sure we were actually on the right trail. There's A LOT of offshoots and obvious places where additional markers should have been painted to steer people in the right direction. As a result, we actually missed the correct path to the environmental center and basically walked parallel to it from a distance in the cornfield. Thankfully there's no tree cover there and it was easy to orient ourselves, but it shouldn't have been an issue at all. Shortly thereafter, we ended up on the wrong part of the red trail for about 10 minutes, which we were able to figure out and retrace easily, but again, the lack of helpful trail markers loomed large. Right around this area (probably not a coincidence), we kept encountering random stretches of 50 feet or so where the path was totally overgrown. It wasn't a huge deal, though we definitely had to spend a little extra time checking for ticks, but these weren't huge areas of need - you could get a county worker to come in here with a weed-wacker and take care of these sections pretty quickly. And it's not clear why the rest of the path WAS maintained. Very strange. In terms of difficulty, there are a few stretches where we were a little out of breath, but nothing crazy (we're both in decent cardio shape, so your mileage may vary). I don't want this to come off as a purely negative diatribe, because there WERE positives. The canine chum situation was one. This is usually a very popular pooch spot but the heat kept most of them away. Thankfully we encountered a delightful, freshly sheared poodle named Toffee who was very accommodating (see attached). The wildlife sightings were solid as well. My eagle-eyed chum noticed a praying mantis on the road, and we met up with a nervous garter snake as well. We've both been here before and romped around in Kay's Ruins before - a remarkably solid foundation still remains there right on the river, and it's an awesome photo opportunity. Especially with the foliage in abundance, the optics are great. Additionally, because of the length of the trails it's easy to do a hike here with decent mileage where you get a legit workout. But this park could take some lessons from nearby Hacklebarney when it comes to making this park a little more hospitable for its guests.