Cape May County Highpoint Trip Report

three areas in Bellplain State Forest near northern corner of county (60+ ft)

Date: February 20, 2005
Author: Dan Case

Get off the Garden State Parkway at Exit 25, the first exit after the Great Egg Harbor Bridge. Turn right at the end of the off-ramp and follow that road across US 9 to where it bends and becomes County Road 631. Follow this for a couple of miles more to NJ 50 and turn right, just below the village of Tuckahoe. Go through the village and immediately afterwards turn left at the light onto NJ 49. Follow this for several more miles until you start seeing state-forest signs on the trees and 548 forks off to the left.

It's a couple more miles to the county line, as described by Mike Schwartz. Keep an eye out for the power lines since the woods on either side of the road are such that the lines overhead are all you will be able to see and there is no other hint of them until you've passed them.

The first area, the small one near the county line, is rather obvious when you go down the dirt road to the fork Mike describes and then park. It's a couple of hundred feet off to your right, clearly rising above its surroundings slightly.

For the larger second area, head due east about 400 feet from the pullout in Mike's report to higher ground. Walk this area until satisfied -- it will take some time. I put a green plastic 2-liter soda bottle at eye level on a branch of the tree whose roots we liked the best; for the time being I guess it will do as a marker. There are still a couple of other areas in the immediate vicinity you will want to tread upon, however.

Continue down the dirt road a quarter-mile or so till you cross the much-better dirt of Hunters Mill Road. Turn right and the power line is another quarter-mile down. Turn right onto the ATV track if your vehicle can make it and the rise Mike mentions is right there. You can park in a little gated pullout to the forest to the north. Woods here are more open than the other two; highest ground is probably closer to the power line to the south than not.

I would take care if visiting these areas during New Jersey's brief deer season in early December.