Cheesequake State Park - An Easy Dayhike Through New Jersey's Coastal Habitat

Cheesequake is a 1200-acre New Jersey state park located in eastern Middlesex County. While 1200 acres isn't exactly a large chunk of land, they've done wonders with what they've got, packing in more than enough trail for you to spend an entire afternoon hiking about.

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The hikes at Cheesequake aren't exactly thigh-burners.

Sometimes you have to take a good look around to find the most introverted wildlife.

Grasslands extend for a mile sometimes, with channels of water dissecting them in random patterns.

The trails at Cheesequake are well-marked, well-maintained, and broken down into circuits. This leaves visitors multiple options, ranging from a short 20 minute walk, to the full 7-mile tour. The terrain varies from slightly-elevated boardwalks to short, moderate climbs, and the views are entirely different depending on what season you visit in, which makes Cheesequake a perrenial favorite of ours.

The scenery and environment changes dramatically, even in the shortest of hikes. Single-file trails give way to fire trails, boards, stairs, and eroded hillsides. Take a quick glance at your surroundings-- you might be walking through hardwood forest one moment, then the next, find yourself at the main lake, and moments later, the protected saltwater wetlands of the Jersey Shore. Is that the Garden State Parkway over there? With 7 million people and counting, its hard to lose the masses, but for a little while, you can get some peace and quiet here.

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