Maurice River Bluffs Preserve

Today Mom and Dad gave Noelle and I the use of their car and so we took full advantage and headed out on a beautiful fall day for some adventure! We were headed to Millville, New Jersey and the Nature Conservancy managed Maurice (pronounced Morris) River Bluffs Preserve.

It was a short drive to the preserve. We hit the trail immediately after our arrival. We would basically hike every trail in the preserve by making a right turn at all trail intersections. We headed into the forest and found some interesting looking fungi.

Then we headed through a meadow and picnic area to our first overlook of the Maurice River.

We admired the view through the trees and then continued on, soon arriving at the ruins of an old stone house.

We then continued on a section of trail that appeared to be an old road

to an area where there was a dock that led out onto the river. We went out on the dock and looked around.

It appeared to be pretty good eagle habitat, but we didn't see any eagles. We would hear an eagle call later on in our hike though.

The next sections of trail we hiked passed close to the bank of the river offering some great views out across the water.

Near one overlook grew a tree with what appeared to be a section of railroad trail sticking out of it.

We came to another old road that led down to the river.

We admired the view from an illegal campsite there

and noticed some old, rusty rings embedded in the rock.

Were they vestiges of logging from long ago? Nearby was a set of large concrete basins.

Later on we would find concrete supports. These discoveries made me curious about past use of these lands. After reaching a flowing water spigot,

the trail curved around and started to lead us back to the parking area.

Our adventure for the day was not done yet though. I had done some research and found what looked to be a great place for lunch. We made the drive over to Vineland and Outlaw's Burger Barn. The food at Outlaw's did not disappoint. I got the En Fuego with turkey and it was great. Noelle got the Barn Burger. We both agreed that we would go back to Outlaw's. After lunch at Outlaw's, we headed to downtown Millville to kill some time. We weren't all that impressed with Millville. There was a nice walk along the river, but some shady characters hanging around. Finally, it was time to head out to the last stop of our day out the Glasstown Brewing Company at the airport in Millville. We sampled some delicious beers at Glasstown. We both enjoyed the Big Breakfast Coffee Maple Porter. We got a few ales to go and headed back to Mom and Dad's.