National parks in New Jersey

Still river in the winter with leafless trees on either side

100ESSENTIAL Tim Kiser

Park · NJ

Great Egg Harbor River

Great Egg Harbor River is a 55-mile paddling corridor through the New Jersey Pinelands that rewards people who want to move through a landscape rather than just stand in it.

Silhouette of a man with backpack standing on McAfee Knob at sunset with mountains in the distance.

95ESSENTIAL Photo Credit: ATC/Benjamin Hays

National Scenic Trail · CT

Appalachian National Scenic Trail

Over 2,190 miles connecting Georgia to Maine, the Appalachian Trail is less a single destination than a lifetime of options.

View of the Delaware River cutting between two low mountain peaks

90ESSENTIAL Courtesy of James Hicks

National Recreation Area · NJ

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

Delaware Water Gap punches well above its weight for a $10 recreation area wedged between New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Wick House surrounded by colorful fall leaves

84EXCELLENT NPS Photo/Dan Beards

National Historical Park · NJ

Morristown National Historical Park

Morristown is where the Revolutionary War nearly fell apart.

76EXCELLENT NPS Photo/Julia Bell

National Wild and Scenic River · PA

Lower Delaware National Wild and Scenic River

The Lower Delaware punches above its weight as a national park unit precisely because it refuses to feel like one.

Tent at Floyd Bennett Field campsite in Gateway's Jamaica Bay unit.

74EXCELLENT NPS Photo

National Recreation Area · NY

Gateway National Recreation Area

Gateway is the rare national park unit where you can kayak in the morning, bike a former airfield at noon, and swim in the Atlantic by afternoon, all without leaving the New York metro area.

Beaux-Arts brick and limestone building with large arched windows and cupola-topped towers.

62WORTH IT NPS Photo

Part of Statue of Liberty National Monument · NJ

Ellis Island Part of Statue of Liberty National Monument

Ellis Island is a museum destination first and a national park experience second.

40NICHE NPS Photo/ Terry McKenna

National Historical Park · NJ

Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park

Paterson Great Falls is a compact urban history park built around a genuinely dramatic 77-foot waterfall and the story of America's first planned industrial city.

Large salmon colored Victorian mansion with green lawn and blue sky

35NICHE NPS Photo

National Historical Park · NJ

Thomas Edison National Historical Park

This is a focused, intimate look at where Thomas Edison actually worked, not a broad outdoor adventure.

26NICHE NPS Photo

National Historic Trail · MA

Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail

This 680-mile corridor traces the 1781 march of Washington and Rochambeau from Newport to Yorktown, the campaign that effectively ended the Revolutionary War.

Tall pine trees surround a thin unpaved trail

18NICHE Farmartin

National Reserve · NJ

New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve

The Pinelands is less a destination than a living landscape, a million-acre mosaic of pine forest, wetlands, farms, and actual towns where people live and work.