First Journey to the Falls at Tinton Falls

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Monday was one of those last minute days. I hate days like that. It was beautiful out and I spent the earlier part of the day cleaning the co-op, watching a movie and doing some writing. I had planned on going to the orchard, but the kids were busy. So instead I did more stuff around the house until late afternoon. At six, my get off your ass and photo safari gene kicked in. I jumped on the net to find something local. I was worried about running out of light so I chose the falls, at where else but Tinton Falls. I had never actually gone to the falls and had only seen them from the restaurant formerly known as the Grist Mill. It's current name is MJ's but I haven't been there since it changed names.

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At first pass I missed the entrance to the falls overlook. It was not hard to do, there were no signs and the narrow entrance is just a one lane gravel road that leads to a five spot gravel filled parking lot. Only three spots were available due to a mound of rock occupying the other two. The thought of climbing it with the Escape was tempting, but I decided to get on with my hike. I was a resident of Tinton Falls for five years and have to admit, this is the only town park that looks like it was forgotten. You'd think that they'd take care of the park that contained the highest waterfall on The Atlantic Coastal Plain and shares their name, but sadly, you would be wrong.

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The first thing I noticed was the empty trail map board. There was a bent up metal "No Fishing" sign directly across from the "stocked waters" fishing rules posted on a tree. The trails, if you could call them that, had all severely overgrown and were tree blocked. The two overlooks didn't overlook the falls, but trees and growth. They were too far from the falls themselves to be of much use. I left my hiking boots at home, so the steep trek and walk in the water bed proved to be a bit challenging. It required some fancy footwork, buy I made it to a spot where I could see the falls head on without getting wet. Thanks to the lack of rain they weren't as impressive as I knew they could be, but was happy that so much of the bed was dry and walkable.

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I then decided to cross the driving bridge that goes over the waterfalls to get to an old foot bridge, in hopes of some better views. The foot bridge itself was interesting, but the only views were of the trees and foliage that completely blocked sight of the feeder for the falls.

Not Enhanced.  Just played with the actual light through the lens.  Love how this came out.

I headed back across the road and to the higher observation deck, a small wooden platform with a railing. As I approached, a young rabbit looked up at me with piercing eyes, he appeared to gesture, "Follow me down the rabbit hole", as he turned and disappeared on the plant and leaf filled slope. It was getting dark and I could not follow, perhaps another day.