Let’s clear something up before we go a single step further. New Jersey has zero of the 63 official national parks. Not Yellowstone, not Yosemite, not one. If a list promises you “national parks” in the Garden State, it is selling you something that does not exist.
What New Jersey does have is 11 National Park Service experiences worth your time. Scenic trails, recreation areas, a national monument, a national reserve, a couple of wild rivers, and some of the finest Revolutionary War and industrial history sites in the country. They just carry different designations than “national park.” I am going to walk through all 11 and tell you exactly what each one actually is.
I’m a native New Yorker who has spent plenty of time next door in New Jersey, and since I retired from teaching history in 2018 I’ve made it a point to visit these places in person. I spent a career teaching the history behind these sites. Then I got to stand on the ground where it happened. That is the lens I’m writing from here.
If you’re planning a trip, one book I recommend is New Jersey Off the Beaten Path: A Guide To Unique Places by Bill Scheller and Kay Scheller.
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Now, let’s get started.
New Jersey NPS Sites At A Glance
Here are all 11 sites, grouped by their correct designation, so you can see at a glance what kind of place each one really is and what you’d go there for.
| Site | NPS Designation | What You Go For |
|---|---|---|
| Appalachian National Scenic Trail | National Scenic Trail | Long-distance hiking, ridgeline views |
| Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route | National Historic Trail | Driving and walking the 1781 march to Yorktown |
| Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area | National Recreation Area | Hiking, paddling, camping along the Delaware |
| Gateway National Recreation Area | National Recreation Area | Beaches, birding, history at Sandy Hook |
| Statue of Liberty National Monument (Ellis Island) | National Monument | Immigration history and harbor views |
| Morristown National Historical Park | National Historical Park | Washington’s winter encampments |
| Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park | National Historical Park | America’s first planned industrial city |
| Thomas Edison National Historical Park | National Historical Park | Edison’s lab and Glenmont estate |
| Great Egg Harbor River | National Scenic and Recreational River | Paddling a 129-mile river system |
| Lower Delaware River | National Wild and Scenic River | Fishing, paddling, river history |
| New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve | National Reserve (state-managed, NPS-coordinated) | Pine barrens ecology, paddling, solitude |
1. Appalachian National Scenic Trail
Designation: National Scenic Trail (administered by the National Park Service).
The Appalachian Trail (AT) runs 2,190 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, and roughly 72 of those miles cross New Jersey. It was first conceptualized by Benton MacKaye in 1921 and completed in 1937 after more than a decade of work by volunteers and the Civilian Conservation Corps.
It was designated the first National Scenic Trail under the National Trails System Act of 1968. The New Jersey stretch is known for boardwalks across wetlands, the bear-heavy ridgeline around High Point and Stokes State Forest, and a steady cast of black bears, deer, and migrating raptors. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, founded in 1925, still helps maintain and protect it.
What you go for: long-distance hiking and section hiking, ridgeline views, camping at designated sites and shelters, wildlife watching, and trout fishing in the streams the trail crosses.
2. Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
Designation: National Recreation Area.
The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area straddles New Jersey and Pennsylvania along the Delaware River, covering more than 70,000 acres. It is one of the most-visited units in the entire National Park System, and it sits roughly 90 minutes from both New York City and Philadelphia.
There are more than 150 miles of trails here, including the Appalachian Trail, which runs right through the park. The river itself is the main draw, with boating, fishing, and rafting all popular. You’ll also find historic sites scattered through the area, including remnants of the old Delaware Canal system.
The landscape supports a wide range of wildlife, with more than 200 bird species recorded plus mammals, reptiles, and amphibians across its forests, wetlands, and meadows.
3. Ellis Island (Statue of Liberty National Monument)
Designation: National Monument. Ellis Island is administered as part of Statue of Liberty National Monument, and a portion of the island lies in New Jersey waters.
Few places shaped the modern United States more directly than Ellis Island. It opened as the first federal immigration station in 1892, and between then and 1924 more than 12 million immigrants passed through its halls, undergoing medical and legal inspections before being allowed into the country.
The island had a long life before that. The Lenape lived here first. The Dutch, British, and American colonies all claimed it at different times, and in the 1800s it served military purposes, including as a defense fort during the War of 1812. The immigration station closed in 1954, came under the National Park Service in 1965 as part of the national monument, and reopened to the public as the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration in 1990 after a major restoration.
What you go for: touring the restored main building and museum, exploring the grounds with harbor and Statue of Liberty views, genealogy research in the immigrant records, the audio tour, and the ferry ride out across the harbor.
4. Gateway National Recreation Area
Designation: National Recreation Area.
Gateway spans 27,000 acres from Sandy Hook in New Jersey to Breezy Point in New York City. It serves two roles at once: the gateway from the ocean into New York Harbor, and the gateway to the National Park Service for millions of urban visitors each year. You’ll find green space and beaches alongside historic forts and cultural landscapes. The New Jersey side, Sandy Hook, has the swimming beaches, the historic Fort Hancock, and the oldest operating lighthouse in the country.
Outdoor options run long here. Gateway hosts more than 325 bird species, with beginner birding programs at both the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and Sandy Hook. There are multi-use paths and greenways across all three units (Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes are allowed where traditional bikes are). Hand-launched canoes, kayaks, and rowboats put in from several sites including Horseshoe Cove at Sandy Hook. Floyd Bennett Field even has an archery range open February 1 through November 30 with a permit.
There’s more besides. Camping is available (up to four people per site, 14-night maximum). Saltwater fishing is allowed throughout. Lifeguarded swimming runs at Great Kills Park, Jacob Riis Park, and Sandy Hook from 10 am to 6 pm through Labor Day, with no lifeguards after that. Indoors, the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and Sandy Hook visitor centers offer hands-on exhibits, bookstores, and rangers to answer questions. Check current hours before you go, since they shift seasonally.
5. Great Egg Harbor River
Designation: National Scenic and Recreational River.
A quick correction worth making: this place is the Great Egg Harbor River, not the “Great Egg River Harbor” you may see floating around online. It’s a river system that gathers the waters of 17 tributaries on its way to Great Egg Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean.
Congress added it to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System in 1992, and nearly all of this 129-mile river system flows through the Pinelands National Reserve. That gives it a wild, tea-colored, cedar-lined character that is hard to find this close to the coast.
What you go for: paddling and boating, fishing, birding, camping, hiking, and quiet stargazing away from the shore crowds. Kayaking the cedar-stained water is the classic way to see it.
6. Lower Delaware National Wild and Scenic River
Designation: National Wild and Scenic River.
As a retired history teacher and a lifelong history buff, I love a good story, and the Lower Delaware has one. It is the largest free-flowing river in the eastern United States, running past forests, farmland, and villages while linking some of the most densely populated regions in America.
I spent four years as a child living in Easton, Pennsylvania, and fished every summer along the banks of this river, so it holds a personal place for me.
There’s history here too. One of my favorite Revolutionary War episodes happened on this water. Through the summer and autumn of 1776, the Continental Army under George Washington suffered defeat after defeat in New York and northern New Jersey, forcing a retreat across the Delaware into Pennsylvania.
Facing expiring enlistments and short supplies, on Christmas Day 1776 Washington led 2,000 troops in a bold crossing of the Delaware. Early the next morning the Continental Army attacked the surprised Hessian garrison at Trenton. Nearly 1,000 Hessians were captured along with their cannon and supplies. You can visit the crossing site at Washington’s Crossing in New Jersey and Washington’s Crossing in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania National Parks Worth Visiting
7. Morristown National Historical Park
Designation: National Historical Park. When it was created in 1933, Morristown became the first National Historical Park in the United States.
If you love history, this is the one to circle. Morristown preserves the ground where the Continental Army endured two brutal winter encampments. From 1777 to 1779, and again in the punishing winter of 1779-80, the town served as a military center for General Washington and his troops. After the war its Revolutionary-era importance faded as Morristown grew into an industrial and commercial center.
The park has expanded and restored its grounds steadily since 1933. Today it draws visitors interested in the American Revolution to several core sites: Jockey Hollow, Fort Nonsense, and the Ford Mansion, along with trails, picnic areas, and a visitor center.
It isn’t only about the history. This is a place where history and the outdoors meet. The park holds roughly 27 miles of marked hiking trails, including the 2.25-mile Yellow Trail connecting the key sites in Jockey Hollow and the 6.5-mile White Trail / Grand Loop. Bicycles are allowed on the 3-mile paved Tour Road, birders do well around the Wick House Orchard and the meadows, and about 10.5 miles of designated horse trails are open to riders.
10 of the best Revolutionary War Sites In America
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8. New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve
Designation: National Reserve. Worth being precise here: the Pinelands is the first National Reserve in the country, but it is not run as a standard National Park Service unit. It is managed primarily by the state-level New Jersey Pinelands Commission, with the NPS in a coordinating and supporting role rather than direct operation.
The Pinelands is a stretch of pine forest, wetland, and coastal plain covering more than 1 million acres in southern New Jersey. It carries three notable designations: National Reserve, National Natural Landmark, and a United Nations International Biosphere Reserve.
The ecology is the draw. The pine barrens support plant and animal life found almost nowhere else, sitting atop a vast aquifer of clean water. People have lived and worked here for thousands of years, and the area was a hub of commercial activity in the 1700s and 1800s. The New Jersey Pinelands Commission was created in 1978 to oversee preservation, and the Pinelands National Reserve was established in 1979.
What you go for: hiking, birding, fishing, paddling the cedar rivers, camping, and the kind of quiet that is genuinely rare in the Northeast.
Check out three Vermont National Parks for your visit to the Green Mountain State
9. Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park
Designation: National Historical Park (established 2011).
New Jersey played a central part in America’s Industrial Revolution. Founded in 1792, Paterson was the country’s first planned industrial city, built around the 77-foot Great Falls of the Passaic River and championed by Alexander Hamilton as the engine of American manufacturing.
Visitors can take self-guided outdoor tours. The Great Falls itself is a National Natural Landmark, and the raceway system that powered the city is recognized as a National Engineering Landmark. A walk through Upper Raceway Park follows the start of that system past a handful of the mills it once drove.
Those raceways, built in the late 1700s and early 1800s to harness the water power, were engineering achievements that helped turn Paterson into a center for textiles, locomotives, and later silk. What you go for: the falls overlook, the raceway walk, and the story of how American industry began.
A list of the 128 best US National Monuments, ranked
10. Thomas Edison National Historical Park
Designation: National Historical Park.
How many national parks can claim a wizard? Just one that I can think of, and it’s this one. The wizard in question is the Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Edison himself. Of all the NPS sites in New Jersey, this is my personal favorite, because Edison’s story is a quintessentially American one.
One of the most prolific inventors of all time, Thomas Alva Edison shaped modern life with the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera, and he improved the telegraph and telephone besides. The park preserves the laboratory complex where much of that work happened, plus Glenmont, the estate where he lived.
What you go for: the Visitor Center (Building 1) with the orientation film and store, the Main Laboratory Building (Building 5) with Edison’s library, machine shops, and music room, the Glenmont Greenhouse, and the Glenmont Garage holding his historic vehicles.
A few things you may not know about the man: in his youth Edison set up a chemistry lab and a printing press aboard a Grand Trunk Railroad train while selling candy and newspapers. His first patented invention was an electric vote-counting machine, which politicians rejected because it left no time for backroom deals. And the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, claims to hold a test tube containing Edison’s last breath.
To go deeper, I recommend two biographies: Edison by Edmund Morris, and The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World by Randall E. Stross.
11. Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail
Designation: National Historic Trail (established 2009).
This is a network of roads and routes tracing the 1781 march of General Washington and the French General Rochambeau during the American Revolution. In the summer of that year the two commanders moved their armies from Newport, Rhode Island, to Yorktown, Virginia, for the campaign that effectively ended the war. The route passes through New Jersey on its way south.
Congress designated it a National Historic Trail in 2009, making it the first to commemorate the role France played in securing American independence. Since then, the effort has focused on interpretive centers, marked trail segments, and educational programs.
What you go for: driving and walking marked segments of the historic march, history-focused stops along the corridor, and a real sense of the logistics behind the Revolution’s decisive campaign.
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Planning Your New Jersey Trip
These 11 sites are scattered across the whole state, so it helps to think in clusters rather than trying to see everything in one loop.
Regions and Clusters
- Northwest (the mountains): Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and the Appalachian Trail sit together up near High Point. Pair them for a hiking-and-paddling weekend.
- North and central (history and industry): Morristown, Paterson Great Falls, and Thomas Edison are all within easy driving distance of one another and of Newark. This is the cluster for a history-focused road trip.
- The harbor: Ellis Island and the Sandy Hook unit of Gateway both connect to New York Harbor. Sandy Hook is reachable by car or seasonal ferry; Ellis Island is ferry-only from Liberty State Park in Jersey City.
- South (the pines and the rivers): The Pinelands National Reserve, the Great Egg Harbor River, and stretches of the Lower Delaware are all in the southern half of the state. This is the cluster for paddling and solitude.
Best Seasons
Fall is the strongest all-around season here. Cooler air makes the trails at Delaware Water Gap and Morristown comfortable, the foliage along the rivers turns over, and the bug pressure in the Pinelands drops sharply. Spring is the best window for birding at Gateway and in the pine barrens. Summer is for the Sandy Hook beaches and river paddling, though it can be hot and humid. Winter is quiet but workable at the indoor history sites like Edison and the Ellis Island museum.
Fees and Logistics
Most of these sites are free to enter, including Morristown, Paterson Great Falls, Thomas Edison (though guided lab tours may carry a small fee), and the river units. Sandy Hook at Gateway charges a seasonal beach parking fee in summer. Ellis Island has no entry fee, but the ferry ticket is required and should be reserved ahead in peak season. Always check the official NPS page for each site before you go, since hours and seasonal closures change. An America the Beautiful pass covers the parking fees at the units that charge them.
Check Out Our Acadia National Park Film
MTJP | Acadia is the culmination of several weeks spent exploring Acadia National Park during peak fall color. The film is, in part, a celebration of Acadia’s centennial. It is dedicated to George Dorr.
Sculpted by glaciers and landscaped by beavers, Acadia is full of unique features. Rounded mountains, quiet ponds, rocky coastline, and some of the finest trails in the country make up this place.
The film was shot entirely in 4K. Acadia sits on Mt. Desert Island and the Schoodic Peninsula of Maine. Will and Jim chose to film in autumn for its reputation as one of the best places in the world to see fall foliage, and what they captured did not disappoint.
Acadia is a quieter national park with one of the finest road systems in the system, and it holds the first point in the United States the sun touches each morning. Locations Will and Jim captured include Jordan Pond, Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, Otter Cliffs, Cadillac Mountain, the beaver ponds, and the Schoodic Peninsula.
No. None of the 63 official US national parks are in New Jersey. What the state has instead is 11 National Park Service sites and related units, each with its own designation: the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Ellis Island (part of Statue of Liberty National Monument), Gateway National Recreation Area, Great Egg Harbor River, the Lower Delaware National Wild and Scenic River, Morristown National Historical Park, the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve, Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, Thomas Edison National Historical Park, and the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail.
See our full guide to historic sites in New Jersey.
Thomas Edison National Historical Park
Morristown National Historical Park
Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park
Ellis Island (Statue of Liberty National Monument)
Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail
Monmouth Battlefield
Grover Cleveland Birthplace
The Sterling Hill Mining Museum
William Trent House Museum
Absecon Lighthouse
You should probably know that this guide does not come out of thin air. More Than Just Parks is a family operation. My sons Will and Jim have spent their entire adult lives exploring and filming America’s national parks and public lands destinations. I taught American history for 25 years, and I write our history and travel guides.
Will and Jim have worked with the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, the USDA, and the U.S. Forest Service for years, creating films on important places and issues. Their work has been featured in leading publications around the world, and even some people outside our immediate family call them experts on the national parks.
The 11 New Jersey NPS Sites, Recapped
- Appalachian National Scenic Trail (National Scenic Trail)
- Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (National Recreation Area)
- Ellis Island (National Monument, part of Statue of Liberty National Monument)
- Gateway National Recreation Area (National Recreation Area)
- Great Egg Harbor River (National Scenic and Recreational River)
- Lower Delaware National Wild and Scenic River (National Wild and Scenic River)
- Morristown National Historical Park (National Historical Park)
- New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve (National Reserve, state-managed with NPS coordination)
- Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park (National Historical Park)
- Thomas Edison National Historical Park (National Historical Park)
- Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail (National Historic Trail)
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