Two Girls New to New Jersey- The Garden State?

New Jersey's state motto is the Garden State. If I saw the words, "Garden State" once I saw them a thousand times when Abby and I were in Jersey.  Vehicles' licenses in Jersey all have the words "Garden State" printed on them so the back and front side of every NJ vehicle that I saw on roadways or parked let me know that New Jersey is the Garden State. The word "garden" conjures up to me the tranquility of green space, meadows, vegetables and/ or flowers growing in a field. The Jersey that Abby and I saw was quite urban- the turnpike connected drivers to more roads that transported drivers to towns whose boundaries didn't end with a cessation of buildings but rather bled right into the next town. Cars everywhere; interminable bus stops; truculent, impatient drivers; an evening walk revealing the outline of tall buildings in fading, crepuscular light- all signs of being near a vast city- about as opposite of a garden as could be. And yet... we did get to see some greenery and beautiful natural areas close to where we stayed in Teaneck, NJ.

One place that we could walk to was called the Teaneck Creek Conservatory. It is listed as the town of Teaneck's #1 thing to do in Teaneck according to Trip Advisor (out of 17 things. Teaneck is a fairly small town). I liked its proximity to the house where we were staying- a mere .6 miles. It was nice to be so close to Teaneck's premiere destination!

The conservatory was a mixture of odd and prettiness. It had some odd features. Parts of it were very pretty. And I think I saw deer every time that I was at the park which was at least five times.

First the odd: 

The tagline of the park is: Where Nature, History, and Art Come Full Circle

The art debuts as the conservatory's first odd thing: sculptures adorn one grassy area near a parking lot at one entrance of the park. Here are some of its offerings:

Yep, the brown structure is a rusted sewing machine that's bolted into the ground.

This sculpture/ statute is also a bit odd:

Then there's this sign: it's kind of creepily tattered. What really got my attention was one message on it. It reads, using context clues, "no animal sacrifices of any kid." Oh, OK!! If someone were intent on an animal sacrifice (shudder), would a tattered sign saying not to do it really act as a deterrent?? I mean, I hope so?

There is  a picnic table in the middle of tall grass/ weeds. Side of tick with your picnic, anyone?

Aside from some of the unique/ odd features of the park, it was quite pretty. It was recognized by the Audubon Society as being some official Audubon spot and information about birds that could be found in the park was displayed. 

Deer, here there and everywhere in the park...

The next two were taken on a day with terrible air quality due to forest fires. 

Another area of natural beauty (as well as man-made) that I spent time in was Palisades State Park. This park is near the Hudson River on one side with New York City in the distance and cliffs on another side and was located in nearby Fort Lee, NJ. I had read about this park before we arrived in Jersey, knew it was close by to where we were staying and knew I wanted to check it out. We drove out to the park the first day that we arrived in Jersey. We saw views of the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River, the New York City skyline and the cliffs. Really neat!

I took this picture while driving (I stopped and there was no one behind me!) to the parking lot of the park. I thought this view was so pretty. The GW was looking good!

These pictures were taken once parked at the park. When Abby and I first came to Palisades Park, we didn't hike- we just took photos near where we parked.

The George Washington Bridge is considered the world's busiest bridge! It has an upper and lower portion, each with several lanes in both directions. It was the country's largest suspension bride until the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed.

I would end up going back to this park and hiking multiple times. Abby had no huge desire to hike here so it was a good thing for me to do while she was at her internship.

I started each hike by going up and up and up. I was going to count the steps but there were too many. There were lots of turns and I kept thinking that I wasn't going to have to go up anymore... but then there were more steps. I'm in pretty good shape but step after step will tax even the most decent of in shape people. 

Finally, I reached a place where I had to make a choice about where to go. The first time I went to this park, I chose the route to the right, to Allison Park. Once I turned to the right, there were more steps (if I went to the left like I did on another day, I would also face more steps so either way, more steps were in my future).

I entered a woods but the sound of a large highway to the left (the Hudson River was below and to my right) and traffic on it were audible for most of the trail. The sounds of vehicular traffic kind of took something away from the feeling of "escaping" to nature but what are you going to do?? I forgot to bring water with me which I regretted right away. I didn't realize that those steps would wind me so much! At one point the trees to the left on me cleared and I could see the outline of a building very close to the edge of the clearing, It was the back of a gas station. And what does a gas station have? Water! I had some money with me so I left the trail to go buy water and go to the bathroom and then got back onto the trail. An odd hiking experience for sure. 

If I turned to the left, this is what I saw...

At one point, the trail was only a few feet from the back of this gas station. I veered off course to go inside the station and buy a water.

Soon I came to Allison Park that had a water fountain (so yes, I wasted $2.19 for the water bottle at the gas station), bathrooms, and pretty views. I walked around the park some before heading back the way that I came.

The steps down when I was at the end were almost as bad as the steps up. There were no handrails and the momentum of going down required precisely stepping down and stopping completely at each step. It was good to get to the bottom.

Another time that I went to the park, I walked up all those stairs but when I got to the point where I could turn right or turn left, I turned left. The destination was the old fort. I had been wanting to see the fort so I set out to do just that. Spoiler alert, I never got to the fort. What I did get to the was the GW bridge! I was walking on the path and to my left I saw a fence with an opening. Just past the opening was an opening to enter the pedestrian/ biking lane of the George Washington Bridge. Well, I didn't mind if I did. Walking across the GW was something that I'd wanted to do. It was odd that there was no sign that the trail led to an opening where one could easily access the bridge. Oh well. It was a nice surprise!

The following are a bunch of pictures that I took while hiking in Palisades Park that depict part of the George Washington Bridge. The bridge, the Hudson River and the NYC outline of buildings provided pretty backgrounds. 

A small portion of the bridge is in this picture. It's behind the trees so it's a little hard to see.

At the end of one trail, I came to a fence. A sign near it said something about entering the walking/ bike path of the bridge. I knew there was such a path but I had no idea the trail that I was one led to the bridge's pedestrian lane.

I had planned on walking the bridge at some point- since I inadvertently arrived at it, I decided to walk across it. 

If crossing by car, there's a $17 fee to cross from Jersey to New York. There was no fee to walk across it.

In two of the "New" states in two seconds!! The border between the states was about half way across the bridge. 

A pretty impressive structure, the GW is. Locals told me that it is frequently backed up due to heavy traffic. I knew I'd want to avoid driving across it. Walking across it was cool!

Palisades State Park is a beautiful park that bridges literally Manhattan and Jersey and a pretty park setting to one of the biggest cities in the world. I'm glad that our stay in Jersey was located close to Palisades State Park.

And walking in Palisades was good for the ol' step counter!