Road Greetings from Columbia, NJ!
Our last road trip of the 2020 camping season took place in the Northwestern-most region of New Jersey at Camp Taylor in the middle of October. Kyle recommends if you’re going to head there with a camper, avoid the GPS route that sends you up Mount Pleasant Road (has an unpleasant steep incline). Instead, take Benton Road. While it may add a few minutes to your journey, it avoids the hill altogether (wise choice for your nerves. Your transmission will thank you too). Our campsite had electric and water hookups, which is always preferred over boon-docking where we have to keep topping off our seemingly ever-so-small water supply and running the generator to keep our batteries charged.
Unlike other campgrounds we’ve visited, this rustic one has a unique partnership on its property with a not-for-profit wildlife organization called the Lakota Wolf Preserve that offers educational wolf tours. We learned quite a bit about four different species of wolves that live on the grounds. We also got to see and hear them howl in unison in this habitat, up close and personal too! It was incredible! The tour was mostly about the wolves, but a portion was spent hearing about their bobcat and lynx as well as their foxes, for which this preserve is also ‘home’. The couple Jim and Becky who operates the Preserve has been doing so as their life’s mission for well over 20 years. Based on how the animals looked and from what they told us, it is clear the animals are all well cared for and they treat them as their “babies”. It’s worth mentioning that the Lakota Wolf Preserve was honored by Tripadvisor as a ‘Traveler’s Choice’ for 2020.
On this trip we also went on a hike from our campsite, up to Mt. Tammany Fire Road. We brought with us our friends’ seven year old son, whose parents were on this camp trip with us but stayed behind at the campground. We literally introduced the boy to some real ‘Hiking’ where we had to traverse some serious inclines (and declines) and scrambling up (and down) the side of a steep mountain. We are proud to say the boy did quite well and hopefully, he’ll be joining us on some of our upcoming hiking trips.
After the hike and tour, we packed up our trailer and headed towards home. This road trip was our last one for 2020. We look forward to next season in 2021 so we can get out there again onto the paths that lead us to more Road Greetings! Until then, be well and stay safe!