Kayaking New Jersey
It is a bit of a local secret, but New Jersey, which is the most densely populated state in the nation, is also one of the most scenic – if you know where to go. The many small rivers and lakes in the state are especially beautiful. This webpage is a celebration of these waters.
This webpage is not a guide! It is more of an anti-guide. The rivers shown are beautiful. But they are either hard to access, or almost impossible to navigate on account of the numerous trees obstructing the waterway. Plus, there is no official website to guide an intrepid kayaker. None of this need be. More than a billion dollars has been spent cleaning up these rivers, as they are the primary source of drinking water for millions of nearby residents. They are clean, pretty, and largely safe, but unnecessarily difficult to enjoy. If would be good for the environment if this situation changed. Local residents should be able to appreciate their beauty.
Passaic River #1: Lord Stirling Park to Valley Road, Millington
This section of the Upper Passaic River is stunningly beautiful and wonderfully wild. There are some small rapids in the Millington Gorge, but it is mostly flat water. There are half a dozen portages due to fallen trees obstructing the river.
Passaic River #2: Valley Road, Millington to Poplar Drive, Stirling
Don’t do it! This section of the Upper Passaic River is very beautiful. But there are dozens of fallen tress obstructing the river that require one to portage through the mud. It is hard going.
Passaic River #3: Poplar Drive, Stirling to Oakwood Park, New Providence
This section was not done. We checked it out and decided that it was pretty, but not worth the effort. There were too many trees obstructing the river, and too much mud.
Passaic River #4: Oakwood Park, New Providence to Shepard Kollock Recreation Park, Chatham
This section of the Upper Passaic River is very pretty, and has few obstructions. The first section is flat water, but most of the trip is through a gently slopping gorge. There are two small dams, and some shallow sections, but nothing too bothersome.
Passaic River #5: Shepard Kollock Recreation Park, Chatham to South Orange Ave, Livingston
This section of the Upper Passaic River is very pretty. It is all flat water. There are quite a few trees in the river that have to be portaged around. There will be mud.
Passaic River #6: South Orange Ave, Livingston to Eagle Rock Ave, Roseland
This section of the Upper Passaic River is wide and flat. It is the most frequently paddled. There are no portages.
Raritan River #1: Clinton to Stanton Station Road
This section of the South Branch of the Raritan River is very beautiful. There are a few obstructions and some rapids, but nothing too serious.
Raritan River #2: Easton Turnpike to Downtown Raritan
This section of the North Branch of the Raritan River is pretty. There are few obstructions, but two dams, and the occasional shallow water.
Raritan River #3: Downtown Raritan to Piscataway
This section of the main branch of the Raritan River is wide and shallow. Most of it is flat water, but there are some rapids. There is one dam to portage. There are no other obstructions.
Wallkill River, Glenwood Road to Bassetts Bridge
This section of the Wallkill River runs through a National Wildlife Refuge. It is almost all flat water. There are some obstructions near the start.
References
There is no official guide that describes these rivers. There is also no map that lists all of the available launch sites. Nor is there a map that identifies those sections that are the most suitable for families with children. There are some kayaking guide books, but they are all old. Some good books are:
Exploring the Little Rivers of New Jersey, by James & Margaret Cawley: link
Garden State Canoeing, by Edward Gertler: link
Quiet Water New Jersey, by Kathy Kenly: link
Local Outdoors Movement
The local outdoors movement is about acknowledging that urban residents do not do the Earth any favors when they travel to a remote rain forest for a holiday. The emphasis should be on bringing the outdoors to the people, rather than having the people travel to the outdoors. In many cities and suburbs, the nearest available outdoors is the local harbor or river.
Unfortunately, we live in world where many of the government agencies that are tasked with managing and protecting the outdoors are also tasked with encouraging travel to the remote outdoors. They do not have a mandate to minimize the door-to-door carbon footprint of urban or suburban residents who wish to experience the outdoors.
A related issue is that access to the local outdoors for urban and suburban residents is about much more than just recreation. When safe, healthy, affordable, and family-friendly outdoor recreation is enabled at scale, it can deliver significant public health benefits.
Access to the Outdoors
In a democratic society, public access to the outdoors should be defined in quantifiable terms. To illustrate, consider New York Harbor: Approximately eighty thousand people to go kayaking on the harbor every summer. This sounds like a lot, but it is not. It means that if all eight million residents of New York City wanted to go kayaking on the harbor just once in their lifetime, they would have to wait more than one hundred years for the opportunity. But this assumes that there are no births, no immigrants, no tourists, nor any repeat kayakers. In practice, the wait will be more than a thousand years.
The situation on the New Jersey rivers that are documented above is far worse. There is a similar number of nearby residents, but vastly fewer opportunities to go boating. There are none of the popular free public kayaking programs that exist in New York City. In practice, there is no public access to any of these rivers, and none is planned. This has consequences: People will not care about protecting an outdoors environment if they are unnecessarily excluded from that environment.
There is always going to be a tension between protecting a fragile ecosystem, and getting public support to enable the protection. Only allowing token access is not a solution - especially if more access is feasible. It antagonizes people. It causes them associate environmental protection with an elitist and exclusionary agenda. This is bad politics, and thus bad for the environment.
Feedback
Feedback is welcome / Graeme Birchall
Feb/2025