Visiting the Monster
- Thread starter stiltzkin
- Start date
Hey stiltzkin,
I’ve lurked this forum for about a year now as I’ve done most of my exploring of my own accord and got a little tired of visiting the same locations over and over so I’ve used these forums to find a few awesome places such as Union Clay Works and Van Note Camp (shoutout to the guys that made those threads if you see this!). My next mission is the swamp monster and I have it basically mapped out, and your post stuck out to me as it is most recent and you mentioned Rockwood. I visited Rockwood today and I’m curious if a year ago there was a locked gate back on that trail. Or if there was, is there a trail that shoots off Rockwood that bypasses the gate? We were trying to look for a way but it started to get dark and we turned around. We did however find the remains of this structure that I’m not sure what it is but it was quite interesting (maybe someone on here knows). I’ve attached photos.
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Hi lexuhbooz,
I ended my first post in this thread hoping that the access situation would improve to reach this area, but sadly the opposite has happened.
You're probably already aware of this if you've been reading this forum for a while: despite public outcry and multiple townships passing resolutions in opposition, in November of last year NJDEP adopted a "visiting vehicle use map" that eliminated legal driving access to more than half of the roads in Wharton. Unless this situation changes, it leaves no good options to visit the Monster and the area around it that don't involve a long day trek.
The several ways to get there that I know of are:
1. Driving in from Rockwood, which it sounds like you tried. There were no gates, plastic whips, or signage in place last year when we made this drive, which was just a few months before the map was adopted. If there is a gate there now, I'm not sure if the state or someone else has put it there - I haven't personally seen it. On the vehicle map Rockwood technically no longer counts as a road after about here. That's more or less in keeping with earlier topo maps that don't show that it actually continues meandering along the edge of the Great Swamp until it eventually meets up with West Mill / Pleasant Mills Road to the southeast.
2. Driving in by entering at West Mill Road off of 206 used to be perfectly legal. However, in 2017 a private citizen who does not own the road was able to get the town of Hammonton to grant him an exclusive license to gate it off to everyone but himself and his friends, effectively making it a private road. The state is aware that this happened but decided not to take any action on it. This situation has been discussed in other threads on this forum. Additionally, this entire road is now not shown on the new vehicle map. It was shown on preliminary versions completed after gathering public feedback, and then removed in the final version. I have not heard any reason why.
3. You can walk in from Pleasant Mills using the road behind the church, but it's a pretty long walk from here, about 8 miles round trip through soft sand and some rough terrain. You also used to be able to enter with a vehicle from here until sometime around 2000, when the bridge failed (it can still be traversed on foot). This bridge seems unlikely to ever be repaired, with the church not wanting through traffic and especially now with the whole road stricken from the access map.
4. You could park around here and then hike to the former bridge across the Nesco Creek which you posted photos of. Since even the planks are gone now, you would have to wade the creek, which may not be advisable. It does cut the distance roughly in half, if you can get across. It would be nice if this crossing could get rebuilt at some point for access on foot.
You can find accounts of other site members here that have done all of the above to get there.
As far as the photos of the old cellar holes you posted, if it is the cluster of buildings here, then I believe those are what is left of the small settlement of cranberry pickers from the days when Rockwood was a functioning bog. The sandstone foundations are likely older than the concrete. I'm sure others here can fill in much more information than that, or correct me if I am wrong.
I ended my first post in this thread hoping that the access situation would improve to reach this area, but sadly the opposite has happened.
You're probably already aware of this if you've been reading this forum for a while: despite public outcry and multiple townships passing resolutions in opposition, in November of last year NJDEP adopted a "visiting vehicle use map" that eliminated legal driving access to more than half of the roads in Wharton. Unless this situation changes, it leaves no good options to visit the Monster and the area around it that don't involve a long day trek.
The several ways to get there that I know of are:
1. Driving in from Rockwood, which it sounds like you tried. There were no gates, plastic whips, or signage in place last year when we made this drive, which was just a few months before the map was adopted. If there is a gate there now, I'm not sure if the state or someone else has put it there - I haven't personally seen it. On the vehicle map Rockwood technically no longer counts as a road after about here. That's more or less in keeping with earlier topo maps that don't show that it actually continues meandering along the edge of the Great Swamp until it eventually meets up with West Mill / Pleasant Mills Road to the southeast.
2. Driving in by entering at West Mill Road off of 206 used to be perfectly legal. However, in 2017 a private citizen who does not own the road was able to get the town of Hammonton to grant him an exclusive license to gate it off to everyone but himself and his friends, effectively making it a private road. The state is aware that this happened but decided not to take any action on it. This situation has been discussed in other threads on this forum. Additionally, this entire road is now not shown on the new vehicle map. It was shown on preliminary versions completed after gathering public feedback, and then removed in the final version. I have not heard any reason why.
3. You can walk in from Pleasant Mills using the road behind the church, but it's a pretty long walk from here, about 8 miles round trip through soft sand and some rough terrain. You also used to be able to enter with a vehicle from here until sometime around 2000, when the bridge failed (it can still be traversed on foot). This bridge seems unlikely to ever be repaired, with the church not wanting through traffic and especially now with the whole road stricken from the access map.
4. You could park around here and then hike to the former bridge across the Nesco Creek which you posted photos of. Since even the planks are gone now, you would have to wade the creek, which may not be advisable. It does cut the distance roughly in half, if you can get across. It would be nice if this crossing could get rebuilt at some point for access on foot.
You can find accounts of other site members here that have done all of the above to get there.
As far as the photos of the old cellar holes you posted, if it is the cluster of buildings here, then I believe those are what is left of the small settlement of cranberry pickers from the days when Rockwood was a functioning bog. The sandstone foundations are likely older than the concrete. I'm sure others here can fill in much more information than that, or correct me if I am wrong.
The bridge behind the church has recently collapsed even more so before you go that route you should walk back there and see if you can make it across. If you can’t, the best way in from that area is to park at the triangle parking area at Batsto just past the church and walk the road along the fence to the path on the left. Take that across the foot bridge and that comes out on the other side of the damaged bridge on the other side of the church. Your trip will be about 8 miles so be prepared for that.
Btw, the ruins you visited are private property and the owners are hunters or let hunters use it. You don’t want to go there at all, especially this time of year. They usually block it off with caution tape.
So if you can't get across at the church take this road and once across the stream go left and you will come out at the road behind the bridge on the proper side of the stream.
Btw, the ruins you visited are private property and the owners are hunters or let hunters use it. You don’t want to go there at all, especially this time of year. They usually block it off with caution tape.
So if you can't get across at the church take this road and once across the stream go left and you will come out at the road behind the bridge on the proper side of the stream.
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Welcome to the site - great first post!
Please re-size photos before posting here, Ben has limited space on the NJPB server and most of your pix are around 4MB at 4052x3024. There's really no reason to post an image this large, the forum software will just shrink it anyway. I suggest a width of around 800 pixels, maybe 1000 depending on the shot.
There's some discussion of ways to accomplish here this if you don't already know how. Thanks!
Please re-size photos before posting here, Ben has limited space on the NJPB server and most of your pix are around 4MB at 4052x3024. There's really no reason to post an image this large, the forum software will just shrink it anyway. I suggest a width of around 800 pixels, maybe 1000 depending on the shot.
There's some discussion of ways to accomplish here this if you don't already know how. Thanks!
I just looked at our 3/14/2004 photos of the day PBX was there and here are our tracks for that day. We went other places so the 8 miles I mention is incorrect if you just go to the monster and back. It may be more like 6 miles.
This shows us walking and entering at the church bridge at the bottom of the photo, visiting the monster and then traveling further to another location, and then to the bridge across the Nescochague and then back to the church. I would highly suggest you go this route to the monster and back except you may need to cross the footbridge mentioned in my previous post and not the church bridge if you can't cross there. Rockwood with the gate makes the Rockwood route not advisable.
Don't give the parties responsible for the Rockwood gate the satisfaction that you had to park your car at the gate when you should be able to drive further. However, they actually will know because of the camera they placed nearby if it is still there. Don't give them the satisfaction that you even had to WALK Rockwood road because of the gate. No satisfaction for them is satisfaction for me.
This shows us walking and entering at the church bridge at the bottom of the photo, visiting the monster and then traveling further to another location, and then to the bridge across the Nescochague and then back to the church. I would highly suggest you go this route to the monster and back except you may need to cross the footbridge mentioned in my previous post and not the church bridge if you can't cross there. Rockwood with the gate makes the Rockwood route not advisable.
Don't give the parties responsible for the Rockwood gate the satisfaction that you had to park your car at the gate when you should be able to drive further. However, they actually will know because of the camera they placed nearby if it is still there. Don't give them the satisfaction that you even had to WALK Rockwood road because of the gate. No satisfaction for them is satisfaction for me.
Not to get too far off topic, but I'm curious why you chose OpenTopoMap here. In my experience, it's arguably the worst topo map of the Pines. Low resolution (level 15) with many missing roads and other features. The hydro data is especially terrible, it only has minimal, low-resolution features and very few of them at that. Just look at what is missing when you compare to the USGS 24k topo or my own, which uses contemporary USGS data.
It's been awhile since I've been in that area, so perhaps there's something about OpenTopoMap that makes it a better choice here? Also, since this is Atlantic County, we have a nice set of aerials for the 1940's, 50's and 60's that aren't available for the other counties. The 1957 aerials show some standing buildings at Rockwood pretty well, for example.
The street maps have the most clear definition of private property vs. public openspace (which is shaded green). There are absolutely no guarantees as to their accuracy, so use them at your own risk, but I did my best within the limits of available open geodata. Use the XT app for even more detail.
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Stiltzkin, Teegate, and Boyd,
Thanks for all the insight! I was not exploring as much in 2022-23 as I did not have a 4x4 vehicle during this time, so I will say over the past year I have been shocked to find so many trails closed in the pine barrens that I used to use regularly my entire life. Maybe I will visit Rockwood again and take a photo of the gate that is there. It’s pretty well done, and yes, the trail camera is there. I was also shocked to see West Mills closed too as I previously used that trail quite often many years ago. This was my first time on Rockwood however and thanks for the heads up about that old cranberry bog being private property. I will have to read up on the history of it.
In September, we successfully waded the creek where that old foot bridge was in Nesco. The water was quite low and we were able to see through it completely. But I agree it would be nice to see that built up again. I’m thinking our final plan is going to result in wading the creek. It seems the easiest based on all the trail closures and the condition of the bridge behind the church (I’m sad to see they’ve let that deteriorate so badly, they should at least turn in to a safe walking bridge if they don’t want vehicle access).
Also, I resized my photos. Hopefully that is better. Thank you all!!
Thanks for all the insight! I was not exploring as much in 2022-23 as I did not have a 4x4 vehicle during this time, so I will say over the past year I have been shocked to find so many trails closed in the pine barrens that I used to use regularly my entire life. Maybe I will visit Rockwood again and take a photo of the gate that is there. It’s pretty well done, and yes, the trail camera is there. I was also shocked to see West Mills closed too as I previously used that trail quite often many years ago. This was my first time on Rockwood however and thanks for the heads up about that old cranberry bog being private property. I will have to read up on the history of it.
In September, we successfully waded the creek where that old foot bridge was in Nesco. The water was quite low and we were able to see through it completely. But I agree it would be nice to see that built up again. I’m thinking our final plan is going to result in wading the creek. It seems the easiest based on all the trail closures and the condition of the bridge behind the church (I’m sad to see they’ve let that deteriorate so badly, they should at least turn in to a safe walking bridge if they don’t want vehicle access).
Also, I resized my photos. Hopefully that is better. Thank you all!!