Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Hike

Saturday we met up with some friends and their kids who suggested we hike at the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed. We had never been there before and thought of course why not, it's always fun to venture to new places.

It is located in Pennington, NJ and only about 19 minutes from where we live in Princeton. It was 3:00 in the afternoon so it was pretty warm out. Not many were around when we arrived at the parking lot that afternoon. The kiosk below had a map of the trails.

We initially planned on doing the Stony Brook trail to the creek because we heard there were more trees and it was shadier. With it being warm we thought it would be the best choice, but on the trail we spotted lots of poison ivy. Not a good idea especially with the kiddos so excited and running around everywhere.

So we decided to do the Meadow-Pond trail. Below is the map and I highlighted in Pink our route. From the Green Stony Brook Trail we switched to the Purple Meadow-Pond Trail. 

The trail started out nicely with the trees shading us along the way. Even a neat boardwalk at some parts.

However, once we got to the field, we can definitely feel the suns rays and our bodies warming up. I started sweating like crazy. Good thing we had lots of water. 

Out in the meadow, we came across these cool resting chairs.

We kept on going towards the pond and came across what we think is the Pond house which actually looks like a red barn.

To the left of the Pond house takes you directly to the Pond.

It's a pretty big pond. In the pond we actually saw some huge swans. I didn't get a good pic of them as they were pretty far away. However, I did get a good pic of this turtle we saw closeby.

There were some picnic tables close to the pond where we had snacks and more drinks to help re-hydrate. We opted on not going around the lake as it was late in the afternoon and too hot. We headed back on the other trail that led to the road, but found our way back to the Meadow-Pond trail that looped back to the parking lot. 

We passed this Haiku station, where you can switch the words around to make a Haiku. The kiddos liked to turn the words.

We made it back to the parking lot with no problem. I really enjoyed the short hike. I like how it is perfect for the kiddos. Our 3 year old did the whole walk fine and even ran a lot of it. I would definitely check out the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed again because there is lots one can do with the kids there. I hear there are classes you can take for kids that deal with nature. I would also like to explore the other trails. It could make for another fun play date with friends.