After spending the morning at Paterson we were not quite ready to return home and Stu remembered there was a State Park near to Monroe so it seemed a sensible place to visit.

Due to Covid all the facilities were closed and the park was operating at limited capacity which meant when we arrived we were allowed in for free. We parked in the lower carpark next to Hooks Creek Lake.

We set off on the trail which was a raised boardwalk over wetlands with various viewing points. Raised osprey nests had been set up over the wetlands but unfortunately we didn’t see any Osprey.

A few hundred metres in we reached the crabbing bridge. There were quite a few people crabbing and they had caught some which were sitting in buckets. The crabs were blue and we were informed that they were quite small (although they looked a decent size to us!)

We then headed off into the forest. Tom and Izzy found a log which occupied them for a good 5 minutes!

It wasn’t a difficult trail to walk but we wanted to head back to the car so decided to be clever and follow a different route back. After about 5 minutes we realised we were lost so had to retrace our steps back to the main path and return the way we came! Also, it was very hot and Stuart was convinced he was being constantly bitten by all the bugs (we had forgotten to put any bug spray on)

We had a quick look at the lake (although no swimming was allowed). There was a huge sand pit by the lake but it didn’t compare to the Jersey Shore so we headed home. Cheesequake is a great State Park and the day following our visit Stu and I came up in lots of bug bites!