GREAT SWAMP: A bog so big it boggles the mind

The Great Swamp of New Jersey lives up to its immodest name. Cheerier than the Dismal in Virginia and North Carolina, less freaky than the Okefenokee in Georgia, the Great Swamp is a real swamp - a marshy, mossy miasma full of mist and mystery.

The swamp is so tucked back in the rolling hills of north-central New Jersey that it can be a little hard to find. And even harder to figure out once you have found it. Actually, the Great Swamp is more than a swamp. It's a watershed that covers about 55 square miles and includes Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, several parks and a few hundred acres of conserved land. It stretches between two counties and among 10 municipalities.

One of the sanest, simplest ways to get acquainted with the swamp is through the Environmental Education Center at Lord Stirling Park in Somerset County. The nature center is on the west edge of the Great. Well-kept trails and boardwalks wind through and around more than 400 acres of woods, clearings, fields, marshes, ponds and soggy lowlands. Because of extreme weather and pesky insects, spring and fall mornings and evenings are the ideal times to visit.

The park, with more than eight miles of trails, is a living textbook. The water is motor-oil dark, the air loud with birds and frogs. Chipmunks and squirrels scamper on the path. Tree swallows are in trees, swamp sparrows in swampy parts, a northern leopard frog on a leaf in Lily Pad Pond.

Bird-watching in the fog

From the Dance Floor deck along the boardwalk, you search for a woodpecker that is loudly tattooing a tree. The muddy Passaic River - low and slow - rolls brownly by. It's only about 10 yards wide at this point. On down the path, you climb into the two-story East Observation Tower and watch a mallard and a hen bathe in the shallows. It's near noon, and the sun still hasn't burned away all the swamp fog.

As the story goes, the swamp got its great name because it was a formidable and foreboding roadblock in the days of horse-drawn travel. The watershed was naturally crafted a long, long time ago by shifting continents, molten rock and a receding glacier. Today, the area produces more than 200 varieties of wildflowers and is a homeland for more than 200 types of birds, 33 types of mammals, 21 types of reptiles, 18 species of amphibians and 29 kinds of fish. The Great Swamp, famous as a birders' boon, is especially known for its abundance of Eastern bluebirds and great blue herons.

When humans first showed up - about 12,000 years ago - mastodons and giant beavers swaggered around the swamp, according to the Great Swamp Watershed Association's Web site (www.greatswamp.org). In the 17th century, Europeans began to settle in the area. The American Indians, called the Lenape, eventually were pushed off the land. Frontier folk settled in nearby communities with names like Green Village, Basking Ridge and Meyersville. During the Revolutionary War, Continental Army troops were camped in this New Jersey watershed.

A shelved airport plan

In the 19th century, the Great Swamp's trees, such as oaks and beeches, provided local folks with lumber and firewood. In the late 1950s, the Port Authority of New York planned to pave over the swamp, level lots of area hills, destroy 700 houses and build an international airport. Swamp-side neighborhoods rose up in defiance and quashed the plan.

In 1964, one part of the Great Swamp was named a National Wildlife Refuge. Another portion was designated a Federal Wilderness Area in 1968.

While other swamps have put on airs and begun calling themselves wetlands, the Great Swamp remains a swamp. It glories in its swampness. Its wildflowers. Its white oaks, beeches and shagbark hickory trees. Its mossy spots. Its cattails shooting up from the mud like wild corn dogs. And its bugs. Wear plenty of spray, and afterward check for deer ticks to stave off Lyme disease. Stay on the paths, or you will get lost. There have been reports of people unwillingly spending long, lonely nights in the swamp.

In the Great Swamp, you feel that while you are in the middle of nowhere, you are also in the middle of somewhere.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: The heart of New Jersey's Great Swamp is about 35 miles from Times Square, 7 miles south of Morristown. From the George Washington Bridge, take I-80 West to I-287 South. According to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge Web site, from I-287 South, take exit 30A (Basking Ridge/North Maple Avenue) and bear right onto North Maple Avenue. Go through a traffic light at Madisonville Road (ignore the refuge directional sign pointing left at Madisonville Road) and continue on North Maple. After a mile, North Maple will bear left and become South Maple Avenue. Continue on South Maple Avenue for one mile and turn left on Lord Stirling Road. After 1.3 miles, you will pass over a bridge on the Passaic River. Continue straight on White Bridge Road for one mile; turn left onto Pleasant Plains Road. Follow Refuge directional signs to Refuge Headquarters.

WHAT TO DO: The Environmental Education Center at Lord Stirling Park is open

9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily all year, except for occasional holidays (www.somerset countyparks.org, 908-766-2489). For more information about things to do, check the Great Swamp Watershed Association's Web site at www.great swamp.org or the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge at greatswamp.fws.gov. The refuge, headquartered in Basking Ridge, is open year-round, dawn to dusk; the refuge center is closed weekends. The quaint and walkable villages of Frenchtown (www.frenchtown.com) and Lambertville (www.lambertville .org) are not far away on the Delaware River.

WHERE TO STAY: Clinton is about

15 miles from Lord Stirling Park. The Holiday Inn Select in Clinton

(111 W. Main St.; 908-735-5111) is as homey as a chain motel can be. (We were given home-baked cookies when we checked in.) There's an indoor pool, a restaurant and bar. Double rooms are about $99 a night. Many other motels, hotels and bed-and-breakfast inns are nearby.

WHERE TO EAT: If you want a quick breakfast bagel and coffee on the way to the swamp, dash by Clinton Bagel Co.

(38 Rte. 173, 908-735-9800). For lunch, stop at the Towne Restaurant

(31 Main St. in Clinton, 908-735-7559). The Happy Waitress is a grilled cheese, bacon and tomato sandwich. The crinkly fries aren't as good as they should be, though. For dinner, the Blue Cactus Southwest Kitchen (1 Old Highway 22, 908-735-2244) has very friendly people and very good salsa.

INFO: Skylands of New Jersey Tourism Council, 908-218-4300, www.skylands tourism.org.

- The Washington Post

Related topic galleries: Nature, Delaware, Hotels and Accommodations, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Forestry and Timber, Lambertville, Wildflowers