New Jersey Brigade Area Trail Map (click to enlarge)

Be sure to pick up a trail map at either the Jockey Hollow Visitor Center or the Washington’s Headquarters Museum. There is a small fee for the map. You can also download a PDF version on the Park Map web page here on National Park Planner.

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Length: 1.5 miles round trip from Cross Estate Gardens to the New Jersey Brigade campsite
Time: 1.5 hours
Difficulty: Moderate with one very steep but short hill

The southernmost section of Morristown National Historical Park is called the New Jersey Brigade Encampment Area. While New Jersey soldiers camped throughout this section of the park, nothing remains of their stay except for some fireplace hearths and trash pits. Reaching the site requires hiking—1.5 miles round trip to be exact—on the Patriots’ Path, a trail managed by the Morris County Park System that runs from north of Morristown at Speedwell Lake to the campsite, and then out of the park into the New Jersey Audubon Society property. However, the National Park Service calls the section within the New Jersey Brigade Encampment Area the New Jersey Brigade Trail.

I did not hike the entire New Jersey Brigade Trail because I only wanted to see the campsite ruins. Therefore, I parked at Cross Estate Gardens, which is the closest parking lot within Morristown National Historical Park to the ruins. When you turn off of Jockey Hollow Road to enter the estate, there is a parking area adjacent to an open field before you get to the house and gardens. Park there and then look for a bulletin board and a sign that points to different destinations—head towards the Patriots’ Path.

Direction sign

What the direction sign is pointing to is not the actual Patriots’ Path, but a .1-mile connector that leads to it. The start is marked by a tree with three Patriots’ Path logos attached to it.

Start of the connector trail that leads to Patriots’ Path

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On July 20, 2020, volunteers from Morristown National Historical Park informed me of some improvements to the New Jersey Brigade Trail. The entire trail is now marked with New Jersey Brigade tags attached to the trees. Follow these like Hansel and Gretel bread crumbs to stay on the correct route. New signs are also in the works, and the vegetation along the trail has been trimmed back. I cannot update my trail review to reflect these improvements since I have not personally hiked the trail since the improvements have been made, but do be aware of them.

After hiking down a fairly steep hill on the connector, you’ll dead end into the Patriots’ Path. Take a right towards the New Jersey Brigade Site, which according to the sign is .6 mile away. From here to the campsite, always stay on the New Jersey Brigade Trail as directed by the signs. Unlike the trails at Jockey Hollow, the trails in this area are poorly marked, and the trail map isn’t detailed enough to provide a clear picture of the turns and intersections, some of which aren’t even on the map.

Intersection with Patriot’s Path

This section of the Patriots’ Path is very narrow with plenty of vegetation for you to brush up against. Ticks love this sort of terrain, so be sure to check yourself every few minutes (I picked up one tick near the campsite). Ticks live close to the ground so that they can attach to anything that walks by, even small animals like squirrels and rabbits, so keep an eye out for them on the fronts of your lower legs. Once attached, they instinctively start crawling upwards. If they can get to your crotch, that’s their game plan, otherwise they’ll continue up to your armpits or hair. I suggest wearing long pants when hiking, regardless of the weather. Long pants will also protect you from poison ivy and briers.

Patriots’ Path trail near the Cross Estate

The first intersection that you come to gives you the opportunity to cut back to the Cross Estate by staying straight or to take a left and continue on towards the New Jersey Brigade campsite, which is obviously where you want to go. (Note: the photo below indicates that the New Jersey Brigade Trail is to the right, but this is pointing north, back towards Jockey Hollow where you just came from. However, notice the dangling piece of the sign that also references the New Jersey Brigade Trail. This points to the south, the direction in which you are hiking).

Trail sign at the first intersection

The next intersection is with a trail that leads to the left, out of Morristown National Historical Park and onto property owned by the New Jersey Audubon Society. Stay straight, following the trail marked with the Patriots’ Path logo attached to the trees. The trail really starts heading downhill at this point and remains so all the way to the camp.

Audubon Society trail intersection

The forest opens up just a couple of minutes past the Audubon Society turnoff, and the trail comes to an intersection that is not only unidentified, but also not on any of the maps. All I can say is that I took a left because it looked like the more established trail, and I eventually ended up at the New Jersey Brigade encampment site. I have no idea where the trail to the right leads.

Unmarked intersection

Not long after the fork, the bottom drops out of the trail and you have a hike down what appears to be a small mountain. By this point I had hiked every trail in Morristown National Historical Park except for the Orange Trail, and this is without a doubt one of the steepest hills in the park.

One of the steepest hills in Morristown National Historical Park

At the bottom is some sort of cairn garden created by previous hikers. Cairns usually mark a trail’s route, but these arrangements look more like something out of Blair Witch and obviously do not mark any particular trail.

Cairn garden

The trail to the New Jersey Brigade camp is P-shaped, and up until now I’ve been hiking on the straight section. What I only discovered later was that the first turn-off for the camp was at the bottom of this hill and to the left, though there is no directional sign and you must walk a short distance in order to come to a distinct trail, which is why I didn’t notice the trail in the first place. Not realizing this—and not that it makes any difference—I continued straight until reaching the second left-hand turn, this one clearly marked with a sign (I could also see the cars on Hardscrabble Road straight ahead).

Turn for the New Jersey Brigade Trail

It doesn’t look like many people hike to the campsite, for the trail is largely overgrown. Again, be on the lookout for ticks.

Overgrown New Jersey Brigade Trail

In just a few minutes you will arrive at two information panels that mark the entrance to the New Jersey Brigade campsite.

First encounter with the New Jersey Brigade Encampment Site

Before getting to the main camp is another intersection. If you continue straight you will head out of the park and into the Audubon Society property. Take a left to stay on the New Jersey Brigade Trail.

Intersection with a trail that leads to the Audubon Society property

Once you make the turn, you will find information panels and all sorts of boulders and other rocks that look as if they were purposely arranged, plus the hearths and trash pits mentioned earlier. Logs and small rocks have been placed on either side of the trail to mark off the route.

Information panels at the New Jersey Brigade Encampment Site

Remains of a hearth built by the soldiers at the camp

Stones possibly arranged by soldiers of the New Jersey Brigade

Stones arranged by humans

The trail loops through the campsite and eventually comes out at the bottom of the steep hill and cairn garden. It’s tippy-toe steep back to the top—so steep that you must push off on your tiptoes to make forward progress—but the climb takes less than a minute.

Hike back up the steep hill

From here all you have to do is retrace your steps back to the parking area, but that surprisingly is easier said than done. There is one intersection that was quite obvious on the way to the camp, but much more inconspicuous on the way back, so it’s easy to miss the turn. If you do miss it, all that will happen is that you’ll end up at Cross Estate Gardens. If you were planning to see them, everything works out fine. If not, just follow the road from the house back to the parking area. In truth, this is actually a little shorter than the original route anyway.

If you don’t mind hiking, I highly recommend a visit to the New Jersey camp. What I thought was going to be an empty field turned out to be the neatest place in Morristown National Historical Park. The only other camp that has any exhibits is the Pennsylvania Line Encampment Site where some replica cabins have been built and a few hearths still exist. However, that site gets a lot of visitors since it has its own parking lot and minimal hiking is required. Very few people hike to the New Jersey Brigade campsite, so it feels as if you stumbled upon the ruins for the first time.

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