The Meadowlands Environment Center and DeKorte Park
Wetland Reserve · Lyndhurst, New Jersey
A hundred and ten acres of restored tidal marsh in Lyndhurst with boardwalk trails running out over the water, five miles from Manhattan — AND IT IS BUILT ON AND AROUND A CLOSED LANDFILL. The Hackensack Meadowlands were a national punchline for forty years: rubbish, industry, and the place jokes about buried bodies were set. The reclamation turned part of it back into functioning estuary, and the result is now ONE OF THE BEST BIRDING SITES IN THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN AREA, with the Manhattan skyline on the horizon behind the egrets. It is free.
2 DeKorte Park Plaza, Lyndhurst, New Jersey, 07071, United States
FREE, with free parking and no permit — the park and trails are open dawn to dusk year round. THE MEADOWLANDS ENVIRONMENT CENTER KEEPS ITS OWN DAYTIME HOURS, closes on some days and has holiday closures, so check separately if the exhibits are part of the plan; the trails stay open regardless. Guided walks, birding programmes and paddling trips run on a seasonal calendar, some free and some modestly charged. DOGS ARE GENERALLY NOT PERMITTED on the marsh trails, and rules vary between Meadowlands parks under the same authority — check the specific park. There is NO SHADE AND NO SHELTER on the boardwalks and the wind across the marsh is constant. Drones require permission.
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