A winding 2-lane road, a beautiful fall day and a stroll through a large, lush garden

A WARM WELCOME: You can find the New Jersey State Botanical Garden, above and below, on the grounds of a once-grand estate, the 1,119-acre Skylands, now a part of Ringwood State Park.

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- We went exploring on Columbus Day.

For some reason, I woke up last Monday, a national holiday, thinking of upper Passaic County, where my first beat as a reporter at The Record in 1980 was covering Ringwood and West Milford. 

My wife had the day off, and the weather turned out to be perfect for shorts, with a temperature of around 72 degrees.

I planned to drive north on Route 208 and take Skyline Drive to Ringwood, and I'm glad I did.

The twisting, 2-lane road was smooth and fast, perfect for my Tesla Model S, and a reminder of how much fun driving can be.

Also known as County Road 692, Skyline Drive is a 5.84-mile asphalt ribbon between Route 287 in Oakland -- an interstate favored by fast-moving tractor-trailers -- and Route 511 in Ringwood.

Skyline Drive passes through Ringwood State Park, home to the New Jersey State Botanical Garden, Skylands Manor and Ringwood Manor (see photos below).

             AN 'ALLEE' OF CRABAPPLE TREES

NOT THAT DIANA: A statue of Diana, the Roman goddess, above, and the imposing stone manor house, below, now a popular wedding venue and hotel, which has gotten some terrible reviews.

RINGWOOD MANOR: Our first stop last Monday was Ringwood Manor, which was closed for renovations, but we took this path to a series of small cemeteries. The Ringwood Manor web site says iron mine partners Peter Cooper and Abram S. Hewitt turned the home into a summer estate (see cemetery photos below).

SOHO NEW JERSEY: The tombstone for John Hewitt, who was born in England and arrived in America in 1796, refers to "Soho New Jersey" and the construction of the first steam engine built in the United States.

THE FORGOTTEN GENERAL: Robert Erskine, a geographer and surveyor general for the American army during the Revolutionary War, died in 1780 in Ringwood. The plaque calls him a "friend in need for [George] Washington."