Egg Island Wildlife Management Area – Fortesque, NJ

Egg Island Wildlife Management Area – Fortesque (Downe Township), Cumberland County, NJ
Distance – 1  mile total (but could have gone further)
Type – Out-and-back
Difficulty:  1 of 10
Total score: 6 of 10

Website – None
Open – Sunrise to Sunset.

Terrain – Salt marsh and beach
Surface – Mostly sandy beach

Trailheads – 39°13’25.30″N,  75° 9’59.11″W.  Note that this trailhead IS the road.

Directions – Located just about at the end of Jersey Ave in Fortesque, NJ

Parking – Along Jersey Ave, just before the turn around and definitely before the bridge.   You have to park outside the WMA and walk down the road past some houses to access the beach.  There is no legal parking past the bridge, be considerate the people who have homes there by NOT illegally parking down by their houses.  You’re hiking, an extra 0.15 miles (actually distance, I Google Earthed the distance) won’t hurt you.

Dog friendly? Rules for Wildlife Management Areas vary, so best to check for an individual one before you go.
Stroller friendly? No (too sandy)
Benches? None
Facilities?: None

Rules:

Markings – None

Description –

You have to drive through the lovely little bayside town of Fortesque to get here, enjoy your drive.  After you’ve parked on Jersey Ave, you’ll be able to take a look at the beach that makes this such a nice place.

But don’t get ahead of yourself!  We have to get down to the WMA first!  Walk across the road bridge (checking out the creek on the way over)…

… and then down the dirt road past the houses until the road ends.

From here, you can peek into the WMA itself, complete with wooden sign.

In the cul-de-sac area of the road, you can take the path over the dunes to reach the beach.

Once on the beach, you’ll head left and wander up the shoreline.

Nice little memorial.

Make new friends.

After a bit, we reached a lovely little stream area with some moving water.  We could have kept going from here, but The Pres wanted to poke around and see what he could find.  Since this was the fourth trail of the day, I was fine with that.

He also found horseshoe crab parts.  These beach much be GREAT in the spring when the crabs are in.

At this point, we turned around and headed back up the beach the way we’d come.

And then it was off the beach, back over the dunes, and back down the road to the car.

Nearby: The Glades Wildlife Refuge is very close by, and well worth exploring.