Painted Rock
Address – Route 539
Lacey Township, NJ
Coordinates – 39°52’40.20″N, 74°22’35.86″W
Open – 24 hours
Cost – Free
Directions – located just under 6 miles north on Route 539 from Route 72.
Many years ago, a huge rock ended up by the side of the road in the pine barrens. This is no glacial erratic, this rock was reportedly destined to be part of the jetty at Barnegat Lighthouse, but never quite made it. As large rocks tend to do, it became a target for graffiti artists.
In the late 1990s, a local gentleman began to paint it seasonally. Sometimes it was a pumpkin. Sometimes a turkey.
After 9/11, someone painted it as an American flag, and an American flag it has stayed since.
So as we drove past, we had to stop and let the boys check out this giant painted rock.
As thousands have been before them, they were super impressed.
For more information on the rock, you can check about three million places. Some of my favorites are here where you can see lots of pictures of the rock in it’s pre-flag form and Karen Riley’s Voices of the Pines (Plexis Publishing, 2009), which devotes a chapter to the story of this rock.
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