Probably every dweller in civilization, whether of Main Street, Zenith City, or the metropolis, dreams of breaking loose some time and getting back to “fundamentals.” He wants to get off somewhere at the end of things, near the “jumping-off place.” Or he pictures himself on some long canoeing trip in Labrador. Perhaps his fancy turns to summer time in Alaska, or to the mystic beauties of central Asia. At any rate he wants a change. He wants primarily wild country and fresh air. He wants to shake off confining routine.
But this dweller is an ordinary sort of chap leading an ordinary life. He has perhaps but two weeks’ vacation during the year, which he finds have, somehow or other, been scheduled for visits to his own folks and to his wife’s relatives. So he puts away his dream of the wilderness and lives with a sense of being thwarted.
To-day, however, thousands are finding that they [[16]]can be week-end wild men. All they need is to step into a motor car, make certain inquiries, and they will soon be finding their way off the beaten path into the longed-for wilderness. Within the week-end motoring distance, within a distance of seventy-five miles, and usually much less, of the biggest cities of the country may be found wide deserted areas where man can commune with the stillness and the stars.
Falls at Stony Brook, Stokes State Forest, in Northern New Jersey
Pine forests in Southern New Jersey. Camping sites are available both in the North Jersey and the South Jersey State Forests
For New Yorkers
Take New York City, for example. Within sight of the upper part of Manhattan Island and accessible by ferries is the Palisades Interstate Park owned jointly by the states of New York and New Jersey. Of the total area of more than thirty-six thousand acres New Jersey owns some thousand acres of the section running for twelve miles along the Palisades ridge. In this nearer section the motorist may find secluded camping sites that seem almost out of the world of mankind, while in the Bear Mountain portion of the park there are great stretches that are a veritable wilderness.