Review: Washington's Crossing

Outdoor Appeal: 9

Setting: Quintessential Delaware River park. The Pennsylvania side houses a visitors center dedicated to Washington's daring maneuver to take Trenton as well as historical buildings and the boats. The New Jersey side has a more recreational feel with a picnic area, access to the river and the canal and hiking and biking trails.

Explorable Op's: A lot. The obvious draw to the park is the historical significance, but the hiking, biking, fishing, boating and just picnicking are well worth a visit regardless of whether you or your kids would be into the history of the place. The visitor's center is free. It has a short movie that retells the story of Washington crossing the Delaware . The auditorium holds the iconic painting of the scene. The painting is impressive. It takes up the entire back wall of the stage. The grounds on the Pennsylvania side have historic buildings as well as the boats used to cross the river. Trails run through the park on both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania sides and are connected over the bridge. You could easily spend the day without running out of options.

Difficulty: Easy. For the most part both the Pennsylvania and New Jersey sides are flat. If you travel up the ramp across route 32 on the New Jersey side you'll run into some hills but all the paths are either well worn or paved on both sides of the river.

Facilities: Civilized. The visitor center on the Pennsylvania side has restrooms, a gift shop and vending machines. The New Jersey side has restrooms in the picnic area. In addition there are convenience stores and casual restaurants on both sides of the river.

Review: In a summer of abnormal weather, we were fortunate to be able to get out to review Washington's Crossing on a sublime day. We parked at the visitors center on the Pennsylvania side of the river. We took a quick tour around to place. There were a few surprises. First, I didn't expect the visitors center to be free. Second, I didn't expect that Max and Frank would be interested in the historical movie, but they sat through it twice! (I'm still not sure why.) Finally, the famous painting of the crossing is huge.

I think most would agree that it is slightly misleading, as the Delaware River in this spot is, well... just not that menacing. But the painting is inspiring and the dimensions are astounding: 12 feet by 21 feet. So even a 1 and a 2 year old could appreciate the scale of it all for a few minutes. From the visitors center we ventured towards the river. There is a high wall that flanks the river on the PA side. While the wall makes getting down to the water is difficult, it does give you a good view of the landscape.

The boys had little interest in the historical buildings on the grounds, although the boats were fun to look at. We then ventured to the bridge to cross over to the Jersey side. The bridge proved to be one of the most exciting places for the kids. Max loved to hear the cars go over the corrugated steel bed of the bridge. We were lucky enough to see some large turtles sunning themselves on one of the bridge supports.

When we got over the bridge the first order of business was finding a place to set up for our picnic. We grabbed a table and started to chow down. After lunch we ventured to the alluring walking bridge that crosses over route 32. Max had his bike with him and he was ready to test out his skills. The bridge has a nice incline and once at the top you can get a good view of both the canal and the river.

We didn't make it too far into the park on this side because the ride back down the foot bridge was tempting. But we did explore enough to see that some of the trees have plaques on them with the details about the tree. I personally like it when I see this. I often wonder what kinds of trees I'm looking at and I do my best to identify them. But it's nice to have the facts when you're out and about.

Then, it was finally time to take the long ramp ride back down towards the PA side. This was quite a thrill for a 2 year old.

From the end of the foot bridge we headed back to the Pennsylvania side over the iron bridge. We stopped in the middle to take a photo looking north up the river. You can see on the left side of the river there are docks for boats. They accompany the houses that line River Drive - more about that in the Recommendations section.

We took one more picture of Max on the bridge before we set off back to the car just so he could tell his mom that he rode his bike all the way to New Jersey and back.

We made it back to the parking lot and our car. It was definitely time to wrap things up. Nap time was over due. But Just as we were getting ourselves in the car Frankie heard the distinctive chop of a helicopter. For unknown reasons, this helicopter made a few rounds over Washington's Crossing.

That in itself was enough to burn this trip into Max and Frank's memories forever.

Recommendations: There's plenty to do at Washington's Crossing but on this last visit it struck me as a perfect place to take kids on a bike ride. Most of the area is flat with smooth trails for riding. The the New Jersey side has a road within the state park and easy access to the tow path along the canal. Another beautiful section for bike riding on the New Jersey side is River Drive. The road runs north out of the picnic area and rises to give great views of the river. Historic houses line the road which make for a very pleasant, civilized ride. Also, Bowman's Tower is part of the park on the Pennsylvania side. Although it's a few minutes car ride north of Washington's Crossing, it's well worth a visit. Happy trails.

Review: Peace Valley Park, Indian Path trail

Outdoor Appeal: 10

Image via Wikipedia

Setting: Lake Galena, nature center, hiking trails, hike/bike path, Neshaminy Creek

Explorable Op's: A ton. Outside of the organized sports realm, Lake Galena and Peace Valley Park together have most outdoor activities that someone in the Delaware Valley would care to take on with kids. Hiking, biking, paddling, sailing, birding, picnic areas, playgrounds. With the exception of camping, the park has as much to offer as most state parks.

Facilities: Civilized. The nature center has restrooms, changing tables for infants, a learning center, taxidermed wild animals, gift shop, views of the lake as well as coffee, tea and hot chocolate for a nominal donation.

Review: There are lots of different trails in the park to explore. So when looking at the trail map it may seem a bit daunting to try to figure out what might be a managable hike for you and them. Fear not! The trail system forms a lot of small loops that criss cross over one another so there is almost always a "short cut" back to the car if you need to end the hike quickly. The day we set out I wanted to make sure that we had a pretty short trail with a few neat destinations along the way. I've found that it is easier to keep the 2 year old walking when there is a surprise waiting around the bend - and I do try to hype the surprise and ask him what he thinks it might be to spur him on when the trail gets "tough." The one this particular day I chose to hike Indian Path to Pond Path, a short zigzag on Woods Edge and finish up the loop on Pine Path. I'm guessing it might be a half mile total. I chose this loop because it has three surprises along the way. On Indian Path there is a Indian shelter built out of saplings and tree bark for the siding. From the inside you can see how it was made - pretty neat! We spent about 20 minutes checking it out which seems like a long time to be contained in a small space but it was a real wonderland for both Max and Frank. From the shelter we headed to Pond Path and made our way towards Woods Pond. It happened to be very muddy the day we went so Max couldn't decide if he was all that excited about how sloppy the trail was. The pond wound up being a bit of a problem in that Frank, the one year old, wanted to go in and Max wanted to get take off his sandals to shake off the mud. So we didn't stay very long because I didn't really want to comply with either of their wishes. We started our walk back and came to a small stream that crossed over Pond Path. It was flowing nicely because of all the rain we had just had. It turned out to solve the broken dreams we left behind at Woods Pond. Max could take his sandals off and wash the mud off and Frank could easily walk in the water. The stream had a sandy bottom and was only a few inches deep. We spent another 20 minutes walking back and forth over the stream, gathering rocks, throwing rocks back in, setting leaves afloat and watching them get swept away by the currents. Neither of the boys wanted to leave, but time had marched on towards lunch and curiousity was taking us a little too far up the stream. So we packed ourselves up, took the zigzag on Woods Edge and headed back to the parking area by way of Pine Path.

Recommendations: Truth be told, it's not easy to hike with small children. They meander, tire quickly, want to be carried, have to go to the potty, trip, fall and all kinds of other dilemmas pop up along the way. But I think even a two year old gets a real sense of accomplishment when they see that they have made it back to the car - snacks and drinks awaiting. And time spent in the woods is never wasted in my opinion. So when hiking with kids it's always best to be prepared to do very little hiking. If it's possible, have a few neat stops along the way. And "neat" is a perception you will need to project to the kids. Give them time to exlpore, be patient when they don't want to walk further, flexible and above all else, make it a fun adventure. The woods is a great place to let kids' curiosity run wild - well, not too wild. There's poison ivy out there! But giving them some freedom will make it fun for everyone. And in the end it doesn't really matter what you do outdoors. Just getting out can be enough. Happy trails.