Uplands Reserve (with Morales Nature Preserve)
Directions
From I-287 take I-78W to Exit 15, near Clinton. At end of exit ramp, turn left to travel south on Route 513 (becoming Pittstown Road) until the junction with Route 617 (Sidney Road). Turn left on to Route 617 and travel about 8.5 miles. Turn right on Barton Hollow Road and continue to the stop sign. Turn left onto Old Croton Rd, and then make the first left onto Capner Street. The parking area is located on the left hand side.
A single parking area/trailhead for the two parks is at 103 Capner Street, Flemington, NJ 08822
GPS: 40.512601, -74.874473
Park Overview
The Reserve constitutes the largest parcel of a 400-acre contiguous greenway in Flemington that also incorporates Bernadette Morales Nature Preserve
Trail Overview
The combined Morales Preserve and Uplands Reserve trail networks appear on a map (use Web Map link above) as three separate but interconnected, ever-larger loops – similar to an elongated balloon twisted at two choke points. Distance is relative, the longest and most distant loop is just over a mile (Uplands Trail, red, 1.33 miles). Getting there directly from the parking area at Morales Nature Preserve using the Main Trail (orange, 0.25 mile segment) and Eagle Trail (yellow, 0.36 mile) involves a lollipop hike of just over 2.5 miles.
There are nine named trails; all but the Uplands Trail are under a mile.
Park Description
Originally known as “Uplands Farm” due to its hilly terrain, the 101-acre Reserve provides an opportunity to observe ecological succession. Since its time as a farm, then an estate owned by Judge George Large (d. 1958), and ultimately an open space (since 1986), different areas have been reclaimed by nature. Along the trail, evergreens are still present in the canopy, but have been enclosed by hardwoods and will eventually die out.
Judge Large was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General in 1934 for the upcoming Flemington trial of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s infant son. One of the locations where the Lindberghs were sequestered from the press during the trial was at Uplands. Foundations of some structures remain.
The 52-acre Bernadette Morales Nature Preserve (maintained by the Flemington-Raritan Parks and Recreation Committee) with Mine Brook Park, the Dvoor Farm, and Uplands Reserve form a 400-acre contiguous greenway.