Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Designated as a New Jersey Scenic Byway in 2005, this 130-mile route is located in the Pinelands National Reserve and extends from Batsto and Tuckerton in the north to Dennisville and Port Elizabeth in the south. The Byway passes through five counties and 16 municipalities, providing a pathway to explore the Pinelands and its natural and cultural treasures.

The Reserve is a 1.1-million-acre mosaic of forests, farms, rivers, streams and towns, and it is the largest body of open space on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard between Richmond, Virginia and Boston, Massachusetts. Designated as our country’s first national reserve in 1978, the Pinelands National Reserve occupies 22% of New Jersey's land area. The reserve is approximately 35% wetlands and lies above the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer, which contains an estimated 17 trillion gallons of water. Forty-three threatened or endangered animal species and 92 threatened or endangered plant species are found in the Reserve.

The Pine Barrens Byway traverses a landscape of sublime natural beauty: the rare pygmy pines, lakes and streams fed by a 3,000-square-mile aquifer system, and biomes that include a vast array of plant and animal life, some unique to the Pinelands and nationally protected. But the deeper charm and allure of the Pine Barrens and our Byway is even subtler than these things. The Pine Barrens is a place to be unpacked, to explore, to ‘experience’... it is sometimes mysterious, and at all times profound in its beauty. A journey along the Byway beckons to the traveler to actively engage with the landscape as the original, indigenous inhabitants of the region did for thousands of years, and the European settlers that followed them generations later. The natural beauty that characterizes the setting of the Pine Barrens Byway is also intertwined with narrative, and stories of human experience. The Byway is not only a trip on a series of roads through the Pine Barrens. If the traveler is willing, it is a trip through time – through memory – and a glimpse at one of the most unusual natural and cultural environments left in our nation.

Just under an hour’s drive from Philadelphia, the traveler enters onto the Byway and begins to make their way through some of the most extensive forests remaining in the northeastern United States. Enveloped by these forests, and on the margins of vast open fields, marshes and bogs, are the tangible stories of human adaptation to this unique environment. Here the traveler who will stop and linger along the Byway will find stories of the birth of our nation: From Batsto Village nestled in the lush expanse of Wharton State Forest and whose furnaces produced cannonballs for Washington’s army, to the now quiet beauty of the Mullica River, which once buzzed with the activities of colonial privateers bound for the Atlantic to make their fortunes plundering British supply ships. With the depletion of the forests caused by the fueling of early iron and glass furnaces and a Pine Barrens Industrial Revolution in miniature, the area turned to truck farming since at least the early nineteenth century and berry farming a few decades later.

At the mouth of the Mullica, the Byway traveler emerges from the forest, and is awed by the sun rising over the pristine and protected Great Bay estuary, and the quaint and irresistible charm of the Tuckerton Seaport. The Byway continues across salt marshes and small inlet bridges, paralleling the 47,000 acre Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. Leaving the coast, the traveler makes their way south again into the forest, passing the ruins of 18th and 19th century furnace and glass complexes along the margins of the federally designated Wild and Scenic Great Egg Harbor River. The Byway leads the traveler through small towns and villages, paths by the roadside leading to ancient cemeteries swallowed up now by state forests, and dozens of federally protected natural areas and wildlife management parks teeming with plant and animal life.

Mullica River test

Pine Barrens Scenic Byway fast facts: Intrinsic qualities: Nature and historic Length: Three different routes, for a total of approximately 130 miles: Northern (pdf 1.9m) Central (pdf 2.9m) Southern (pdf 3.1m) Route: This Scenic Byway runs from the Mullica River southwest and south to the Maurice River and Delaware Bay through the southern portion of the New Jersey Pinelands.

• Start at Batsto Village
• Turn left onto CR 542/Hammonton-Pleasant Mills Road (eb)
• Cross the Wading River At V intersection bear left onto CR 653/Leektown Road
• Leektown Road becomes Stage Road. Continue east on Stage Road
• Pass underneath the Garden State Parkway
• Make a left onto NJ 9/West Main Street (eb) spur to Tuckerton Seaport Museum
• From Tuckerton Seaport Museum, turn left onto NJ 9/West Main Street (wb)
• Stay on NJ 9. Bear right as it becomes NJ 9/GSP (sb)
• Take exit 48 (Port Republic/Smithville) of the Garden State Parkway
• Take NJ 9/New York Road (sb) to CR 657/Mott’s Creek Road
• {SPUR OPTION} Continue 2.9 mi. on NJ 9 (sb) to Great Creek Road (Edwin Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge). Follow NJ 9 (nb) to return to Long Northern Loop Route at Mott’s Creek Road
• {LONG NORTHERN LOOP CONTINUED} Turn onto CR 657/Mott’s Creek Road (wb) (left if driving north on NJ 9 from the Refuge, right if driving south) Mott’s Creek Road becomes CR 610/Old New York Road
• Take left on CR 575/Main Street
• Take right on Mill Street
• At V intersection bear left on CR 624
• At T intersection turn right onto CR 563/Egg Harbor-Green Bank Road
• CR 563/Egg Harbor-Green Bank Road becomes CR 563/Pleasant Mills Road
• CR 563 becomes CR 643/Weekstown Road. At V intersection bear right to stay on CR 643/Weekstown Road becoming CR 643/Pleasant Mills Road
• At T intersection turn right onto CR 542/Nesco-Hammonton Road

• Start at Batsto Village
• Turn left onto CR 542/Hammonton-Pleasant Mills Road
At T intersection turn right onto CR 643/Weekstown Road
• At V intersection bear right to stay on CR 643/Weekstown Road becoming CR 643/Pleasant Mills Road
• At T intersection turn right onto CR 542/Nesco-Hammonton Road
• End at Batsto Village

• From Batsto Village turn right on CR 542/Hammonton-Pleasant Mills Road (wb)
• Turn left onto CR 658/Columbia Road south
• Turn right onto CR 623/Weymouth-Elwood Road southwest
• CR 623 runs into/becomes CR 559/Weymouth Road
• Take CR 559/Weymouth Road traveling south
• Bear left when CR 559 joins CR 606/Old Harding Highway
• Continue on CR 559 by turning left onto CR 616/Mill Street
• Bear right onto Main Street (still CR 559)
• Turn right to continue on Cape May Avenue /Harding Highway also NJ 40(wb)/NJ 50(sb).
• Turn left onto NJ 50 (sb)
• Remain on NJ 50 by bearing left at Y intersection with Cumberland Ave
• Turn right onto CR 611/Main Street. Central Route merges with the Southern Route here

• Begins on CR 611/Main Street at the junction with CR 649/Aetna Road
• Travel south on Main Street as it joins NJ 50 south. Cross over the Tuckahoe River
• Turn right onto NJ 49 west • Follow NJ 49 to the junction with CR 548. Follow either longer southern loop or shorter southern loop

• From the intersection of Route 612 and 563 in the Village of Weekstown, Mullica Township, take Route 563 (Green Bank Road) heading south.
• In Egg Harbor City, make a sharp left turn onto Route 624 (Clarks Landing Road).
• Continue on Route 624 (Clarks Landing Road) heading southeast into Port Republic.
• Just past the Garden State Parkway, bear right onto Mill Street.
• Take Mill Street to Route 575 (Main Street) and make a left.
• Take Main Street to "T" intersection with Route 610 (Old York Road) and make a right.
• Head south on Route 610 and bear to the left as Route 610 becomes Atlantic 610/Smith Bowen Road.
• Turn left onto Route 9 (New York Road) heading north.

• To take the spur turn right onto Route 9 heading south to Oceanville and the headquarters of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. Follow Route 9 back north.
• Bear left onto the Garden State Parkway (Exit 48) heading north.
• Take Exit 50 to follow Route 9 north through the Village of New Gretna, Bass River Township, Burlington County.
• Follow Route 9 into Ocean County, where it also becomes known as Atlantic Boulevard, then as West Main Street in the Pinelands Town of Tuckerton.

• Take Route 542 (Hammonton-Pleasant Mills Road) heading west toward the Village of Nesco, Mullica Township.
• Make a left onto Route 658 (Columbia Road) heading south into the Village of Elwood, Mullica Township.
• Turn right onto Route 623 (Weymouth-Elwood Road) heading southwest.
• In Hamilton Township, Route 623 runs into and becomes Route 559 (Weymouth Road).
• Take Route 559 (Weymouth Road) heading south.
• Bear left when Route 559 joins Route 606 (Old Harding Highway) heading toward May’s Landing.
• Continue on Route 559 by turning left onto Route 616 (Mill Street).
• Bear right onto Main Street (still Route 559).
• Make a right onto Cape May Avenue (Route 40 west and Route 50 south).
• Make a left onto Route 50 south and continue on Route 50 toward Corbin City.
• Bear left at the junction with Route 645 and where Route 50 joins with Route 557.
• Make a right onto Route 611 (Main Street). Here the Central Route merges with the Southern Route.

• Begins on CR 611/Main Street at the junction with CR 649/Aetna Road
• Travel south on Main Street as it joins NJ 50 south. Cross over the Tuckahoe River
• Turn right onto NJ 49 west • Follow NJ 49 to the junction with CR 548. Follow either longer southern loop or shorter southern loop

• Bear left onto CR 548/Weatherby Road at NJ 49 junction
• Turn left onto NJ 47/Delsea Drive • Remain on NJ 47 (sb) at NJ 47/NJ 347 split
• Turn left onto Old State Highway • Turn right onto CR 550/Paper Mill Road; rejoin NJ 47 by going straight
• At T, turn right continuing on NJ 47 (sb)
• Turn left onto CR 610 /Dennisville-Petersburg Road
• Turn left onto CR 550/Dehirsch Avenue
• Turn left onto CR 557/Washington Avenue
• Turn right onto CR 550/Webster Street/Woodbine Avenue. Follow CR 550 to T. Turn right onto CR 605/Broad Street/Eldora Road/Belleplain Road
• Take CR 605 to CR 548/Weatherby Road junction

• Follow NJ 49 veering right
• Turn right onto CR 649/Head of River Road
• Bear right at Y intersection with CR 648 continuing on CR 649/Aetna Drive
• Follow Aetna Drive back to CR 611/Main Street