November 4 - 11

Going, Going...

Gone? It sure seemed that way last weekend. And this weekend they turn the clocks back and shorten the days up real quick. Daylight Craving Time! For sure, there won’t be too many more days to get out and feel a warm breeze while enjoying the amber and gold colors of autumn’s last leaves. There are still plenty of colorful panoramas for leaf peepers, and much more listed on our calendar for this and coming autumn weekends.

Hawk Eyes

For those that fancy the habits of our wild avian friends, late fall is the season to head for the hills to observe the annual raptor migration. A raptor is a bird of prey—a general descriptor that includes eagles, hawks, falcons, and vultures. Some species, like the northern goshawk, golden eagle, and red-tailed hawk actually increase in numbers in November, but each species has its own window of time. If you have not yet been blessed with raptor fever, you can start with this primer for watching these magnificent and magical birds. The head for Merrill Creek Reservoir, Racoon Ridge, Wildcat Ridge or several other prime spots in the region.

Well Scripted

This month, the Centenary Stage Company presents the Black Box Festival: three contrasting events presented in the intimate 100-seat Edith Bolte Kutz Theater of the Lackland Center. Synonymous with the theatre movement of the 1960s, the "black-box" space provided a canvas for a variety of different genres, designs and exciting theatrical experimentation.

This weekend (November 3 - 6) the innovative New York company, RADIOTHEATER presents one of the greatest science fiction stories ever written, H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. November 10-13, PARALLEL EXIT celebrates the era of great vaudevillian physical comedy in Exit Stage Left. The Festival concludes with Emmy-Award-winning actor Anthony Zerbe's presentation of It's All Done With Mirrors, November 17-20. Veteran of screen and stage, the acclaimed actor brings the poetry of the iconoclastic e.e. cummings to life in a powerful one man show. Click for information about these and other CSC events.

The Rainbow Room's walls and ceiling fluoresce with what the Sterling Hill Mine is famous for - the red of calcite in the marbleized limestone and the bright green of willemite, used to track the orebody.

The Essence of Fluorescence

The autumn glow in the hills extends underground, at least in parts of Sussex County famous for fluorescent minerals. A labyrinth of marbleized tunnels gilded by a multi-color glow of fluorescent minerals below the earth awaits at Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg. The mines are an image of the past, ancestral, remote, almost exotic, and filled with gorgeous crystals of pink rhodonite, the rainbow colors of willemite, blood-red garnet and other precious beauties. The guided tour is magical and not to be missed. But do it now, the season is running short!

First find wollastonite with red fl. calcite, green fl. willemite, bustamite and franklinite. Collected in the Franklin mine by J. L. Baum.

Up the road, trip the (Fluorescent) Light Fantastic at the Franklin Mineral Museum where a bronze statue of a miner greets visitors before entering the full-size replica mine inside the building. This weekend Franklin Mine hosts a Fall Night Dig where you can collect your own fluorescent minerals. Bring flashlight, goggles, bucket (the museum will also have collecting bags available), fluorescent mineral lamp (lamps are available for purchase), and proper footwear. Pre registration not required. 6 - 10pm. $10/ $8 under 12/ Poundage $3 per pound. 32 Evans Street in Franklin. 973/827-3481.

Survivors

Hopefully, our state champions have survived last week's carnage...

The Black Plague had devastated Europe when the acorn pushed its roots into the soil of an unnamed continent. Woodland Indians hunted, fired pottery, planted small crops and perhaps rested against the oak's expanding trunk. The tree's girth expanded through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper and Columbus sailed the ocean blue. By the time settlers founded Jamestown in 1607, the oak had passed its 200th birthday. Despite Colonial settlers' growing need for houses, barns and fencing, the tree prospered as a local landmark. A few decades later, Continental troops would picnic in its shade. By the nineteenth century, the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church had enshrined the venerable oak behind the cemetery walls. Today the old oak ­ more than six hundred years old ­ stands 97 feet tall. Thick branches extend 156 feet over the ground. Metal pillars support its massive limbs. More State Champion trees....

The viaduct over the Paulinskill River in Columbia.

The Lackawanna Cut-Off

This is a great time of year to take a driving tour of the Lackawanna Cutoff, something uniquely New Jersey. Following this route takes you along one of the most innovative endeavors of the early part of this century and through some of the prettiest countryside in the northeast! Considered by many to be the most scenic rail line in New Jersey, the Lackawanna Cut-Off was the last mainline to be built in the state (it was opened in 1911). Starting at Port Morris, the Cut-Off travels west through scenic Morris, Sussex and Warren counties on its way to the Delaware Water Gap, across some of the world’s largest rail embankments, and two massive concrete viaducts.

Subscribe!

This fall, think Skylands! Northwest New Jersey and destinations just beyond those borders, in Pennsylvania and New York, are equally intriguing and convenient offer brilliant ways to get out and enjoy the pleasures of the season. It's Primetime!

There is much more listed on our calendar for this and coming autumn weekends. And we've got a bundle of stories to help you on your way. Stay tuned to our Day Trip Map for good ideas for a scenic drive! Or use the Outdoor Map for links to all sorts of colorful hikes and outdoor fun!

Enjoy a year round supply of great things to see and do in Northwest New Jersey by signing up for a magazine for each season here.

If you prefer to receive updates on stories, upcoming events, and special offers via Facebook, you can follow along here.

Share this email
*|MC:TOPSHARE|*

Home Page | Current Stories|Events|Area Maps |Getaway Packages & Discounts | Contents

Skylands Visitor Magazine, PO Box 329, Columbia, NJ • Privacy Statement