North Jersey scenic drives worth taking this summer — one per county

I've written South Jersey roads until the ink ran out. The Pine Barrens. The shore. Mays Landing to Hammonton. Route 50 south toward the water. I know those roads the way I know my own driveway.

This summer I'm going north. And I mean it this time.

Warren, Sussex, Hunterdon, Morris — the counties up there that I've driven through on the way to somewhere else but never for the sake of the drive itself. That changes. Here are four roads to start with. One per county. Each one worth the tank of gas — even at $4.48 a gallon.

Warren County: Route 57, Hackettstown to Greenwich Township

This is the Warren Heritage Scenic Byway, a 19-mile run that follows the old Morris Canal corridor through mountain and valley terrain that feels nothing like the New Jersey most people describe at parties. Rolling hills, old stone bridges, farmland, the Musconetcong River running alongside you. The history alone is worth it — Thomas Edison's cement plant once sat along this road, and Edison himself laid the first concrete mile in New Jersey right here, what is now Route 57. Stop at Bread Lock Park in Stewartsville. It's where boatmen on the Morris Canal used to buy bread from a store along the water. The park preserves the old lock and towpath, and it's easy to miss if you're not looking for the sign. Look for the sign.

Sussex County: Route 519 through Beemerville

Long regarded as one of the most beautiful stretches of road in the state, Route 519 runs nearly 90 miles from the Pennsylvania border all the way up toward High Point. The Sussex County section is where it gets properly dramatic — rolling farm country, old church spires, tiny towns with names that sound like they were invented for a novel. Harmony. Beemerville. The road winds past vineyards and stone fences and silos that have been standing since before anyone reading this was born. The stop here is Space Farms Zoo and Museum in Beemerville, which is as New Jersey as anything I have ever described on this show. A working zoo and museum out in the middle of farm country. They have Goliath, the world's largest preserved bear. That is a sentence I just typed without irony. You need to see it.

SEE ALSO: Best scenic rural drives in NJ — 10 miles no traffic 

Hunterdon County: Route 29, Lambertville to Frenchtown

I've mentioned this drive before and I'll keep mentioning it because not enough people are doing it. Route 29 hugs the Delaware River for about twelve miles through some of the best scenery the state has to offer. The river on your left, the Hunterdon hills climbing on your right, and three towns — Lambertville, Stockton, Frenchtown — appearing around bends like someone arranged them for you on purpose. Each one has a place to eat. Each one has a reason to stop and get out of the car. The Stockton Inn is historic, unhurried, and exactly the right place to sit outside and watch the river. This drive is spectacular in early summer when everything is green and the light on the water is doing things that should be illegal.

SEE ALSO: Best scenic drives in South Jersey 

Morris County: Jockey Hollow Road, Harding Township

The roads around Jockey Hollow National Historical Park in southern Morris County are as peaceful and quiet as Morris County gets, which is saying something given how close they are to Route 287. Washington's Continental Army camped in these woods in the brutal winter of 1779-1780. Over 10,000 soldiers built more than a thousand huts by hand and somehow made it to spring. The woods are dense, the roads curve through them without urgency, and the history presses in from every direction. Stop at the Wick House — a colonial-era farmhouse preserved inside the park, where General Arthur St. Clair was quartered during that terrible winter. Walking the grounds alongside the kitchen garden and the old orchard, you feel how far this corner of Morris County is from the New Jersey people always complain about.

Four drives. Four counties. All of them waiting. I've been writing about the pines quite a bit. It's time we talked about the beauty above Route 78!

👇And to keep my South Jersey cred, here are some photos from a trip I did over the winter below Route 47!👇