I like this fun fact about the Union Transportation Trail: It lets you brag that you’ve travelled across Monmouth County, from Mercer County to Ocean County. Yet because it’s in the western corner of the county, it’s only 9 miles long.
The UTT is a crushed-stone rail trail that starts south of Hightstown and takes you through woods, past farms and fields and near the Cream Ridge Golf Course. Once part of the Pemberton & Hightstown Railroad, it’s now a great place for walkers, joggers, cyclists and even those on horseback.
An easy place to park is at the trailhead on the corner of Herbert Road and Sharon Station Road, less than a mile from Old York Road (County Road 539) that runs between Hightstown and Allentown. The parking lot is a little south of the northern end of the trail.
You’ll always know how far you’ve gone because the trail has good mile markers. But bring water; there is no water source in any of the parking lots.
Plans call for the trail to eventually extend to East Windsor to the north and New Egypt to the south. Stop by the WWBPA table at the West Windsor Farmers Market if you’d like a paper copy of the trail map.