• Before getting started, let’s review what we have known about Kingston. Kingston is a small village on Route 27, which leads west to Princeton and east to New York. To the west of Kingston lies the D&R Canal State Park, and north of Kingston, there is a Chinese-English bilingual school.

Today, let’s explore the south.

The houses in the southern part of Kingston (along Catelli Road) tend to be bigger. In fact, it might be more precise to call them “mansions” rather than “houses“. It’s amusing to observe the national-scale rule of thumb that “things in the south (that is, in Texas) are bigger” in such a small village.

Because these mansions sits along a slope, each of the mansions occupy its own territory which is a little bit higher than the driveway, in order to stay horizontal. As a result, the mansions feel more like individual tiny castles than buildings in an integrated community.

Walking down Catelli Road, one eventually comes across Ridge Road, which runs perpendicular to Catelli Road. Across Ridge Road is the eastern wing of D&R Canal State Park, which can be regarded as the natural southern boundary of the village of Kingston. Strolling eastward along Ridge Road, one reaches the boundary of D&R Canal State Park, but yet another state park, Cook Natural Area, lies ahead.

The entrance of Cook Natural Area is a welcoming open meadow, where sometimes one can see people walking their dogs. Deer can also be seen, not surprisingly, from time to time. Some gigantic hay rolls are piled up near the woods, probably by the administrator from the Division of Park and Forestry.

The woods seems to completely encircle the meadow except for the entrance, but in fact, there is a wide passage in the south-eastern corner of the meadow, which can’t be seen from the perspective I took the pictures.

Not having adequate equipment, I’m not prepared to explore the wilderness, so I return to the intersection of D&R Park and Cook Natural Area, where the Ridge Road makes a right-angle turn and leads to the south.

Although the state parks serve as great natural boundary for Kingston, Google map doesn’t think so. On Google map, the southern boundary of Kingston is farther to the south. Thus, I decided to journey down Ridge Road and search for the next candidate for the southern border of Kingston.

There must be some kind of landmark.

I’m sure I will not walk all the way to Cape May, the southern-most coastal city in New Jersey.

There are only the woods interspersed with yet bigger mansions along Ridge Road, nothing special.

After a trek of 15 minutes or so, I saw something that definitely doesn’t belong to a tiny village like Kingston.

A 2-wing, 6-story commercial building.

The design of the building reminded me of government agencies and major medical centers back in Taiwan. But in fact, this is a business hotel called “Double Tree by Hilton“.

Sorry that I took in triple trees in the photo above, I should have been more careful!

Residents of Kingston are unlikely to make use of this hotel. The target customers of Double Tree (and a Holiday Inn nearby, and other business hotels) is the businessperson traveling along

Route 1,

which can be regarded as the southern boundary of Kingston other than the state parks.

Route 1 and Route 27 run in parallel from Princeton to Edison, a city north-east of Kingston. In contrast to Route 27, Route 1 is a real highway with multiple lanes for both directions. The traffic on Route 1 is heavier, but flows more rapidly. Therefore, taking Route 1 is the wiser choice if one plans to travel to and from somewhere between Princeton and Edison.

Travelling along Route 1 is more efficient than along Route 27.

Actually, even if one shops in a mall on Route 27, upon returning to Kingston, the GPS still suggests making a detour and take Route 1. This happened every time my friends drove me to shop for groceries in Edison.

For a driver, Route 1 spells convenience. But, for a car-less like me, Route 1 is the natural boundary of my exploration.

So I returned.

Back to the turning point of Ridge Road, I looked to the west, where a hiking trail stretched into the D&R Canal State Park.

Wilderness.

In the US, if a green region on Google map is labeled as a “park“, that’s nice, go for it. If it’s “parking lot“, well, it would be a boring place, but very useful nonetheless. However, if it’s a “state park“, one wouldn’t wish to traverse the region without hiking apparatus and/or companions.