Tuccamirgan Park
Bonnell Street, Flemington, Reading Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey

Facilities:

Green space, playground, and walking trail.

Trails:

Flemington Greenbelt (Liberty Village to Mine Brook Park; to Morales Nature Preserve to Uplands Reserve to Tuccamirgan Park to Liberty Village):

From the Morales Nature Preserve:
turn left on Capner Street
walk along the Readington-Fleming Middle School perimeter fence
enter Tuccamirgan Park. 
walk on a trail to Bonnell Street, leaving Tuccamirgan Park;
turn left on Bonnell Street
turn right on Park Avenue
turn right on Mine Street
turn left on Central Street

back to Lafayette Village (the starting point).

Trails:

3/26/2005.  Vacationing in Hunterdon County.  Staying at the Ramada Inn on Route 202 heading south out of Flemington.  Got up early while the others slept and drove over to Tuccarmirgan Park.  Parked in the small parking lot.  This is primarily a play area for children.  There is a playground, a basketball court, and a field for soccer or something similar. 

One can walk from the parking lot over to the playing field and around same and back.  Or one can pick up a trail on the right and head past the playground and the basketball and behind the Flemington-Raritan Community Pool over to the fence around the Flemington-Raritan Middle School. 

I was trying to find some easy connection with the park, the pool area, and the middle school.  But there is no easy connection.  I was blocked from going from the playing field to the pool area by a wet ditch and vegetation.  And I was blocked by the middle school from getting to the front of the school by vegetation.  I think if I wanted to get to the pool area, I would use the trail that goes behind the pool and then descend down the open lawn to the entrance road to the community pool (that in turn connects to the middle school).

But I think a more interesting walk would be to walk around Tuccamirgan Park and then walk back to the park entrance, down Bonnell Street to take Shields Avenue north along the huge Dvoor Farm field and then take a left onto the path along the northern edge of the field that heads across and then down to Mine Brook Park.  From there head north out of the park and over to Bernadette Morales Park.  This in turn connects to Uplands Preserve and its circular walk.  Then back to Morales, then Mine Brook Park and then back to the parking lot at Tuccamirgan Park. 

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = plant found in bloom on date of field trip, 03/26/2005

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple) *
Fraxinus americana (white ash) *
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Picea abies (Norway spruce)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)

Shrubs:
Ligustrum sp. (privet)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)

Vines:
Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis spp. (fox grape)

Herbs:
Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace)
Narcissus sp. (daffodil)

Grasses:
Andropogon virginicus (blue stem grass) ?
Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass)
Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stilt grass) 
Setaria faberi (nodding foxtail grass)
Tridens flavus (purple top grass)