New Jersey’s most peaceful drives — no traffic, no tolls, all soul

I drive. A lot. At least an hour each way to work and back. You would think that after two-plus hours behind the wheel every weekday, the last thing I would want to do on a weekend is get back in the car.

You would be wrong.

That is where the fun starts.

Every once in a while you just need a drive that resets everything — a quiet stretch of road where the world slows down, the trees lean gently toward you, and you remember that New Jersey has pockets of pure calm tucked between its busier corners. No tolls. No traffic. No GPS rerouting you through someone's neighborhood.

In a few weeks I am heading to Atlantic City from Trenton. I could take 295 to the AC Expressway. Fast. Efficient. Completely soulless. Instead I am going to work my way down to Route 539 and cruise the Pines. You know you are deep in the Barrens when the dwarf pines appear — stunted, ancient, unlike anything else in this state. Mix in the right playlist and you have achieved what I can only describe as Jersey Zen.

Over the years I have found a handful of roughly ten-mile rural stretches that always deliver that peaceful feeling. Here are six of my favorites.

SEE ALSO: New Jersey's weirdest boarders - towns inside towns and land that isn't ours 

Six drives that prove New Jersey has more soul than the Parkway

Route 519 near Milford — shades of green If there is a road in New Jersey built for a peaceful Sunday drive, this is it. About ten miles of gentle curves past farms, open fields, and old barns that look like they have been standing guard for generations. Traffic is light. The road wraps around you like a quilt. Even the cows seem relaxed.

Route 532, Tabernacle to Chatsworth — the meditation hallway One of the most soothing Pine Barrens drives you can take without going too deep. Ten miles of straight calm road lined with pines on both sides. The scent drifts in even with the windows barely cracked. No rush, no noise, just long stretches of quiet forest and the occasional red-tailed hawk overhead.

Route 559, Mays Landing to Hammonton — my road This one is personal. Growing up in Mays Landing, this was the Easter Sunday drive. We would pick up my grandparents and wind through the Pines along the Great Egg Harbor River on the way to my aunt's house in Hammonton for the feast. I can still picture those drives.

A stop at Weymouth Furnace along this route is non-negotiable. The site supplied cannons and cannonballs to the US Government during the War of 1812 and cast the first iron pipe ever laid in Philadelphia. The ruins sit right along the Great Egg Harbor River — eleven acres of preserved history that most people drive past without knowing what they are missing.

Route 50 south from Mays Landing — cheesecake, ice cream and Strathmere Start in Mays Landing and head south. Your first reward comes early — Crabby's Suds and Seafood and Merrill's Colonial Inn, where the Italian food is excellent and the bar is exactly what an old Jersey bar should look like. Keep heading south through Belcoville, a town most New Jersey residents have never heard of. It thrived briefly as a munitions factory town during World War I and then essentially disappeared back into the pines.

Continue south through Corbin City on the north side of the Tuckahoe River and roll into the town of Tuckahoe. Stop for cheesecake or ice cream — you have earned it. Shortly after Tuckahoe you will spot a Dollar General rising out of nowhere on the roadside, which is somehow both completely out of place and completely inevitable in rural New Jersey. They really do just seem to grow out of the ground out here. Bear left after the Dollar General and follow the road to Strathmere — one of the last free beaches on the Jersey Shore. Park, walk out, breathe. The drive got you here. The beach is your reward.

Hope-Stillwater Road, County Route 521, Sussex County Rolling hills, farm fences, silos, ponds. Classic rural Jersey at its best in the northwest corner of the state. The bends feel natural, the kind that guide you rather than force you. The closest thing New Jersey has to a pastoral postcard you can actually drive through.

Route 617 near the Delaware Water Gap, Warren County This one feels like a step back in time. Less traveled, beautifully wooded, sunlight flickering through the trees at just the right angle. The kind of drive where you forget your phone is buzzing somewhere and you stop caring.

A few more worth the detour — North and Central Jersey

The original six drives lean South Jersey and northwest — which is where my roads are. But readers have been sending suggestions and a few of them belong on this list.

River Road, Route 29, Lambertville to Frenchtown — the Delaware River corridor Roughly twelve miles hugging the Delaware River through some of the most scenic terrain in the state. The river is on your left, the Hunterdon County hills rise to your right, and small river towns appear around every bend. Lambertville, Stockton, Frenchtown — each one worth a stop. This drive is particularly spectacular in spring when the trees along the riverbank are coming back to life. One of the most underrated drives in New Jersey full stop.

Jockey Hollow Road area, Morris County — the Revolutionary War woods The roads surrounding Jockey Hollow National Historical Park in Morris County feel genuinely removed from the suburban sprawl that surrounds them. Washington's Continental Army camped here in the brutal winter of 1779-1780. The woods are dense, the roads are quiet, and the history is everywhere if you know to look for it. A short loop through the park roads and surrounding countryside is about as peaceful as Morris County gets.

Route 524, Allentown to Cream Ridge — horse country Central Jersey This stretch through Monmouth and Ocean counties passes horse farms, rolling fields and the kind of open landscape that surprises people who think of Central Jersey as nothing but Route 9 and strip malls. Cream Ridge Winery sits right along this corridor if you need a reason to stop. About ten miles of road that feels nothing like the New Jersey most people think they know.

SEE ALSO: Part 2: The best South Jersey drives you're not taking — and where to stop on each one 

It's about the trip

I had an old boss who used to say it is about the journey, not the destination. I did not agree with everything he had to say, but he was right about that! I have appreciated that more as I have gotten older. When you are younger you just want to get there. But the best stuff is always along the way. New Jersey has been proving that to me for decades.

The turnpike gets the reputation. These roads have the soul.