I rode allamuchy today, and the lot was much more crowded than normal yet I didn’t see a single person once I made the left off of the Sussex branch rail trail and into the woods onto singletrack. There were traffic cones with caution taped staged at the front of the lot, but were quite obviously pushed off to the side to allow cars in... I guess it was just the rangers way of preparing for the closure tonight.
I will say that this closure should be synchronized with the closure of parks in PA, NY, and DE. Now that the NJ parks are closed, all of a sudden an influx of visitors are gonna be crowding Harriman state park, port jervis and Blue Mountain in NY, Nockamixon, South Mountain, the Delaware water gap hiking trails, Neshaminy in PA, and white clay creek in DE. That just exacerbates the problem... NJ people who are supposed to be protected by this order will then be mingling in other parks with people from NJ and from other states, and all of a sudden these parks will see crowds increasing wayyy past what they’re already certainly experiencing. Because of this, It might actually be safer to Strictly enforce quotas on the number of cars allowed to be parked at a given park at any given time... this would keep NJ nature goers in NJ, and safely socially distanced from strangers. Of course that’s extremely hard to enforce, but I do believe this will lead to closure of parks in neighboring states that wouldn’t have needed to happen otherwise.