Free Canoe Trips, Pumpkin Patch: Essex County Fall Enviromental Festival Rescheduled

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The Essex County Environmental Center’s annual Fall Family Festival had to be rescheduled from this past weekend due to, well, the environment.

Now, it will be held next month rain or shine.

It's free and open to all, with a petting zoo, canoe rides, a pumpkin patch, nature walks, and more.

It's "a great way to learn about the environment as you celebrate the arrival of fall," organizers say.

It will be held Sunday, Oct. 15, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Essex County Environmental Center, 621B Eagle Rock Ave., Roseland.

Visitors to the Fall Family Festival can go on canoe trips on the Passaic River or nature walks in Essex County’s West Essex Park, weather permitting.

There will be a petting zoo, gardening tips, a live beehive display, woodturning demonstrations, face painting, a pumpkin patch, an inflatable corn maze, Rizzo’s Reptiles Live Animal Show, What’s Out There Traveling Planetarium, display tables from a variety of eco-vendors and live music.

Partnering with the Environmental Center are New Jersey Audubon, Essex County Master Gardeners, Essex County Beekeepers, 4-H Club, Essex County Rutgers Cooperative Extension, New Jersey Woodturners Association and the Essex County Environmental Commission.

“The Fall Family Festival is a great opportunity to visit our state-of-the-art Environmental Center and meet our environmental partners,” said Essex County Executive DiVincenzo. “Take a walk in our pumpkin patch, learn about a variety of grassroots groups that work to protect the environment and paddle down the Passaic River at a leisurely pace."

See more details here.

Admission throughout the day is free, but vendor items will be for sale. For more information, please call 973-228-8776.

The Essex County Park System was created in 1895 and is the first county park system established in the United States. The Park System consists of more than 6,000 acres and has 23 parks, five reservations, an environmental center, a zoo, Treetop Adventure Course, ice skating rink, roller skating rink, three public golf courses, golf driving range, two miniature golf courses, five off-leash dog facilities, a castle and the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens.