When most people think of the New Jersey Meadowlands, they think: “ugly.” Yes, parts of the Meadowlands are hideous. But other parts are quite astonishing and strangely beautiful.

Get off of the Turnpike. Travel the backroads of the Meadowlands. Or take a kayak deep into the back channels of the Hackensack River. You can get lost back there in the dense wilderness of swamp grass.

But you are not in the Everglades. You are five miles from Times Square!

Climb the rocky outcrop known as Snake Hill, which is located in the center of the Meadowlands At the summit, you will view the breathtaking scene of a vast marshland ... interlaced by the serpentine Hackensack River ... the sweeping viaducts of the Pulaski Skyway and the Turnpike ... crisscrossing rail lines... and, of course, looming over it all: the Emerald City.

This is a view that -- in its own way -- is as spectacular as the view from El Capitan in Yosemite or Bright Angel Point on the Grand Canyon. Yet this is a view that is not contained in any tourist guide ... nor marked on any map.

Spend some time here. Watch the sun set over the New York skyline. You will be utterly alone. Five miles from Times Square – but a world apart.