#9: [30-May-22]

#8: [20-Feb-21]

#7: [15-Nov-15]

#6: [17-May-07]

#5: [26-Nov-04]

#4: [25-Oct-04]

#3: [10-Jul-03]

#2: [18-Oct-02]

#1: [12-Mar-00]

#10: [10-Aug-22] (incomplete)

09-Jan-2026 --

A few years ago, when we were in high school physics class together, Veronica and I found the Degree Confluence Project while slacking off, and ever since then we have wanted to visit one. This winter, while we were both on break from college, we decided to give it a shot. Since we’re from New Jersey, we thought this point would be a good start. It’s very accessible by car, so we took the Garden State Parkway down and got fairly close easily.

This winter in New Jersey was very cold, and we got a fair amount of snow, so we had been hoping to visit the confluence point when there was nobody on the golf course. Unfortunately, we put it off for too long, and since Veronica’s college break was ending in a few days, we ended up going on a day that was unusually warm. The snow had only melted a few days ago, and there were still some traces of it, but there was no chance the golf course wouldn’t be clear by then. It was overcast and dreary, but it was a Friday afternoon. When we passed a golf course on the drive down and it had golfers on it, we knew we wouldn’t be as lucky as we’d hoped.

We first approached from the North side of the golf course near the maintenance shed. Our original plan was to walk onto the golf course from there, get our pictures quick, and leave, but when we arrived we saw some golfers. We parked on the street nearby and walked over anyway, but decided to rethink our plan when we saw two “Posted - No Trespassing” signs. Since we didn’t see any employees around the shed, we decided to try the actual country club buildings.

We drove back around and parked in the large, main parking lot right in front of the buildings. By then, it was raining a little bit, which we thought would help our chances of not encountering golfers. Upon scoping out the area, when we couldn’t find the golf course entrance, we decided to just go inside the main building and ask. There were two entrances, but one of them (the one closer to the pool) seemed to be more central than the other. We entered through the central one and found ourselves in a fancy hallway. A little further down there was a reception stand (possibly for a restaurant) which had nobody standing behind it. We waited near it for a minute, until a man who seemed to be an employee walked in through the same doors we’d come from. I asked him if he knew where we should go to ask about the golf course, and he sort of waved us on and said “I’ll take you to the office”. He led us down another hallway to the left and past some fancy rooms that are probably used for event hosting, and we ended up in an office at the very end of that hallway, right near the other doors. It might be easier for future visitors to just use those doors and go straight to the office in the first place.

Inside the office, the man left us to a woman sitting behind a reception desk. When we told her that we wanted to go see a plaque on the golf course and take pictures of it, she looked skeptical and said she was concerned because there were golfers out there. When I asked if she knew about the plaque, she said she didn’t, so I showed her the picture Rainer had taken of it. After seeing that, she seemed a bit more convinced, and told us she would “call Joe” about it.

She told Joe that she had two people here with an unusual request, and explained that we wanted to go find a plaque and take pictures of it. They talked for a minute about that, and after they hung up she told us that Ryan would take us out on the course so that we wouldn’t get hit by any golf balls. She then explained to us how to get to where he would be: Go back through the parking lot towards the pool (to your left as you exit the building) then turn down the road at the end around the back of the pool until you find a circle with some golf carts parked around it. We followed her instructions and ended up in a paved circle where some golfers were either just starting or just finishing their games. By then, it wasn’t raining anymore. After we stood around looking confused for a minute, a man who seemed to be an employee approached us. We told him we were looking for Ryan, and he directed us into the building behind him and to the pro shop, where he said Ryan would be behind the desk.

Once inside the pro shop, we approached the desk and said that we’d been sent by the office. The man at the desk looked confused, but when we asked if he was Ryan he said that he was. He told us that the phone call had probably gone to someone in the front, and that he couldn’t physically take us out on the golf course (because he was working in the pro shop). At that point maybe we should have mentioned Joe, but we didn’t. Instead, we explained what we were looking for and he seemed to know what we were talking about. Despite being busy, Ryan took us outside and showed us the golf course entrance. He said he was just about to leave, and recommended that we come back on Monday, since the golf course would apparently be closed then. His only hesitation seemed to be that he didn’t want to have to walk us out there, so I asked if we could just go by ourselves and he said it was fine, as long as we made sure to not get hit by any golf balls, and to explain what we were doing if any members asked. He then explained to us how to get to the exact spot (go past the first 4 holes and it’s behind the bunker).

We started out walking on the winding paved path, wanting to follow his directions, but eventually we just ended up crossing the green (making sure there were no golfers on that hole first). It wasn’t a very long walk to the spot, and sure enough, we found the plaque a few feet away from the sand trap. As described in earlier visits, there is a small stone plaque in the ground marking the point, though our GPS indicated it was actually a few feet away. We took some pictures and then left fairly quickly, because there were golfers actively using the course and we didn't want to be in their way. In the end, we got off the golf course and back to the car without actually talking to any golfers, so hopefully we didn’t bother anyone. Luckily we left when we did, because a few minutes into our drive home, it started raining.

All in all, it was a fairly easy visit, since you can get pretty close by road, and then just talking to the staff. It would definitely be easier to visit when the ground is covered in snow, or when the golf course is closed.