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Estelle Manor Park
Mays Landing, NJ
Summary: Easy romp through the Pine Barrens that includes a long and rather nifty section of boardwalk on the Swamp Trail.
This area was used as a munitions plant in WWI, check out some history and photos on the Bethlehem Loading Company page.
Trail surface: Super easy - flat, level, packed sand – this loop is moderate only due to length. This park is more of a 'hey let's go for a walk or have a picnic" kinda park and not a really a hiking-focused park but it's still worth a visit if in the area.
The trails are multi-use, plus the north end of the park contains mountain bike trails. Bikes can even be rented from the nature center. The flat wide trails could be nice option in the winter when there is snow cover.
- This route: 6.5 miles.
- Shorter: Woods roads crisscross the entire park, allowing for many options.
Suggested 4.0 loop: Take the Swamp Trail at the start, and skip the entire south section of this route. Noted in bold in the directions below. - Longer: Route could be potentially be extended by hiking the Duck Farm loop in the mountain bike in the north end of the park, but we didn't so we don't know how if it would be worth it.
- Bonus: The Swamp Trail Boardwalk is a 1.8 mile fully accessible elevated wooden nature trail.
Note: Ticks are utterly in love with the Pine Barrens... so be prepared for them. For the most part, trails here were pretty wide and not brushy however.
Map: There were paper maps inside the nature center or print the Estelle Manor Trail map from the Atlantic County site.
Books: A similar but shorter route appears in "Hiking
New Jersey"
Parking: N39 23.895 W74 44.565
Garden State Parkway South to exit 38A for Atlantic City Expressway W, toward Camden/Philadelphia. Exit 12 for Rt. 40W. Left onto 50S.
Park entrance is on left, there is a sign.
Restrooms: Bathrooms in the nature center.
Hike Directions: The trails are not really blazed, there are some directional signage at junctions... but it's rather vague. We use the trail names in the description below to match up with the map, but a lot of the time the trail will not be marked with a name. For this route the map is really needed to follow along.
ROUTE: Pond Trail - Exercise Trail - Point Trail - Cribbers Road - Swamp Trail - Smokeless Powder Trail - Duck Farm Trail - North End Trail
0.0 - The Pond Trail starts behind the nature center. When walking out of the front door, turn RIGHT and then RIGHT again on a path. Ahead is a big wooden trail sign.
After the sign, bear RIGHT where the path forks, toward the exercise trail. To the left is the Swamp Trail Boardwalk.
[*If doing the "shorter" 4.0 mile loop, turn LEFT onto the Swamp Trail boardwalk instead.]
0.3 - Pass a signpost for the Pond Trail/Laurel Trail on the left.
0.4 - Veer right/straight at the big wooden trail sign with a blue number 5 on it. [Laurel Trail goes to the left. A picnic area is on the right.]
At some point the trail becomes the Exercise Trail.
[VARIATION: At about 0.5 there should be a Nature Trail which goes through the Glassworks, on the right. We didn't spot the turn for it and opted to just go to the Center Trail to make these hike directions easier. However, it must be through the parking lot and towards the building ruins seen across the way. This Nature Trail should meet up at T at 0.8 below, and then you could take Center back and continue.
0.6 - Turn RIGHT onto the Center Trail, which intersects the Exercise Trail. Immediately cross the park road (Purple Heart Drive) and continue straight to a T.
0.8 - Turn LEFT at the T and walk over to the Stephens Creek observation deck.
Retrace your steps, go back over the road, and back to the intersection of the Center Trail and Exercise Trail. Turn RIGHT and continue on the Exercise Trail.
1.3 - Turn RIGHT onto the park road. Veterans Cemetery is in front of you. Turn LEFT and walk along the park road towards a playground and soccer field. The road curves around to the left.
1.4 - Just after the field, turn RIGHT onto Point Trail. This was very hard to spot and not marked until we walked several feet in and spotted a white marker nailed to the tree. Follow this in to the Native American Village.
1.6 - The Native American Village is the area just as the path starts to curve towards the left. There was a bird/bat shelter on a tall pole.
We walked straight back, past some wooden frames and such. Not a lot to see here, perhaps something is set up seasonally.
1.7 - Keep walking back to the edge of the marshy area for some neat views. The marsh prevents going any further so backtrack to the pole and continue along the path (heading to the right).
2.1 - Oak Barrel Trail is on the left. (not marked). Continue straight. At this point, the map lists the path as on as Cribbers Road.
2.4 - Cribbers field. We turned LEFT and walked over to the observation blind that overlooks Cribbers Field, then walked back here and continued on.
2.9 - Cribbers Road ends at a T, after curving left. Turn RIGHT at this T-intersection to start on the boardwalk Swamp Trail.
[*If doing the "shorter" 4.0 mile loop, the Swamp Trail boardwalk will turn LEFT here. Proceed to follow the rest of these directions]
There are a few lookouts over the South River, off the right side of the boardwalk. Note: trail names and directions are along plaques on the boardwalk
4.4 - At the end of the boardwalk make a short side trip to the LEFT to check out the small Smith/Ireland Cemetery with graves dating in the 1800s, then walk back to where you were. There are some other ruins here, and the large tall one is of an Artesian Well.
[optional: behind the cemetery are picnic tables if you'd like a break]
4.6 - With the Artesian Well on your right, and large open intersection with a park road, continue straight on the dirt road.
4.8 - Continue past the gate onto Smokeless Powder Trail. [A path also curves off to the left.]
5.0 - Continue straight and ignore the sharp left turn, as that is a mountain bike trail.
5.1 - Trail ends at a T with Duck Farm Road (a woods road). Turn LEFT.
5.2 - Duck Farm woods road curves to the left at a parking area.
Now it's a long straight walk back on North End Trail, a woods road.
5.9 - Pass signs about the munitions plant, and building remains.
Pass many trails on the left that were once roads when this was a munitions plant. Some are marked, and many have fun names like "TNT Road".
6.4 - Turn RIGHT onto the park road. There will be several park buildings in the area. Walk a short ways back to the nature center and parking lot, which will be on the left.
Hiked: 1/7/12
