D&R Canal Biking: Lambertville towards Frenchtown
Opted for a bike ride since it was going to be mid-90s and sunny today and we hadn’t been for a ride in awhile.
We headed over to our favorite bike route… the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath. We usually park at Rocky Hill because it’s closer, but decided to head over to Lambertville because it had been awhile since we’d done that section.
It was so nice and breezy cruising along on our bikes. (We like rail trails and comfort bikes… we’re not that into mountain biking, and road biking in Jersey is… well… small shoulders and tons of whizzing traffic isn’t really our cup-o-tea)
The trail surface is level packed dirt or fine crushed stone, basically a rail trail. It is mostly shaded, and runs along the canal and river. On this section of the towpath, there are about 28 miles of trail… so you can get a real long ride in if you like. We prefer to bike the towpath, but it would make for easy hiking as well (more like walking really).
There are many parking and access points along the canal, as well as restaurants and shops in some areas, with the majority in Lambertville (and New Hope if you cross the bridge).There are also canoe/kayak rental further down the canal. This area is popular, especially around Lambertville, but as soon as you get a little distance from the main shops it thins out and you can really cruise along.
Route: 21.8 miles roundtrip starting in Lambertville and going north, turned around at a picnic table not quite at Warsaw Rd. View the route in google maps here.
MAP: Print out the maps and distance charts from the D&R Canal website. This map gives a overview of the whole towpath, while page 3 of this brochure has parking lots marked on it. The towpath is easy to spot, and the parking is usually right at it.
The whole park, both sides, the entire length plus enlarged sections can be found here. Friends of the Delaware Canal map.
Parking: We took 518W from Rocky Hill. From the North, 518 can be accessed from 206 or Rt 27. From Trenton you could take Rt 29 to Lambertville. We used the lot on Mt. Hope St which is a small lot, there are others on the map from the site. There is also a PDF that gives GPS coordinates of the parking areas. You can plug them into your GPS or right into Google Maps.
Lambertville is roughly an hour from central NJ, New Brunswick-ish area.
Restroom: None at the lot we started at, but in Lambertville you have several gas stations and a bunch of shops. Two porta-johns are at Prallsville Mill, right along the trail, about 4.2 miles north of Lambertville.
