Rancocas State Park

Spent the first day of summer break exploring Rancocas State Park with the kid. Parked at the nature center and walked in from there. Wow, there are a lot of trails back there. I like the contrast of the meadows, the mature forest, and the swamps near the river all within a short walk of each other. I had just camped out at Bodine the weekend before, so the contrast between the middle of the pines and the very edge was also very interesting.

We did most of the trail that the nature center has to offer, and crossed the bridge to where I didn't have any map. The nature center map seems to indicate that this is part of the reservation lands (or was, before they were/are in the process of cutting them down), but it wasn't very clear. The kid ended up being attacked by biting flies (he was yelling, so I took him out of the pack, only to find blood running from where the bug was on his head. No wonder he was yelling), so we didn't get to explore as much as we would have liked, but still got a good 2 1/2 miles in. We will definitely be back to explore more when a) my kid stops taking his hat off or b) there are less bugs.

Pictures and GPS track and such.

http://southjerseytrails.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/rancocasstatepark/
 

Boyd

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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
Some nice pictures on your site. I have never been there. The Red Trail looks like a perfect place to be eaten alive by the chiggers pretty soon. ;)

The flies and mosquitos are just terrible down here now. But the warm weather is kind of a nice change of pace after a cool spring.
 
The other side of the rancocas state park, which is located in hainesport township, across the creek, and accessed by deacon road, is a great place to hike. During the summer the bugs can be horrifying, but otherwise the hainesport side has beautiful views, ruins of summer homes owned by philadelphians along the creek (ive seen the ruins and was told by my father who has researched rancocas history, i was unable to find anything about them on the internet) and maps are usually provided down the rancocas road entrance.
 

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