Downs Farm Trail – Cherry Hill, Camden County, NJ
Distance: By walking all the loops, we did over a mile
Type: Interlocking loops
Difficulty: 1 of 10 (very well marked and maintained trails)
Terrain – Small hills, woodlands.
Trailheads – At Burnt Mill Road and Walt Whitman Blvd. Must park in neighborhood, NOT Burnt Mill Road. 39° 52.117’N, 75° 0.382’W
Trailhead. I had parked in the neighborhood behind me.
Markings – Well marked trails on posts.
Map – Map available here
See?
Description: I had not been on a roll of late (see also: Cherry Valley Non-Trail and Earlton North Trail). I was expecting more disappointment from another local Cherry Hill Trail – the Downs Farm Trail. With my expectations low, I was was pleasantly surprised by this small Green Acres Tract area, especially in its Spring bloom. The trails are easy to follow, and interlock in loops. It was a nice day, so The Pres and I walked all the loops, because why not? We saw lots of flowers, a lovely stream, and a train going by out of the nearby PATCO station.
Flowers.
R.I.P.
More flowers.
The trail isn’t always very wide.
Nice trees.
Stream.
Train. Or “Choo choo” rather, depending which one of us you ask.
Nice little walk in the Spring!
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Stream, large trees, train station.
Road noise, dangerous to cross road to trail
Well, I was in the area yesterday, and had some free time, so I checked this out. Not a bad set of trails; I’m sure they are excellent in the springtime, but early fall isn’t too bad either! 🙂 Once again, the map I have (which I didn’t have with me) may be a slight bit outdated (i.e. the Green trail on the map link you have is actually longer than on my map; however, I did happen to see a trail that wasn’t blazed which looks like it would connect with the Green trail as shown on your map link. But, I simply followed the signs, so for some reason, the Green trail was shortened. I agree that overall, the trails were excellently marked…all but one of the Orange trail markings. According to the map, the Orange trail should begin soon after crossing the Red trail junction — now…at one point, there *was* a sign showing the Yellow trail continuing straight; I wonder if there was originally an orange marker here as well (which pointed to the left) that was taken down; also, I didn’t really notice anything that would resemble a trailhead. However, I eventually did see an orange marker further up (on the Yellow trail). Thinking that this was perhaps the “first” orange marker, I headed down the trail, and came to a junction; I didn’t see a marker telling me to go straight, so I made the left turn (once again, figuring I had started at the “first” marker) and continued in a counterclockwise direction (heading down towards the creek.) It seemed to be a “valid” trail at first, but then there’d be spots where it seemed like a dead end (while in a near-swampy area near the creek & PATCO tracks). But then I’d look more closely and seemed to pick up the trail, and eventually headed uphill and ultimately linked to where the Yellow trail ends and the Red trail picks up. Essentially, I sort of “made up” my own trail/path, since when I looked on my map later on, I discovered that I should have originally continued straight on the Orange trail and went clockwise. Hmm…you know, with the addition of a small boardwalk in the “swampy” section I was in, the route I took could be made into a new trail…perhaps Blue? Anyway, with my own little adventure, along with the other trails, I enjoyed this set of trails!