Lenape Trail – Lake Worth County Park – Lindenwold, Camden County, NJ
Distance: Trail miles – 0.5 miles. With the green trail and some backtrack, we did just under a mile.
Type: Lollipop.
Difficulty: 1 of 10
Updated: March 30, 2020
Terrain –Lake and woods
Trailheads – 39°48’15.97″N, 74°57’55.16″W A few steps down the old road from the parking lot.
Surface – dirt
Dog friendly? Yes, on leash
Benches?: None
Stroller friendly?: Would be a tough one for strollers
Facilities? Picnic pavilion in middling shape
Directions: 1 Rosamont Ave, Lindenwold, NJ. Parking lot is on the right side at the end of the road.
Markings – Very occasional signs that are faded and hard to make out.
Parking- There is one parking lot just off of Rosamond Ave where we started our adventure.
Good size for a bunch of cars.
Description:
Lake Worth was an old swimming lake, and is fondly remembered by many in our area.
“An historical photograph of Lake Worth in the 1940’s with adults and children swimming and picnicking. Camden County Department of Parks, River to Bay Greenway spanning southern New Jersey and linking the Delaware River and Barnegat Bay.” Stolen from Facebook
While there isn’t a swimming that goes on here anymore (fishing is still popular though), Lake Worth has been bought out by Camden County, who has converted it into a nice little, and seldom visited, park. The trails here are short, you can maybe do a mile in if you explore enough, but there are some nice little surprises here for those who take the time to come visit. Instead of writing a whole new post, I’ll simply add in pictures from our further visits here, as we’ve been back three or four more times now.
It’s pretty too.
My hiking party seems to be growing over the years.
Original post from 2015…
Went to check this one out to celebrate the shortest day of the year. One of the fun things about this project is discovering parks and trails that you didn’t know about. I didn’t believe it until I got there, but I’ve driven right past this park (which has a good sized sign) hundreds of times and never noticed.
Follow the gated off road down maybe a dozen steps, and the trail will split off to your left. At the top of the trail is a a really, really faded sign that maps out the trails in the park (update: sign looks great now). I couldn’t tell much from it.
Down the old road.
The trail will split off to the left.
A no-longer-very-helpful map.
Now repainted… looks good!
I never figured out where the Rankokus Trail was supposed to be, but I imagine that we walked it, because the park just isn’t that big. Anyway, you’ll walk down the trail and, very shortly, there is a side trail to the right that leads to the picnic pavilion. Don’t take this one.
Side trail.
Goes here.
Only thirty seconds later, you’ll hit the intersection for the Lenape Trail. This trail is, as far as we could tell, not blazed. Once every great while there would be a nearly unreadable sign letting you know that you were still on the Lenape Trail. This trail is a loop, but I suggest hanging a right to start.
Lenape Trail sign.
Left.
Right. Go this way.
Almost immediately, you’ll hit Lake Worth. The trail turns right and follows the lake, crossing the dam, and continuing around the lake on the other side. Stick to the edge of the water on this side, the trail will become more apparent once you get to the side closest to the road.
Lake Worth.
Follow along the edge of the lake.
Another not-that-useful-anymore sign, although one of the clearest we saw.
Looking back where we just hiked.
From the edge of the lake.
Dan and The Pres are locked in the park. That’s okay, we have more trail to hike.
Now on the other side of the lake.
As promised, the trail gets more apparent here, although still not marked.
You’ll continue along the lake’s edge for a while, walk through a hole in an old fence (this IS the trail, although I had my doubts at the time), then drift gradually further away. When you hit an intersection, you’ll turn left and follow the trail down to the stream.
Well, I know we went the right way.
Onward.
Just at the intersection.
The stream is the most challenging part of the hike. It was just a little too wide to jump with The Pres, and there is no footbridge (update – there is now a bridge). Instead, we balanced along a log to cross over. For the record, The Pres went over far steadier than I did. Sometimes it’s hard to be the one who isn’t a toddler.
I love an adventure.
We made it!
Still, it’s easier this way in 2020.
Shortly after this, you’ll finish your circuit of the Lenape Trail.
We poked around a bit (went to see the pavilion), but from here it would be a right turn on the trail that you came in on, which takes you back to within site of the parking lot. We did about a mile, all told.
the lake is very pretty.
no bridge over the stream, markings are poor
There’s a park down there. I went to Google Streetview and realized that I too have seen that sign but never thought much about it. Thanks, we’ll try to get there sometime. My wife occasionally has doctor appointments not too far away and I look for something to occupy the kids.
Enjoy!
My dad grew up here and spent some childhood days here! Thank you for bringing it to life! Lovely pictures ans well-thought article!
By the way, it’s ROSEMONT Avenue — WITH A “T”, NOT A “D”. And it’s in CAMDEN County, not Cape May County.
Thanks for picking up on those Keith!
No trouble at all,,, I pass by the lake on New Freedom Road all the time but I’ve never gone there. I like the Gibbsboro Greenway & Bikeway Network — “Blueberry Hill” to me because I start from the cul de sac at the end of Berlin Road, which is a good place to start — plenty of room to park. Anyway, Lake Worth CP is not more than a mile away from our house. Maybe some volunteers would like to do some trail maintenance there, or in Berlin Park (the ‘wild’ part)… Help me!
Trails at Lake Worth should be in decent shape, one of my Boy Scouts did six days worth of invasive plant removal over six months last year, as well as put in all new signs.
Berlin Park is a little rougher, I’m hoping that the work they are putting into the end by the Mart will make its way up to the other end, but I have my doubts. Any idea what sort of permission you need to get to do trail maintenance in a county park?
1) Great, I didn’t know if any had been done or not. Thanks! 2) Not really. I took a pair of pruning snips over to the trail across from the medical offices to make it easier for me to enter to ride the dirt road (it was really becoming overgrown!), and I sent a message to the township via their website requesting that the vegetation on the park side of Cross Keys Road be trimmed back so leaving the park across from the medical offices does not require you to “take your life in your hands” to cross the road! I’m not holding my breath, though… (I think the only work so far has been spreading mulch on the dirt road and dumping some dirt on the “back road” to stop through traffic, but no “trail maintenance”.) I would just like to see the trails kept open for easy hiking and biking access. I think they will be happy to accept volunteer help.
Hi, we visited Lindenwold in 1967 and spent several days around Lake Worth. Thee reason for our visit was to meet up with my dads uncle and cousins whom came over from Wigan England after the Second World War . Though all are now passed I’m sure some of their family must still be in the area and would like to get in touch. Though my recollection of the time is a little vague I do remember the days at Lake Worth.
Is his lake worth that used to have the sliding boad in the center of the lake, the diving board on the edge, footboats in the back and poles inthe middle,of the lake (not sure what they were for). I was only a child so it is hard tor call where it was.
Hi Rob,
Yep! It’s a county park now without much to it other than the nature trail and the lake, but from what I hear it was quite the place to go to in its heyday.
Lake Worth was a great place to go when I was a kid in the late 50s and early 60s. My Dad and other families and friend would drive right up to one of the numerous picnic tables close to the lake and stay for the day. Us kids would swim in the lake which back then had a sandy beach on the pavilion side. There was a very large (about 15 feet high) sliding board in the water that dropped you into the lake. There were diving boards on the dam which unfortunately I was to young for. While we were playing, our parents would start grilling lunch or dinner on charcoal grills. Great childhood memories!