West Deptford Scenic Trail – Thorofare, NJ

West Deptford Scenic Trail – Thorofare (West Deptford), Gloucester County, NJ
Distance – 1.1 mile total
Type – Loop trail
Difficulty:  1 of 10
Total score:  5 of 10
Updated: 3/16/20

Open – Sunrise to Sunset.

Terrain – meadows, woods, and swamp

Trailheads –  39°51’6.16″N,  75°11’40.26″W

Trailhead

Directions – Small gravel road off of Riverwinds Drive, just past Sandpiper Lane, but on the opposite side of the road.

View of the entrance from the lot.

Parking – Good sized lot

Markings – Signs marked “trail”

Map –

Description – On a recent hike at Woodbury Creek Park, I noticed a canoe launch (which led to me canoing Woodbury Creek later). With some digging, I found out that you could pull out at the Riverwinds in Thorofare. While on Google Earth checking it out, I noticed a trail nearby. A quick internet search turned up very little information on it, except for Yummygal’s South Jersey History and Adventures, who loved this trail.  If it’s good enough for Yummygal, it’s good enough for us, so the next day we headed down to hike it (and now we’ve been back a few times since)!

Getting there wasn’t as much of a problem as I’d thought, the road into the parking area isn’t labeled, but I didn’t miss it going past (which is unusual for me, I circle trailheads like a turkey vulture circling road kill).  The trail turned out to be a well mown, well kept loop through a varied area of meadow and forest with a little swampy area thrown in.

If you start to the left, the first half of trail is all meadows.  This is littered with the type of insects that I like  – butterflies and dragon flies.  Sadly, I left my real camera at home, so no pictures of any of them.  The trail curves along , turns right, and will head into the woods.

Start of the trail.

Just hanging out for the hike.

Along the way are some nature identification signs.  Some of them are in good shape, others have disappeared over time.  Hopefully they get replaced at some point, because the ones that were there were very good.

Also, there is supposed to be a short split off trail along here somewhere with views of Woodbury Creek, but we missed it somehow.

Learning (Update – most of these signs are now gone).

Black Oak the sign is refering to.

Parts of the trail are covered in briars, which have berries. One of the signs said these were good to eat, but the Pres and I weren’t big on the taste, and spit them out.

Roughly halfway around the loop, the trail will head into the woods.  This is nice because of the shade, but also because it makes the first and second halves of the trail very different from each other, which is great on such a short trail.

Trees!

Obligatory summer of 2015 microburst blowdown. This one wasn’t too tough, and there was only one more on the trail, the second even easier to navigate.  These were cleared later.

While I appreciate proselytizing, please not on trees and signs on a nature trail.

Oh man, five years later, one of these kids is not a baby anymore and the other exists now.

Second blow down.

On the third leg of the four sided trail, there will be another little side trail to a small pond, where you can search the water for frogs and such.  Tree Rider was trying desperately to crawl into the water (it’s his thing), so I didn’t manage to snap a picture.

After rounding the final curve of the loop, the straightaway is another lovely patch of meadow.  Some nice flowers here, and lots of small birds.

The trail will put you right into the parking lot, couldn’t be any easier!

Nearby – Riverwinds Park has beautiful views of the Delaware.  From the end of the parking lot, turn right on Riverwinds Dr, make a left onto Eagle Point Rd, and drive until you hit a parking lot or drive into the river, whichever comes first.