Fish House Cove Nature Trail – Pennsauken, NJ

Fish House Cove Nature Trail – Pennsauken, Camden County, NJ
Distance –  About 0.2 of a mile one way (o.4 rought trip)
Type – Out-and-back
Difficulty:  1 of 10

Updated – December 9, 2018 – added a pair of articles by Paul Schopp detailing the fascinating history of this little corner of Pennsauken.

Website – None
Open – Sunrise to Sunset.

Terrain – Marshland (boardwalk over top!)

Trailheads –  39°58’12.86″N,  75° 4’2.60″W (cross tracks to get there)

Directions – 421 Cove Rd, Pennsauken Township, NJ 08110

Parking – Large lot next to Tippins Pond, across the railroad tracks from the trailhead.

Standouts – Beautiful marsh walk to a view of the Philly skyline.

Dog friendly? Yes
Stroller friendly? Yes (nearly all boardwalk)
Benches? None
Facilities?: None

Markings – None, but its on a boardwalk.  If you notice you are standing in water or mud, you lost the trail.

Map – None

Description –

I stumbled across a mention of a nature trail at Tippins Pond while traipsing through the internet, but couldn’t find any information on it anywhere.  Time to lace up those explorer boots and do some some digging.  So, a few months ago, on the way back from another hike, we poked around Cove Road and easily located the trailhead.  It was already dark, but we came back last week to get some hiking in!

To start, the trail is VERY short, less than a quarter mile one way (about 0.4 miles out and back).  It follows a well constructed boardwalk through the marshes.

At the end of the boardwalk, you’ll find a viewing platform.  This is a great place to watch for birds (we had a heron fly very close) and to admire the view of Philly across the Delaware River.

Then, it’s simply back the way you came.

Once you’re back in the parking lot, walk down to the end of it and out to Tippins Pond.  This isn’t really a hike (it’s maybe 0.1 of a mile from the edge of the parking lot to the end of the pond where the dock is), but you can walk out on the fishing pier for a nice view of this small pond.

You may have noticed the old tavern on the way to the parking lot, the first and nearly last remains of the village of Fish House that stood on this spot starting in the early years of the United States (although that building was moved a century ago).  While, “Today, the settlement of Fish House is almost just a memory…”, you can still learn about it by reading a pair of articles by local South Jersey historian Paul Schopp – “Fish House Post Office: Camden County, NJ” from the September 2001 newsletter of the New Jersey Postal History Society (the article can be found here, it starts on the third page of the PDF file) and in an article titled “Fish House History” posted on Geocaching.com.

Take a look at the Vinnell Tavern next door on Cove Road, one of the oldest buildings in Pennsauken!

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And a few pictures of what it looks like in the Spring…

Overall recommendation – There are a lot of good hikes along the Route 130 corridor.  While probably not worth it as a stand-alone hike, it’s worth tacking it onto another nearby hike, like Palmyra Nature Cove