Andaloro National Wildlife Refuge – Westville, NJ

Andaloro National Wildlife Refuge – Westville, Gloucester County, NJ
Distance – Undetermined number of miles of trails – we did just over a mile (lollipop) and did not walk a number of trails that we saw.
Type – Web. We did a lollipop hike.
Difficulty: 2 of 10
Total score: 4 of 10

Website – None (is this even possible?)
Open – Sunrise to Sunset.

Terrain – Fields and riverside forest

Trailheads – 39°51’30.84″N, 75° 7’3.18″W

Directions – Located on Almonesson Road (Rt 621) near the intersection with Shetland Way.

Parking – A few odd parking spots on the dirt driveway at the WMA.

Benches – None
Dog friendly – Yes
Bathrooms/changing tables/etc – None
Stroller friendly – Seemed okay

Markings – No markings on any of the trails.

Map – Thank you to Billy Ezell for making a trail map for this one!

Description – This Spring has been very confusing.  Warm.  Freezing.  Warm.  Freezing again.  So when it got warm again, we burst out of the house and made straightaway for the nearest new hike – Andaloro National Wildlife Refuge in Westville.

I couldn’t find any info about this place online, so we just decided to go for it and hope for the best.  What we found was a mixed bag.

You’ll enter at a blocked off “road”, following that trail down toward the water.

The trail goes through a bunch of overgrown fields, with plenty of birds to check out along the way.  Several side trails branches out along the way, but we stayed to the main path.

After a good stretch, this brought us to Big Timber Creek.  Had some nice views and… a rope swing?

Apparently I didn’t get a picture of the rope swing, but it was there.  Once we hit the water, we turned right and walked along the bank, soaking in the nice views of the water (although the torn up areas directly across the way weren’t that appealing).

This trail looped back to the main throughway we’d started on, so we used that to head back to where we parked our car.

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While this was a nice little trail, the major thing it had going against it was the trash… I have never seen so much trash on a trail.  It was a truly absurd amount of trash.  Which was a shame.

Also, this hike was on Tree Rider’s 2nd Birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREE RIDER!!!