Pennsauken Historical Society Nature Trail – Pennsauken, NJ

Pennsauken Historical Society Nature Trail – Pennsauken, Camden County, NJ
Distance – About 0.2 miles total (total out-and-back)
Type – out-and-back
Difficulty: 1 of 10
Total score: 2 of 10

Website – Pennsauken Historical Society Facebook
Open – Unsure of days and hours.  The Burrough-Dover House, run by the Pennsauken Historical Society, is open for tours the first Sunday of each month.

Terrain – Short path down to Pennsauken Creek

Trailhead – 39°58’27.20″N, 75° 1’6.24″W

Directions -9201 Burrough Dover Ln, Pennsauken Township, NJ 08110

Parking – Good sized lot, but unpaved

Dog friendly? Unsure, but not much of a walk for dogs anyway.  Definitely not allowed in the house.
Stroller friendly? No
Benches? No

Markings – None

Map –

Note: This trail is about 0.1 mile total.  The “loops” in the track are me angling to get a better shot around trees.  For serious.

Description – So I joined the Facebook page for the new Camden County History Alliance, which now conveniently brings announcements from 34 (and counting) local Camden County historical societies and groups into my Facebook feed.  Which is awesome.  And also terrible.  Because now I have even more events I want to go to.  Which is awesome.

The first post I saw was that the Pennsauken Historical Society was having an open house of the circa 1710 Burrough-Dover the very next day (Note: These are held the first Sunday of each month).  So the next day, I packed The Pres up in the car, and away we went.  We called my buddy Pat when we got there, because he lives literally two minutes away, so he joined us.

We headed in and got a tour of the downstairs and upstairs of the house, which has been run by the historical society since 1964 (fun little article about it from the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1991 can be found here).  It’s definitely a neat old house.  The nice lady running our tour seemed most interested in sharing about the collection of antiques they had in the house, but I certainly enjoyed the house itself more than anything else.  There are some interesting stories to go with the property, including the expansion in the 1780s, and how the last resident was a local school principal, who lived in the house without electricity or plumbing or even a stove into the very early 1960s, despite the housing developments that had  strung up all over town.

Nice tour, totally worth it if you are into a) old houses or b) South Jersey history.

But wait, what about hiking?

My ulterior motive in coming out was to check out the elusive, top-secret Pennsauken Nature Trail that is on the property, but about which there is zero information about anywhere.  If only someone had a terrible blog about hiking trails in South Jersey that would bravely explore these wilds and report back on them.  If only.

Upon walking it, we realized why its not advertised… it is the shortest trail this blog has ever covered.  It’s maybe 0.1 mile from the sign at the start to Pennsauken Creek.  There, you will find a really lovely view of the creek (seriously, did you see that reflection shot at the top of this post?).  Then, you turn around and come back.  That’s it.  The part in between isn’t particularly special.

I let The Pres use my phone to take pictures, then ended up not using my camera for more than one picture.  So all photo credits except the final creek shot go to my 4 year old.

Gate at the beginning of the trail.  Maybe I shouldn’t have let the four year old take all the pictures.

Plants!

A 4 year old’s view of the creek.

The photographer has small feet.

I took this one.  Seriously.  Although if the 4 year old took it, I’d probably still claim credit, because it came out nicely.

So it’s short, BUT the society is looking for volunteers to improve the trail, place some signs to label plants, and to make this a better experience.  So if you have a bit of free time, and are looking for a project, the people at the Pennsauken Historical Society seem like really nice folks and would love some help with their trail.  The view of Pennsauken Creek is really lovely.

Nearby – The very short  Fish House Cove Nature Walk (0.4 miles) and Cooper River Park (4 miles) are both found nearby in Pennsauken.

How did I write hundreds of words on a 0.1 of a mile nature trail?  I need a hobby.

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I know!  I could write about hiking trails in South Jersey!  That would be a great hobby!

This blog is getting really weird again.  Who lets this guy communicate with the public again?