Assiscunk Creek Park – Burlington, NJ

Assiscunk Creek Park – Burlington Township, Burlington County, NJ
Distance – about 3 miles of trails total
Type – connected loops with an out-and-back
Difficulty: 1 of 10

Website – Burlington Township Parks
Open – Sunrise to Sunset.

Terrain – Fields, woods, and pond
Surface – Paved, gravel, dirt, depending on stretch of trail

Trailheads – we started at  40° 4’9.65″N,  74°49’1.41″W, but also parking at the sports fields and the municipal complex.

Directions – 1200 Old York Road, Burlington Township, NJ

Parking – Tons of parking in three separate areas on York Road – where we parked at the end, at the sports fields, or at the municipal complex

Dog friendly? Yes, must be leashed and cleaned up after
Stroller friendly? Yes
Benches? Yes, scattered throughout.

Facilities?: Did not see any, but might be some open during sporting events.

Markings – None, but trails very clear.
Map – No map, but our track over most of the trail system:

Description –

It was supposed to pour that day, but, after what seemed like a thousand years of navigating freezing temperatures, sick kids, and/or rain, the Pres and Tree Rider NEEDED some outside time.  And so did their Dad.  So we flew up to Burlington Township to race the rain across the miles of trails of Assiscunk Creek Park.

Being up front, I expected very little from a trail system that looped around a bunch of ball fields and a municipal building.  But it was surprisingly nice!  The park is laid out in three pieces, separated by a walk by the road to get between them.

We started at the furthest down the road of the three, a relatively undeveloped (in comparison to the others) stretch that has a fish pond and a few dirt roads.

After a bit of exploring here, we headed to Old York Road, where we followed the trail along the road to the next part of the park – the playing fields.

Beautiful old house… not part of the park.

When we reached the second part, we took one look at the fields and kept on walking down to the third part of the park.

Now this looks interesting.

We decided that, despite this part of the park being fronted by the municipal building, it was well worth checking out if only for the veteran’s monuments.  The army, navy, marine corp, and air force were all represented here.

After this, we were back on the trail, past the veteran’s monuments, and heading toward the back of the pack.  We passed the parking lot and opted to head straight back and make a right, putting us between a row (an actual row) of trees and a row of bunches.

We realized that this trail would drop and cross a bridge back to part #2 of the park, so we opted for left, staying in part #3 and heading for the creek.  At the river side, we switched to a dirt trail that paralleled the paved one, but was about eight feet to the right.  We followed this until it rejoined the pavement and curved to the left.

Turn left to stay in the third part of the park.

Switch to the dirt trail.

We weren’t on pavement long, as a dirt trail split to the right and went to another overlook.  Then the dirt trail headed down until rejoining the pavement by the volleyball nets.  Here, we curved left into the picnic pavillion.

A quick jog left and right at the picnic pavillion put us on a short cut-across trail that took us past some cinderblock buildings and back to where we’d first left the parking lot.  We repassed between the row of trees and rows of benches, this time going straight, down the hill, and back into the second part of the park.

Not sure what this was… it’s big!

When the trail reached the second part of the park (this time at the back end, instead of by the road), we turned left, checked the weather app (rain in 25 minutes), and took a playground break.  Yay!

When Dad started to get nervous about the rain, we got back on the trail, heading away from the road and back toward the creek.  We arrived in just a few seconds, and headed right to parallel the creek back toward our car.  We arrived at a junction by the parking lot.

A trail went left here, and I thought it might cut behind that old house to rejoin part #1 of the park.  It did not, instead following a property fence before looping back toward the creek.  In three minutes, we’d circled back to the parking lot.

Realizing we had to cross the parking lot to reach the paved path by the road that we’d started on about 428 pictures ago, we did so.  We then turned left and headed back toward the first part of the park.  At the bridge, it began to rain.  Nooooooooo!!!

Now we aren’t what would EVER be mistaken for fast hikers, but I got the Pres and Tree Rider hiking faster than they had ever hiked before, and we made it back to the car before the skies really opened up.  Hooray!

In all?  Thrilled to get outside, beat the rain, and NOT BE STUCK INSIDE THROUGHOUT THIS STUPID DREARY RAINY WINTER!!!  Thanks Assiscunk Creek!

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