1808 Trail- Sand and Water Trail – Batona Loop – Wharton State Forest, Washington Township, Burlington County, NJ
Distance – 7.2 miles total
Type – Loop
Difficulty: 3 of 10
Website – https://nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/parks/whartonstateforest.html
Open – Sunrise to Sunset.
Terrain – Swamps, forest, meadows
Surface – Dirt
Trailheads – 39° 38.620’N, 74° 38.812’W – Trail starts behind the Batsto Visitors Center. Go through the gap in the rail fence to the left of the kiosk and cut south-southwest across the field, looking for the post with the orange blaze to get you on track.
Directions – 31 Batsto Road, Hammonton, NJ 08037
Parking – Large lot at Batsto. PLEASE NOTE YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PARK ON THE ROAD INTO BATSTO (very originally named Batsto Road)!
Dog friendly? Yes, leashed dogs allowed
Stroller friendly? No
Benches? There are a few, widely scattered benches along the trail.
Facilities?: Bathrooms available at Batsto. Outhouse available at Buttonwood Campground.
Rules – usual state park list of rules
Markings – blazes on trees and marked posts.
Map –
Description –
I’ve had my eye on this one since a post came out about it on the Quaker Ranter blog, but life kept getting in the way and I kept putting it off. A push from my friend Bruce recently finally, finally got me to go, and I can’t believe I waited as long as I did.
Due to another project, I’m going to try something different (for me) with this review – a bunch of photographs without my usual dopey comments and side remarks. The cedar swamps speak for themselves. Just really, really quietly.
HUGE thank you to the Outdoor Club of South Jersey for their amazing work developing this trail.
Keep right to get onto the Green 1808 Trail.
Head north on the Batona.
Turn left at the large sign for Batsto. NOW you should go check out the village.
Nearby: Lots of trails at Batsto, including the Batsto Lake Red, White, and Blue trails, the Toms Pond Trail, and the 52.7 mile Batona Trail.
Cedar swamps, bridges, and more cedar swamps.
This one is sure to be buggy certain times of years, beware.
It really is a special trail. It’s amazing to be so immersed inside a cedar swamp.
I did some trail running there recently and it’s fun and challenging but you really have to respect the terrain and be willing to go really slow over some of those rustic bridges.
I like that there’s different options to this one. Yesterday we needed to get out of the house and did the 2-mile loop which only transverses part of the 1808 then spurs back to the Batona. I e also done the 7 mile out-and-back to Buttonwood. It looks like you did the even longer loop to Buttonwood and then up the old Crowleytown Road to Batona and back to Batsto. All of the routes are great.