South Valley Woods – Moorestown, Burlington County, NJ
Distance – maybe 1 1/2 miles total
Type – lollipop with two options for the stick part of the trail
Difficulty: 1 of 10
Website – https://www.stemonline.org/southvalleywoods.html
Open – Sunrise to Sunset, but not accessible on school days during school hours
Terrain – Forest and swamp
Surface – dirt, gravel, or grass, depending on the part
Trailheads – N 39° 58.024 W 074° 55.694
TrailheadDirections – S Stanwick Road, Moorestown, NJ
Parking – A few spots at the edge of the school parking lot are labeled as parking for the trails
Dog friendly? Leashed pets allowed
Stroller friendly? No
Benches? None
Facilities?: None
Markings – Painted blazes
Map –
Official Map from S.T.E.M website
Map at trailheadDescription –
So I hiked a new-to-me trail to celebrate surviving my first week back teaching in September, only to remember I had been here twice before but hadn’t even written it up. Whoops!
So these photos are a mix of visits from 2020, 2023, and 2024!
This one starts out oddly, as the parking spaces are in a school parking lot. You aren’t allowed to park here during the school day while school is in session, so this is a good one for the weekend/winter/late afternoons/days when schools are closed. You head in at the trailhead (now with a big wooden map) and start down the Yellow blazed “stick” of the lollipop. This trail parallels, then crosses, the North Branch of Pennsauken Creek, little more than a trickling stream at this point.
POOF! The Pres and Tree Rider are back to being 6 and 8 years old. Back when it was MUCH easier to beat them in basketball.
Not sure if the conservationist names are still carved into the wood and I just missed them this time, but it was pretty cool in 2020 that this was on the bridge.
This eventually becomes the mighty Pennsauken Creek.After the bridges, the trail reaches the intersection. The way you came and both ways you can go are all blazed yellow. Either way you choose, you’ll be heading onto the Yellow Loop. In a bold a decisive manner, I chose left, for reasons.
Some awesome fungi!
Some not awesome poison ivy! Not a ton if it here, but watch out for the “hairy rope”.
The trail winds its way around to a slightly wetter area, which was perfectly dry during the “No Rain Second Half of the Summer 2024”, but may be less so when we actually have rain.
Some cool trees back here. This one is tall and has leaves.
Not much need in 2024…
Much more need for these in 2020.
When you are almost all the way around the loop part of the Yellow Trail, you’ll reach the other trail junction, this time for the White Trail. The White Trail is out-and-back looping to the back end of the school property. In 2020, we opted to explore that way, but backtracked rather than cutting across the school fields.
The water over here is also the North Branch of Pennsauken Creek that we crossed at the beginning of the hike.
The trails were much clearer when I explored in 2024.
Backtracking to the Yellow Trail, it’s a short distance to the first junction we came to. I chose left this time to head back to the parking lot. You can also choose right and do the loop over and over again like if NASCAR was with hikers instead of stock cars (but good luck getting someone to change your boots between laps). Overall, a fun way to spend part of an hour!
Nearby:
Moorestown has a TON of little trails to explore, like Boundary Creek, Waterworks Woods, Little Woods on the Rancocas, Swedes Run, Farrago Farm, Pompeston Park Woods, and the Susan Stevens Halbe Preserve.
