Laurel Acres Nature Trail and Laurel Acres Park – Mount Laurel, NJ

Laurel Acres Nature Trail and Laurel Acres Park – Mount Laurel, Burlington County, NJ
Distance – I did 2.8 miles total with backtracking
Type – loop
Difficulty: 1 of 10

Website – Mt Laurel Parks Website
Open – Sunrise to Sunset.

Terrain – fields, woods, and a touch of swamp
Surface – Part in fields is paved, nature trail through the woods is dirt

Trailheads –
Trail head we used – N 39° 55.912 W 074° 55.850
Trailhead for nature trail (no parking at trailhead, have to use paved paths to get there) – somewhere around here – N 39° 55.792 W 074° 55.850
Trailhead by ball field lots – N 39° 55.810 W 074° 55.400

Directions – 1045 S Church St, Mt Laurel Township, NJ 08054. I parked here

Parking –

Dog friendly? Leashed dogs allowed.
Stroller friendly? Paved trails very stroller friendly. Dirt nature trails should work with a stroller with big wheels.
Benches? A few benches along the paved sections

Facilities?: Picnic pavilion, port-a-potties, playground, benches

Rules –

Markings – No markings, but trails easy enough to stay on

Map – No official map. My route:

Description –

It was June and I DIDN’T HAVE TO TEACH SCHOOL FOR LIKE TWO WHOLE WEEKS! It was also ten million degrees. But time off is time off, so I set off to try to hike some new trails.

One of those was Laurel Acres Park in Mount Laurel. I knew about this park since somewhere around 1999 when my buddy Pat and I tried to come here to watch a local band called SGR play, only to find out after driving around the park that the show was cancelled. My kids have been back a few times looking for geocaches or looking at the pond or going on the playground, but it took me until this hot day to finally check out the nature trail!

I’m not a complete idiot (only about 95% of one), so I was out here early and opted to walk the paved trails that were exposed to the sun first. It was still really hot. I parked, skirted the east side of the lake, and headed east toward the ballfield section. The lake is pretty, the hill was high, there was a nice memorial

Don’t worry, we’ll do the hill and the pond later. For now, we turned left at the junction and followed along the edge of the woods.

After taking in the scenic port-a-potties, we passed the dog park and the picnic area.

I veered right at the next junction (don’t know why I was using the royal “we” earlier in this post. We were not amused). This put put past the ball fields and the trail dead ends at the parking lot.

It was so hot. Did I mention it was hot? Parts of this summer were just brutal.

With no where to go but back, I turned around. When I reached the intersection, I headed right to circle the other side of the park that I hadn’t walked yet. It was mostly just the fields from the other side.

Went right, since I’d come from the left.

After passing through a line of trees, I walked past another parking lot and just about arrived back where I’d started the walk.

I cut left and summited the hill. Was, as always, a nice view.

Having looked at the lake from above, I was definitely ready to do a lap around it. So I made a lap around it counterclockwise.

Down the hill, across to the trail around the lake.

Nice playground, except the kids are home where it’s cool.

At about the 10 o’clock mark, I left the lake loop for the nature trail through the woods. An Eagle Project, of course.

It was noticeably cooler in the woods. A little buggy, but a ton of birds everywhere. The trail was out-and-back, but I could have made it a loop by walking out of the woods and looping back on one of the paved trails I took earlier (or walking around a baseball field and then doing that from the farthest reach of the trails). But I stayed in the woods. Because it’s so hot.

Entering the woods, I immediately went right.

Right goes a very short distance to the side of the stream.

Maybe two minutes later, I backtracked to the trail split, and took the left split.

Not the most spectacular nature trail in the world. No more water features (except puddles and mud). Some decent sized trees, but nothing crazy. BUT THE SHADE FELT AMAZING.

At the second split. I went left. It soon ended at the paved path we’d explored previously.

I backtracked and headed the other way.

At the next split, I headed left again. Again, left the woods pretty quickly, so backtracked and headed the other way.

Back in the woods, there would be no more splits, just a final walk to one more exit from the woods. This stretch featured some really loud birds. Really, really, really loud birds.