Pennington Loop Trail, NJ

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Pennington Loop Nature Trail - NJ Trails Association

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 40.33294, -74.78492

Parking at Kunkel Park

TRAIL MAP: 

Pennington Loop Nature Trail Map - NJ Trails Association

Note that the trail colors indicated on the  map are incorrect. There is only one blue-blazed trail as shown below.  The rest of the trails (yellow and orange) exist but are unmarked.  There is no green trail, it is marked in blue.

HIKE DISTANCE:  3.4 miles

Hiked together with Woosamonsa Ridge Preserve - 2.6 miles (10 mile drive)

THE HIKE: 

From the parking lot, a grand entrance to the Pennington Loop Trail.

The trail starts out unmarked.

After rock hopping a creek ...

... the blue-blazed Pennington Loop Trail begins.  I kept to the right to go around counterclockwise.

Coming up on ...

... Baldwin Lake.  I crossed the dam on the right ...

... to it's end on the other side of the lake ...

... then retraced to continue on into Baldwin Lake WMA at the sign on the left. A short distance in blue turns left (would be coming back to that later) and to the right is the woods road along the lake.

Wood Ducks

At one point a fox darted across the trail right in front of me, too fast to snap a shot.  On the return route I saw him go around a bend up ahead and missed that, too.

The woods road along Baldwin Lake comes out on Main Street at a parking area.

To form a loop you can presumably turn left then into the residential area to come back out on the blue trail but I prefer the woods so I retraced.

The parking lot consists of a turn around loop and I would guess you park on the grass to the left?  There would only be room for a couple of cars.  The Kunkel Park lot was a much better choice.

At the intersection with blue with the dam on the left, I turned right to continue on blue.

What is shown as a yellow trail on the map (actually unmarked) is to the left.  It is not as well-defined as blue but it doesn't go near the residential area so I turned left.  

It's passable, just a lot more narrow.

This trail comes back out on blue where I turned left.

After rock hopping back across the creek I stayed left on unmarked heading back to Kunkel Park.

Stony Brook, pretty dry at this time.

A grand exit from the trail back into Kunkel Park.

Right across the grass back to the parking lot.

I don't eat eggs but heading to Woosamonsa Ridge Preserve I passed a couple of egg stands.  My son prefers free range farm eggs so I bought a couple of cartons for him since I had a cooler in the car.

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