Earlier in the week, I decided to take a trip to Turkey Swamp Park in Freehold, NJ.  I’ve heard it’s a cute park surrounded by a small lake.

Turkey Swamp is just over 2,200 acres.  The major attraction is the 17-acre lake.  In the summer it’s used for fishing and boating. The park also features miles of trails and even an archery range.  While walking through, I wondered what kind of range it was but after googling found out archery (obviously, no one was practicing).

While I didn’t run through the park, you can.  Turkey Swamp actually hosts a trail series and even a looped marathon.  The trails are accessible and even if you don’t consider yourself a “trail runner”, you can run through.

In all, it was a fun few hours in the park, and I enjoyed the warmer weather.  This spring and summer, I want to get out to more parks in NJ and enjoy them.  I haven’t been to many down the shore so that’s where you’ll find me.

Two main trails join together and create about 5 miles of hiking.  The surface is mostly flat and dirt.

The shorter, Alder, is 1.6 miles and an easy loop around the lake.

What am I staring at…the world will never know.

The Longer, Manasquan Loop is about 3.8 miles from the Nomoco parking lot.  Both are easy to follow.

walking along the stream

In all, it was a great morning of relaxing before a busy day.  There weren’t any turkeys out, but I can’t complain about that.  There were, however, plenty of geese and their babies (which I had no interest to go near territorial geese…or any geese).

You can see other hikes I’ve done here.

Questions for you:

What are some things you want to do this summer?

Do you have a favorite park near you?