Estell Manor Park
Directions
Garden State Parkway South exit 44; right on Route 575; continue for almost 6 miles. Right on Black Horse Pike briefly cross through intersection then right on jug handle to Route 40 West; continue on Route 40 West for 4.9 miles. At stop light at T-intersection at Mays Landing Marina, turn left on 40 West/50 South briefly then left on Mill Street/Route 50 South for 3.7 miles to park entrance on left.
Park Overview
Atlantic County’s most popular park with level packed sand trails in a scenic setting along the west bank of the Great Egg Harbor River.
Trail Overview
Be sure to print out a by using the Web Map link on this site, or pick up a copy at the Nature Center. Trails are named on the map but intersections are not always identified with trail names. Trails are all blazed with identical white diamond metal markers on trees, so it may become difficult to differentiate between which direction to take without a map.
Trail names like “Gunpowder,” “Smokeless Powder,” “TNT Road,” and “Purple Heart Drive” are reminders of the park’s history as a site for a WWI era munitions factory -- the Bethlehem Loading Company -- from which the nearby town of Belcoville derived its name. Twenty-four miles of railroad track were laid at the time, some of these rail beds have since been converted into the flat, packed sand pathways characteristic of the park. Ruins of the munitions plant remain to this day.
The 1.8-mile Swamp Trail Boardwalk, beginning at the Nature Center, is fully accessible. The 1.5-mile exercise trail with exercise stations along the way also starts here.
Click for a detailed description of a hike in the park.
Park Description
This is Atlantic County’s most popular park and offers a wide variety of recreational activities from boating and fishing, camping and picnicking, to hiking and biking.
Bound by Route 50 to its west and Great Egg Harbor River and South River to its east, Estell Manor’s trails offer hikers a variety of habitats consisting of mixed woods and low growing shrubs, mixed swamps and tidal wetlands together with an incredible diversity of plants, birds and mammals.
The park’s Warren E. Fox Nature Center sponsors environmental education and recreation programs (use Contact Information on this site). The center even loans out bicycles without charge -- hikers, if they choose, can scout out a hike on a bike beforehand.