Wells Mills County Park 12/6/09

[Daniela Wagstaff]

Wells Mills County Park is an absolutely delightful park. According to the signs posted no hunting ever in this park. Surprisingly, there are plenty of hills to climb and even ridges to walk along, something you don't generally find in the Pinelands.

It is very easy to get to. Exit 69 off the Garden State Parkway going either direction, left on Wells Mills Road (route 532) for 2.5 miles, park entrance on the left.

The park asks that you sign in and out. I assume if you don't sign out they come looking for you? The trails are so well marked I can't imagine getting lost there. The box to the right of the large map is where the sign in sheet is along with copies of park maps. The online printable map is also very good.

The building to the right of the large map is where the rest rooms are but they are closed off season. Your only option would be the Forked River service area at the 75 mile marker on the Garden State Parkway. Walk between the map and rest room towards the lake and you run right into the white blazed Penns Hill Trail. This trail loops around the park for 8.4 miles so we did this entire trail. Would have done a shorter trail also but my dog slid off of a boardwalk into the water and was soaked. It was 30 degrees. Brrrr.

There were plenty of boardwalks throughout the trail over swamps but still many wet areas, maybe because of the rain and snow the day before.

[njHiking.com]

You dog must have been so chilly! We tried going here over the summer but it was closed, we waited at the gate for awhile, tried calling the park office with no luck and then left. Looks like we missed a nice trail. We planned on heading back there soon, and now that you've just confirmed it is a no-hunting park, it sounds like a good candidate for a Saturday hike this hunting season.