A hike around Swimming River Reservoir and Marlu Lake in Monmouth County.
We were looking for a hike that was relatively nearby and not too long, as we were going to be out late the night before.
Thompson Park (not to be confused with Thompson Park in Middlesex County) was on our list of “short hikes to check out”.
For complete hike info visit our main Thompson Park – Monmouth page.
I’d always thought this park was just a take-a-stroll, play-some-soccer kind of park until I stumbled upon it’s trail map online.
The longest trail on the park map listed was the Reservoir Loop, described as a 4.8 mile loop around the reservoir and lake, so we opted for that.
Overall, this hike was the right choice for a nearby park we could still get some miles in… but it traveled a lot more through fields and on grass than we care for.
It was also very sparsely marked, BLUE marker posts were only at some junctions. We could mostly tell where we were by looking at the map, but it required many stops to double check.
Also – no matter how I looked at our GPS data vs the park map – this trail is longer than the stated 4.8 miles.
And we cut it shorter and took the paved park path to avoid backtracking.
Maybe we are missing something here, and it wasn’t a big deal to us…. but 1.6 extra miles could be a bit of a surprise for someone.
Marlu Lake:
Miles: 6.4.
Trail surface mostly easy: forested areas have some roots, and some grassy areas were quite wet. Mostly flat, no big elevation changes.
Route: Reservoir Loop (BLUE) and Paved Trail
Wildlife Spotted: About a dozen or so turtles, and two Eastern Garter Snakes.
