August 6 to August 10, 2023
The river you paddle runs through the rest of your life. It bubbles up in pools and eddies to remind you who you are.
- Lynn Noel
Our last camping trip for the summer season was to a new to us state park in Delaware. Trap Pond State Park is located near Laurel, Delaware in the southwest corner of the tiny state. The park's campground has tent sites, RV sites with water and electric hookups, cabins and yurts. There's a nicely stocked camp store, laundry facilities and the bath houses are some of the cleanest we've seen. The sites were large and spaced nicely apart so you didn't feel crowded in.
The park's namesake Trap Pond, at only 90 acres, is home to the northern-most naturally occurring stand of Baldycypress trees. The state park and pond are just a small part of the former Great Cypress Swamp covering parts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Large swaths of the swamp was drained for farming and logging, with only a few small sections remaining. Trap Pond State Park holds the largest section.
The park includes nearly 9 miles of water trails, and there are kayaks, canoes, boats and paddleboards available for rent. There is also a boat launch and several fishing docks along the pond's edge. You can also take a 1-hour guided tour of the swamp on a 28-foot pontoon boat on weekends. We absolutely loved the water trail in the swamp. It reminded us so much of the swamps in the Louisiana that at times we could imagine seeing gators slipping into the water to follow us.
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It's important to note that there is no swimming at Trap Pond due to the poor water quality of the swamp. However, there are walking trails and biking trails throughout the park, a Nature Center, and a day-use area including picnic areas, pavilions, volleyball courtws, horseshoe pits, a disc golf course, athletic fields and a playground.
During our stay we also drove to Rehoboth, Delaware, to take advantage of some of the bicycle trails in the area. We started at the Wolfe Neck trailhead for the Junction & Breakwater Trail built partly from unused rail lines. The trail winds through hardwood and pine forests, open fields and coastal marshes. The trail also connects with the Georgetown-Lewes Trail at its northern end, but we headed south to the Rehoboth Visitor Center and Grove Park.
From there we followed the bicycle lanes on the back streets to connect with the Gordons Pond Trail at the southern end of Cape Henlopen State Park in Rehoboth Beach. We followed the trail along the side of the 900-acre saltwater Gordons Pond, then turned around at trail's end across from the Biden Center (currently under renovation) and headed back the way we came, completing a 18.48 miles circuit.
Both of the trails are mostly flat with a mixture of paved, crushed stone and asphalt surfaces with some boardwalks, bridges and scenic lookouts along the way. The trail from Wolfe Neck south into Rehoboth wasn't very busy, but the route through Rehoboth and around Gordon Pond was very busy when we rode the trail in late morning. We had hoped to continue our ride and complete the northern end of the Junction & Breakwater Trail into Lewes and back, but it was getting pretty hot and humid, so we decided to save that end of the trail for another time.
We really enjoyed our stay at Trap Pond State Park, especially the water trail through the Cypress swamp and the bike trail around the pond. If you are looking for a nice quiet and relaxing escape, we highly recommend Trap Pond!
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.JPG "View from the trail")
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* All Photos and videos are the property of the authors except where otherwise noted. *
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