I did this ride with my 9 year old son. The scenery on this trail is great. You pass through the swamps and over creeks. You are almost always shaded by the trees. There are plenty of park benches along the way if you want to stop and relax. The roads you cross over have very little traffic so you can cross feeling safe. Two bad things about the trail - 1. the riding conditions are difficult in some areas thanks to the people with ATV's tearing up the gravel and packed dirt road. As a result, many portions of the gravel portion where rocks were packed in are now loose and difficult to travel over. 2. You have to be very perceptive to where the trail crosses over. At some points may think the trail is ending, but it really crosses over and may change to a dirt.gravel or grass path. For me, the most difficult spot to follow the trail was going North at Railroad Avenue and Route 538. A local resident showed me that you go through the parking lot, cross the street, cross over about 150 feet of grass and then re-enter the path on a grass path between the woods. There's also a crossover at the Monroeville Fire Company that you have to go through their parking lot and to the left rear of the property to continue. Bottom line - start the trail at an end point and use your GPS to track how far you went. If you are stopping before you hit about 5.4 miles then the trail still continues.

Went down the trail today and it seems to be fixed. I can't speak for the last mile of the trail (near elmer) since my partner was having trouble and had to turn around. That said it was quite swampy. I didn't choose the best day to go (cold, winter, and after rainfall.) That said it was still a great trail. The road is dirt and hard packed gravel except where the trail was patched; it is loose gravel there. Eitherway it was a good ride through mild terrain, no real hills and the scenery is fantastic and I can't wait to go in the summer when everything is in bloom.

We started on the trail at the northern access point off of Rt. 538 on Labor day, just a week after Hurricane Irene came through. About 0.8 miles in is a small stream that completely washed out the trail from all the water of the storm. There was originally a 3' diameter, 10' steel culvert that was under the trail to channel the stream, but the water carried that 15' or so downstream. The washout left about a 15' gap from one side of the trail to the other. Luckily someone placed orange barrels on the north side, otherwise if you were not paying attention the drop from the trail to the stream was about 8'-10'.

We chatted with a local fellow and his son who came up to check it out on their quads, also saw another person on a quad and another on horseback

The stream was small at this point, so we went off the trail to the left, down to the water and forded it across - it was shallow but moving fast. We continued for another 1/2 mile or so and then encountered a number of fallen trees completely blocking the trail. We attempted to get around that but there is private property on either side (very well posted) and water channels all over that prevented us from going on further.

Very disappointing, but the actual trail we were on was very nice and we will go back. We were out of time so we did not try to enter from the southern access.

Hopefully there will be trail maintenance efforts - it looks like a great place for a ride.

I really enjoyd this ride. I entered at the North terminus and parked at the rear of the township recreation facility. Most of this ride, more that 90%, is under tree canopy, which made it extra enjoyable in the summer heat. At the end of the ride in Elmer, NJ, is the Elmer Diner, which was packed this Sunday morning. It's a great place to stop before the return ride back.

Elephant Swamp Trail is a hard-packed dirt trail. By US 40, the rocks and dirt are usually stirred up by the 4-wheelers that go through, but north of Island Road it's pretty nice and smooth. You can see the farmers at work, view the swamps and a rolling stream crossing. I usually chase a turtle or two off the trail for their safety, and once in a while a black snake...and sometimes I startle a deer! Pretty flat with some whoop-de-dos, it is easy for any mountainbike to negotiate. I have seen walkers up by the Elk Road entrance. The Elephant Swamp sections has markers for plant and animal life in the area, and a few benches to sit upon.

Hopefully this trail will survive the encroaching development in the area.