Red Clay Creek Trail

A work in progress, the Red Clay Creek Trail currently extends along the east branch of the creek for which it is named in Kennett Square. The trail, which has a crushed-stone surface of varying quality, begins in Anson B. Nixon Park in the borough's northeast corner and winds south along the creek, which it crosses three times, first at the YMCA, then two more times on a pair of footbridges. A small gap currently exists at the active East Penn rail line, which can be bypassed by taking a branch path that connects to Cedar Street, then turning south on Broad Street and heading back east on Birch Street. The trail then resumes along the east bank of the creek and continues to Kennett Community Park on the south side of town.

The trail will eventually be extended farther south into Kennett Township and to the Delaware border. From there, users will have the option of either continuing farther south toward Wilmington and the East Coast Greenway, or turning back north along the Parrish Trail, which will loop back to the borough along the West Branch of Red Clay Creek. Long-range plans call for this loop to be connected to other trails in the Philadelphia metro area, forming part of The Circuit.

Parking and Trail Access

Parking is available at Anson B. Nixon park (100 Waterworks Dr, Kennett Square)

running here is great

December 2020 lucelytapi

run here daily, short but peaceful trail

The Anson Nixon Park is nice

September 2017 joelkring

We started our ride from the Anson Nixon Park. I had printed out a map of the park and written out turn by turn directions for the road section and still found the trail difficult to follow. From the parking lot we descended past pavilion #5 and crossed the small bridge. A look at the map I had printed told me to turn left (there were no signs at the trail junction). After a short steep climb and a quick descent we came to the first road crossing. There were crossing stripes on the road but they did not align with where you could ride your bike off and on to the curb. The trail was very narrow at places as it seemed to be an after thought, "maybe we can squeeze a trail in here". Few road crossings were clearly marked. At one point the trail crosses under a road, the trail at this point is just wide enough for one bike and when riding you can't see if anyone is coming from the other direction. We have ridden 80 different trails this year so far and this one is near the bottom of the list.