Trail Review: Fair Hill’s Red Trail

The weather, getting as nice as it has been, necessitated another trip out into Fair Hill. This time I went to the other side, near Cherry Hill to explore what the Red Trail had to offer. Sort of disconnected from the other trails, the Red Trail is an eagle project completed by Eagle Scout Jimmy Moore of Newark’s Troop 205. So I want to start off by giving a little bit of a shout out from one Eagle Scout to another- your project was awesome. Not to give away too much about the review, but you know it is a good sign when it has an Eagle Project attached to it.

The Red Trail is a 2.5 mile loop that starts here in this field. With as beautiful of a day as it was on the day I took this picture, it gives you feeling of a desktop background. After walking through the field, the trail could not be easier to follow. It is very clearly marked with Red blazers at any turn, intersection, or other obstacles that you would want a direction of travel. Additionally the trail is well defined and at no point makes you wonder which way it goes, it combines with no roads in odd places, nor does it randomly change size or direction. It flows as you would expect it to in the loop.

It crosses streams several times as you make your way through the forested sections of the trail. At each crossing there are these cool stepping stones that make it easy to cross the stream and make for a really cool experience. Several times through this hike, it feels like a story-book kind of hike. Walking through a tunnel of gnarled tree branches and jumping from stone to stone as you cross the stream definitely give you childhood sense of adventure.

Overall Rating:

-Best Part: The cool features like the tree tunnel and stream crossings.

-Worst Part: Mud. Not that it was a huge problem, but I had to have a worst part I guess.

-View: Unique and worth the hike.

-Difficulty: Easier side of Moderate. It definitely has some spaces of elevation, but the length is very manageable.

-Recommendation: Awesome after work hike. Highly recommended.