Muddy Run Preserve & Lockatong Recreation Area

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Muddy Run

The 66-acre Muddy Run Preserve borders Lockatong Creek, a tributary of the Delaware River. It encompasses hayfields, forested areas, and wetlands. Nearby, the Lockatong flows through the seven-acre Lockatong Recreation Area.

The property provides wildlife habitat, watershed protection, flood control, groundwater recharge, proximity to other preserved properties, and recreational opportunities.

Muddy Run features a marked 3/4-mile trail. There is a graveled parking area near the HLT preserve sign on Kingwood-Locktown Road (see below). Make sure to stay on the graveled area when parking to avoid getting your car stuck in the mud. (The preserve does live up to its name!)

Hunterdon Land Trust owns the property, except for a portion shared with the New Jersey Water Supply Authority.

Lockatong Recreation Area

Lockatong Recreation Area is in the process of becoming an ideal place to enjoy the sweet sounds of nature.

Located off County Route 519, the Hunterdon Land Trust sought to preserve this tract because it’s near several recently preserved properties and the Lockatong Creek flows directly through it. The preserve is seven acres, and features an informal trail that runs near the creek and through wooded patches.

Birders in particular will appreciate this preserve. Here one can enjoy listening to the drumming of Hairy Woodpeckers on tree trunks, the sweet twittering of Rosebreasted Grosbeaks from branches high above. You might also see Blue Herons, Great horned Owls, Red-bellied and Pileated woodpeckers, Scarlet Tanagers, Red-tail Hawks and Baltimore Orioles.

Hunterdon Land Trust purchased the property in 2014 from Chester Podpora, who had spent the past 40 years enjoying the symphony of nature heard from the land.

Preserving this property not only protects the water quality in the Lockatong Creek but also ensures public access to a number of wonderful recreational opportunities.The property is home to a significant diversity of bird species as well as amphibians for excellent wildlife viewing on site, and many will enjoy the fishing in this stretch of stream.

Efforts to protect this property, and others like it, also serve to forward the goals of the National Park Service’s Lower Delaware Wild & Scenic Program which aims to protect the remarkable natural, historic, and recreational resources that earned this stretch of the river the Wild and Scenic designation.

Project partners: New Jersey Water Supply Authority, New Jersey Green Acres program, Hunterdon County Open Space Trust Fund, Kingwood Township, Hunterdon Land Trust, and Conservation Resources, Inc.