White Clay Creek Trail is a 8.2 mile lightly trafficked out and back trail located near Landenberg, Pennsylvania that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options and is accessible year-round. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
dogs on leash
birding
hiking
mountain biking
nature trips
trail running
walking
forest
views
wild flowers
wildlife
Directions from Newark, DE: Travel SR 896 for 3 miles north and follow the signs to reach the state park. You will be able to enter from several roads.
White Clay creek is in view for just about the entire hike! Beautiful woodsy and lush scenery. Wish it were more clearly marked. Believe this hike is a conglomerate of intersecting trails (Pendel, Pomeroy, Nature Preserve, and Mason Dixon). Watch out for bikers! Lots of bank/beach areas to access the creek and take a dip or drop a line. Great for pups wanting to cool off after a few miles of walking.
Lots of options here. Love the numerous clear water streams!
This is a moderately-challenging trail due to the length, but the terrain is level, which makes it easy to navigate. Walking along the creek for almost the entire length of the trail and listening to the water is very nice. There are many spots along the trail/creek to dip in the water and play, so bring your gear accordingly.
If you continue on the paved road for about 1/4 mile before turning back onto the trail, there is a spooky-looking old house along the unmarked and dense section on the left. It is worth to go and have a peek at it.
The only first-world-problem type of complaint that I have is that the trail is heavily trafficked by recreational bicyclists and it can be difficult to hear them approaching from behind.
We last did this hike about 6 years back with some of our older children starting from the Chambers Rock Road end in Delaware. This time we took the younger children, started from the London Tract Road end in Pennsylvania, came down to the DE end on the Charles Baily trail (east side of the creek) and back up on the Penndel trail (west side of the creek). A great hike, a huge number of birds and frogs. Not to crowded. Enough mud after a big rain yesterday to make for one messy spill, but really a great trail surface. Highly recommended, with or without children.
One of my favorites! There is an old small building of some kind on one if the trails, i always wondered what it is? A root cellar?
In the description is says 8.2 miles but I racked up over 13 miles adding some side trails to my walk. It was a fairly decent hike and pretty enjoyable. I would recommend it.
Walt D.
I've been coming here my entire life, the preserve has many sections in DE and Pennsylvania. It's pay to park in DE (during fee months) but the PA side is free year round. Check the park website for more info. Judge Morris in the DE side is a great short hike and offers great mountain biking trails. The bike/hiking trails are very well maintained and well marked.
There's a bunch of rope swings you have to check out!! So fun
White Clay Creek/Penndel Trail Review
This morning I did an eight mile trail in Pennsylvania and Delaware all in a single hike. Thanks to AllTrails I found a hike close to the town of Kennett Square where I was staying. It all happened at the White Clay Creek Preserve. One of the trails was called the Penndel Trail and I decided to follow it because it looked like the start of the trail on AllTrails. Most of this hike parallels the White Clay Creek that features clear running shallow water with a mix of fast and slow moments. It looked like a place for fisher persons and I saw one fly fisherman on the hike. The trail was very clear and had a variety of widths but only a couple of spots where it was narrow. The Penndel Trail is an out and back that forms a "U" shape with a creek crossing over a bridge. The start of the hike was low and ran along the creek on the left and early on a beautiful reed field on the right. After crossing the bridge the trail still runs low but soon climbs to a higher elevation. The trail narrows a bit and you come upon a cornfield on the right. Then the climb begins with breathtaking views with the creek below. I was surprised when I came upon a sign that said Delaware White Clay Creek Preserve. I hiked until my recording told me I had gone about four miles in order to keep my distance to around an eight mile journey. I turned around at a parking lot and a sign that tells about Dorothy Miller who was involved with every major effort to make the preserve a reality and its increase from 24 to 3000 acres of protected stream valley, floodplain habitat, and forested hills. I would definitely do this hike again and I recommend giving it a go!