Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park

Took my three kids there. Just beautiful to walk around the canal and see the town’s in a different light.

I’ve covered a few different sections of the canal over the years and really love them all.
Alexander Road (in Princeton) to Kingston
Frenchtown to Lambertville
Somerset area North
My favorite part to walk is between Harrison Street and Kingston. It’s approximately 5 miles round trip and you pass Lake Carnegie. It’s primarily a dirt path. There are no roads you need to cross, it’s a straight shot and very scenic. You’ll possibly see fish, turtles, and undoubtedly geese. The geese will hiss at you if you get too close to them or their young.
I’ve ridden my bike from Frenchtown to Lambertville. Some of the area is nicely paved. It’s a great weekend trip with a lunch stop in Lambertville and then back to Frenchtown.
The part of the canal in Somerset is great for running. It is paved with a bouncy sort of hardtop. It’s great for running, because it has a lot of give.

This review is only for the Delaware part of the Canal State Park and basically from Washington’s Crossing to Bull’s Island on both sides of the river.
I have been up along both sides of the Delaware many times in a car or on my bike but this was the first time I have ridden on the Tow Path. We parked our car on the NJ side on River Road in Titusville. There is a parking lot and a bathroom directly across the bridge to Washington’s Crossing.
We rode up the PA side first and the trail is very well maintained. There were some great views of the canal and the Delaware river. It was also really cool to see some of the incredible houses that face the river on the way up. We passed other cyclists, joggers, walkers and dogs. Everyone was very friendly.
We crossed back over to NJ at Bull’s Island. There is a small walking bridge that connects the two states. The bridge is beautiful and gave a great view of the Delaware. There is also very clean bathrooms on the NJ side. The path back was also pretty cool and brought us through the towns of Stockton and Lambertville. It was interesting to see these towns and also New Hope from the canal path.
Both sides of the canal path were in great shape and it is really a beautiful part of area. The park service of both states have done a great job with this park!

Fantastic trail. I ride my bike, run or walk on this path as much as possible in any season of the year. I live in PA, but drive to Stockton NJ just to use this trail. Can be crowded in parts during the summer on weekends but other than that a paradise…

This part of the canal is closer to my house, but I concur with the others who have said that the section on the Delaware river is better. Here you will find long straight stretches of fine gravel trail suitable to biking, running or walking. There are very few if any facilities, so bring water.
You could kayak here but really have to search for a good spot to launch from. There is a rental place for watercraft but I’m not sure if you can use their dock. You will see the following wildlife: birds, turtles, and snobby people. Seriously Princeton folk, would it kill you to smile, nod, or say hello. I know that Einstein walked these same paths, and I like to think he would not be so uptight.

I agree with the gentleman that said the Washington Crossing section is the best. It is well maintained, for the most part, so it a pleasure to ride! Because I live closer to the princeton section, I ride that the most. Not well maintained, but good enough. The section along Lake Carnegie is beautiful in the spring and summer.
Go and enjoy any part. It will help you feel like you are not in the most densely populated state in the US!

Locals to central NJ know that there are two sections to the D&R Canal State park, but this may confuse out of towners. So this «V-​shaped park & rail trail runs from New Brunswick south to Trenton (Crosswicks actually) and then northward along the Delaware River all the way up to Frenchtown.
This ireview concerns the 40+ mile leg that runs through Lambertville (and from Trenton to Frenchtown). I’d have to say this is probably the most scenic & peaceful bike trail in NJ — especially the section that runs from Washington Crossing park, through Lambertville, and up through Stockton, Bulls Island, and ends at Frenchtown.
Don’t ride the section through Trenton unless you’re «packing heat“‘
The trail only crosses (minor) roads every few miles, and there are tons of places to shop, eat, or spend the night, in any one of the small towns along the way.
The trail is packed cinder and fine sand/​gravel and maintained very well. You might not want to do this trail on your carbon road bike with high pressure tires, but almost any other style bike will do. Probably ideal for a hybrid or mountain bike.

A beautiful way to get in a good workout is to take a ride along the Delaware Raritan Canal, on the old donkey two path. You’ll probably see plenty of wildlife including geese and ducks, cranes and hawks, turtles and frogs, little snakes and plenty of deer. You also will probably bump into a few neighbors. The tow path is kept up fairly well, it’s clean and mostly free of any garbage. Judging by the tacks left behind you will find walkers, joggers, bikes and horses on this path. It’s a treasure, and for most of us, it’s right in our back yard!

by new jersey standards it’s a running, walking, or mountain biking paradise, a dirt trail extending 77 miles from new brunswick to trenton and then on up the delaware quite some distance. i am familiar with the New Brunswick and Princeton/​Kingston vicinity portions of the trail. Not surprisingly the part around Princeton is very nice, passing by some historic canal structures (the canal was built in the 1830s by Irish immigrants hundreds of whom died in the process so there is a lot of interesting history associated with it) and a nice lake called Carnegie Lake which borders the Princeton University campus. sections can be quite muddy after rain, so be prepared for that and some sections can flood a bit. the trail is pretty much totally flat, but I say it is for mountain bikes because it can be muddy and also goes over some old roughcut stone spillovers designed to allow water from the canal to spillover into the adjacent Raritan, Millstone, or Delaware rivers… most of the canal is bordering some other body of water (a river or the artificial Carnegie Lake) so one often has water on both sides.
some areas near new brunswick have scenery which is more «new jersey-​esque» (e.g. dunkin donuts and such which ones sees through the trees on the other side of the canal) but in general the immediate vicinity of the towpath is wooded and pleasant and home to lots of birds and turtles and other wildlife, and beautiful floral blooms on the trees in spring.