A mountain bike resting against a tree on a dirt path in a wooded area, surrounded by tall trees and scattered autumn leaves. The scene features a winding trail leading into the forest, under a cloudy sky. Allaire State Park mountain bike trail.
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Tags:
Level: Intermediate
Length: 30 mi (48.3 km)
Surface: Other
Configuration: Network
Elevation: +1,632/ -1,252 ft
Total: 299 riders
 

Mountain Biking Allaire State Park

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#6 of 111 mountain bike trails in New Jersey
#796 in the world

This area has something for everyone. Single track, good climbs, forest roads river trails. You share the area with horseback riders and hiker but it's mostly other mountain bikers. There are miles and miles of trails, when you get lost (everyone does) south is hospital road, north is Atlantic Ave, East is the Manasquan river and West is county road 549. Great place to ride.

First added by alvin.santoy on Oct 17, 2003. Last updated Aug 29, 2020. → add an update
Before you go
  • Drinking water: unknown
  • Lift service: unknown
  • Night riding: unknown
  • Pump track: unknown
  • Restrooms: unknown
  • Fat bike grooming: yes
  • E-bikes allowed: unknown
  • Fee required: unknown
This trail information is user-generated. Help improve this information by suggesting a correction.
Getting there
I195 east bound to Farmingdale Exit. Drive to 1st traffic light and make a right on Atlantic Ave. Drive through the state park utill hospital road and make a right. 3 miles down on right had side is the parking lot,


Allaire State Park Trail map

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Good (6 days ago)
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Mountain Bike Trails Near Howell, New Jersey

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Easiest | 5 mi

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Reviews

  • JoeCool130
    ****

    Allaire is very fun and beginner friendly. This place drains extremely well due the sandy dirt mixture. Park is very big and everytime I go i find something new. Has some features including some log piles and a few jump pits and sections. There are also some bridges scattered throughput. Great place to take beginner riders but also intermediate riders will have fun as well. Gets very crowded on weekends so arrive early.

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  • rnagy
    ****

    Nice ride, lots of trails. Drains well, something for everyone. Slightly overgrown, beware of ticks!

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  • cleanneon98
    ***

    Too much sand and too many chiggers in the summer. Will have to give it another go in the colder months once the ground is a bit more solid but there are lots of sections where the sand is quite deep and can cause you to lose control

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  • genec220
    ****

    First time to the park. Visiting from VA. Really nice park and trail system. Seemed like trails on NW side of the parking lot were not marked very well. Was a PITA for me to get out to Tiger Woods. Maybe just me. Lots of fun play stuff on the E side and blazed well.
    Two impassable spots due to downed trees on Tiger Woods. Forgot my hand saw in the truck.

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  • John Christiano
    ****

    Really enjoyed ride to ocean from the park. There was a flea market that day. Overall a nice day trip.

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  • NJtoFL
    *****

    Awesome trail system right in my home town. This system literally has everything from XC to short DH. Youve probably seen reviews saying Tiger Woods is the hardest Trail in the whole system. Well, theyre wrong. If you go on Trail Forks, another mtb Strava-like app, theres a trail called Coke off the Orange trail before the switchbacks. Its a short DH run with 3 drops at the beginning, all about 4-5 feet in height, which transitions into a fast, rootish section with multiple lines to take, which leads you to either an exit or another part of the trail that keeps going and is mostly classic NJ mud and roots. The section is very steep and I recommend using a full-suspension, even though me and my friend rode it on hardtails. I HIGHLY suggest you walk the trail first, since people dont really ride it too often. Theres some more trails like this off the beaten path if youre willing to explore.

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  • rmap01   ✓ supporter
    ****

    This is a nice trail system with some variety. If you're looking for technical rocky terrain this is NOT the place to go. However, if you like (relatively) flowy terrain with occasional rooty sections, don't mind sand (especially in the summer), and just want to pedal this is a good trail system. It also drains much better than most anywhere in the area and this is the go-to place for many especially during the freeze/thaw cycle in NJ. (NB: When in doubt check with members of mtbnj.com - the locals are supercool about giving updates on trail conditions). The most challenging section in the park is the Tiger Woods trail. There's nothing too difficult that even a novice can't handle. Basically it's two miles of very tight, twisty singletrack with some short punchy climbs littered with large roots. Hard to get any real momentum/speed which is what makes it a nice challenge. If you're looking for a little more fun, cross the street (Hospital Rd) and explore some additional trails. You'll find a fairly decent sized pit area where you can catch some air. There's a few obstacles constructed that are fun to take but otherwise it's relatively flat. And did I mention it gets sandy in the summer???

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  • William Fleischer
    ****

    Nice flowing track. The challenge is the many short sand pits. After the first 10 you get it. And flow over.
    Lots of fun

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  • jeffangerman
    ***

    Not bad biking trails couldn't fine a lot of biking trails that go in the woods except for the orange trail, but nice paved relaxing bike trail down the purple trail from main entrance of park

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  • asasailor1
    ****

    Tiger Woods Trail. This is the most technical and difficult. Most can't even find it. Twisty, uppy, downy, under branches and tight turning. You can't go fast here. Awesome ! On side of park which abuts golf course. You do this trail, you're in good shape technically and cardio. Finding it. At T intersection of white and red trail. White is a gentle slope to it meets red. White turns right here and joins red going up hill. If you had continued straight, instead of turning right, you enter this unused slope for about 3-5 minutes. At the T is Tiger Woods. You're now smack in the middle of the trail, bottom most section. Left is a good way up, LOOK AT TREE ON RIGHT , marked T. W. the only marking I've ever seen.
    Then left at main trail to entry point. Go down the slope again. Hit T and go right again. Then right again as you enter main red trail.

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  • Pasquale
    ****

    white trail was wet sand in places. Orange trail was fine.

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  • Tom Pilgrim
    *****

    Great Trails different environments nice climbs and flowy downhills. But I have one question, I heard of these things called the Allaire lobster jumps if anyone knows their location or approximate location that would be great thanks.

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  • zmodica
    *****

    rode here this morning. excellent trails, well maintained and nicely designed. Not too difficult and good place to get going fast. There are some switch back single tracks manically cut into the mountain laurels that are as good as it gets in NJ. i would recommend catching on with someone who knows the park for first timers, you wont get lost but there are ton of intersections that interupt your flow

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  • JD MTB
    ****

    Great trail system, good for beginners who want to advance a little bit more. Most of the trails are pretty easy, some obstacles. There are obstacles like ladder bridges and jumps, but most are avoidable. Overall a great set of trails!

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  • Shoofoo
    ****

    A few other cyclists at the trail head but once I got in, I did not see anther person the whole time. Great, some times sandy single track. Lots of fun with little elevation change. Canopy of trees kept the sun off.

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  • Kcarew

    Lot of fun. As a novice, this is the course I keep training myself on. Constant different paths thrown at you, Right now my go to bike trail

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  • jstack11
    *****

    Just rode there 4/18/2016. Was very nice. Lots of different terrain. The "main" or "official" trails I can see could get quite sandy. Some of the sand was unpleasant, but most was OK. In summer, probably a different story. The "off official trails" were the best. This is how they get 20-30 miles out of the area. These trails are very nice to ride, and most are not sandy, and are much much less used. Terrain for any ability. Some up and downhills, nothing really technical . You could spend hours on beginner trails. My review is for the other side of Hospital road - south of the trail head. I really liked these trails (see "Endor" on multi-use map). These trails are not sandy, are very well designed, and is a lot of fun. There are not nearly as many trails over there, maybe 3 miles or so, but they are a lot of fun. A couple fun spots where it is technical, and you could fall into the river (the trail is inches from the banks of the river). Looks like this could and is quite busy. Not too busy when I was there, but saw maybe 8 bikes in parking lot, but with so many trails, only passed people a couple times in a couple hours. Most of it is singletrack, but some wider trails (the main/official/sandy trails)

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  • robwas
    *****

    After reading all the reviews rather than reiterate what everyone has said, and is true (short of the review saying all sand, yes there is some but not on every trail) I want to give some layout for the beginner on where to ride the different sections. First let's orient ourself and say you're standing in the hospital road parking lot with the lot to your back and hospital road in FRONT of you. If you were to enter the trail system on your side of the road to the right where there is a board with reading materials you can follow the orange trail to get a decent ride in on probably the most used trail. In this same "section" there's also a white and blue trail both of which are enjoyable but there are MANY other unmarked trails as well and if you ride here enough you'll find entire new areas can be "unlocked" in a sense by often taking what looks like an obscure not well ridden trail that may be the only entrance to a quite large area (the "coke" trail down by the river for example). Ok, so this is the main area where the bulk of cyclists seem to ride, now getting back to the parking lot if you were to enter the trail system on your LEFT near the now non operational bathroom you'll find trails that are a bit more technical, there's actually 2 areas down there, one that runs along the river more or less and another that's a bit less of a loop which has some log jambs and bridges. Both of these areas eventually come up near the RC airplane field eventually which is in the first area I described. Ok, so now we're going across Hospital road to the other side. This area has what I find to be the most difficult sections, many are very steep, muddy and can be quite challenging depending on which direction you're riding them and how wet things have been. I like to enter this system then stay right and ride a new area through many pines and loamy trails then continue onto a trail that runs parallel to the parkway and finally exit by going along another trail that runs close to the river. it till take awhile to find all the trails in this area and once you reach the parkway or Allenwood Road you've gone as far as you can to the edges of this tract. So, these are the 3 main areas of Allaire however there's still some other trails that don't always connect with these areas that can be explored. The first one actually runs UNDER the parkway and can be accessed by making a left onto Hospital Road (from the original locatoin placement I described) then riding across the river and then crossing Hosptial road so you're entering the area across Hospital road but now the river is to your right. This will take you to another park which I don't believe has riding, it's just a parking area then you'll see a baseball field, etc. Another area that's probably hardly ever used can be accessed off the Capital to the Coast paved bicycle trail. If you made a left onto Hospital road, then rode up to the paved trail and made another left about a mile up on your right you'll see orange blazes which will take you across the road into a track of land that borders route 195. This area is not used much and can have lots of downed trees, leves on the trails, etc but if you're like me and want to explore it's yet another Allaire option. I'm sure I've left something out but hopefully this will give anyone new to Allaire a decent guide. There is a trail map of the area but it doesn't encompass everything that's rideable by a long shot, if it did I think the map would be so dense with trails it'd be unreadable. If your cycle computer has gps it's always interesting to look at where you went on the satellite view in relation to the park's boundaries. If anyone is interested in seeing my rides my ID on garmin connect is robwas, feel free to add me.

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  • kdowd771
    *****

    My first ride here in Allaire Park and it was a pleasure!! Rode on Dec 26th after 2 days of steady/heavy rains. Took a chance to ride the trails and found them to be in great condition considering the amount of rain that fell the previous few days. Parked at the trail head parking lot on Hospital rode. Main trails were well maintained and marked. Secondary trails were easy to follow and always took me back to a main trail line. GPS made it much easier to find my way back to the parking lot. Trails would be great for small kids or those new to mtb bike riding. A gem and kudos to all who maintain it!!!!!

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  • R Treb
    ****

    You are not going to find a trail network this big anywhere else in south or central Jersey. You can get 20 miles without hitting same trail twice. (There is a whole other section across the road.)Some fun elevation and good variety of trail types. Some trails can be sandy but some are perfect with log overs and a couple nice hits. Be careful , ride safe, because place gets plenty of bike traffic.

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Rider questions

Q: NOTE: Wall Township is a spur trail that connects to Allaire Trail. All are easy/paved.

Q: trail head in spring lake?