Opinion Eyes on the Street

Staycation: Making a day trip of the Cobbs Creek Parkway

Christine Fisher

August 30, 2013

The Cobbs Creek Trail is a mostly off-road, paved trail that runs along Cobbs Creek Park from 63rd and Market streets to approximately 70th Street and Woodland Ave

What to know if you go:

Cobbs Creek Trail runs from 63rd and Market streets to 70th Street and Cobbs Creek Parkway.

The section of trail along the parkway is paved, but there are also about 2 miles of unpaved trails in Cobbs Creek Park.

As part of a summer “Staycation” series, Eyes on the Street is profiling outdoor getaways that Philadelphians can explore without having to go too far.

Summer is winding down, and overbearing humidity and heat waves will soon give way to the crisp kind of fall weather that draws people outside, away from their air conditioners and into the fresh air. While the Schuylkill River Trail, Kelly Drive, and MLK Drive might fill up on a nice fall Saturday or Sunday, Cobbs Creek Trail provides a paved, off-road bike and pedestrian trail that fewer people know about.

The smooth, paved trail rolls along Cobbs Creek Park, following the Cobbs Creek Parkway for most of its route. As a parkside trail, the Cobbs Creek Trail has plenty of shade and natural beauty. Steve Taylor, Community Liaison at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, said the trail can feel 10 degrees cooler than bike lanes in the city.

“I would certainly recommend it as a place to go and relax on the weekends,” said Jeannette Brugger, a planner at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission who managed the Philadelphia Trail Master Plan. “You can easily make a day trip out of it,” she said.

Today the trail extends from around 63rd Street Station at 63rd and Market streets, south along Cobbs Creek Parkway to 70th Street. In that span the trail passes the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center, Laura Sims SateHouse in Cobbs Creek Park (an ice skating rink with both adult and youth hockey programs), Mount Moriah Cemetery, multiple playgrounds, tennis courts and areas to sit just off the trail in Cobbs Creek Park.

“It’s a pretty straight forward trip,” said Rob Armstrong, preservation and capital projects manager at Philadelphia Parks & Recreation. “It’s paved. It’s very easy to ride, [and] it’s safe.”

The majority of the trail runs between Cobbs Creek Park and Cobbs Creek Parkway
For the most part the trail is relatively flat, with a few rolling grades throughout
The northern end of the trail is marked by 63rd and Market street, which also provides public transit access
The majority of the trail runs between Cobbs Creek Park and Cobbs Creek Parkway
There are plans to extend the Cobbs Creek Trail and connect it, eventually, with the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge
The trail passes multiple playgrounds, tennis courts, the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center and more
Signage directs bikers and pedestrians along the trail
Barbara McCabe, a parks coordinator at Parks and Rec, said she thinks people might be surprised by the natural beauty along the trail
Along the trail access points lead into off-road paths and portions of the park
There are about two miles of unpaved trails in Cobbs Creek
Some unofficial access points like the paved Cobbs Creek Trail with unpaved, off road trails
Rob Armstrong warned that the off road trails are probably not appropriate for road bikes
The off-road trails offer glimpses of Cobbs Creek

“There’s a really nice, unpaved part of Cobbs Creek Trail that is through the woods,” Brugger said. “It’s a beautiful path and people don’t know much about it.”

In total there are about two miles of unpaved trails through Cobbs Creek Park. Some are better maintained than others though, and Armstrong cautioned that most of trails are not appropriate for road bikes. Sections of those trails provide quiet hiking areas along the creek itself and access to a variety of wildlife that Barbara McCabe, director of stewardship at Parks & Rec, said most people probably are not aware of.

“I don’t think people realize how easily they can escape the city by getting onto that trail,” McCabe said. “When you’re out there, you really feel you are not in an urban setting.”

The trail essentially parallels the Cobbs Creek Parkway from 63rd and Market streets to 70th Street and Cobbs Creek Parkway

Cobbs Creek as a connector

One prize feature of the Cobbs Creek Trail is that it is a unique connector with potential to link the city with outlying towns in Delaware County, just across the creek.

“There’s a foot bridge over the creek, and you’re in Delaware County, which you don’t really think of being able to walk to,” Brugger said.

The Cobbs Creek Trail is part of the East Coast Greenway, an in-the-works recreational trail that will extend from Maine to Florida, and it links with several city bike lanes, like those on Market and Spruce streets. It also ties into the recently opened 58th Street Greenway, which links the Cobbs Creek Trail to Bartram’s Garden and provides access to the rest of the city by way of the Grays Ferry Bridge.

“When you get on the trail, you’re not going to be in a vacuum, you’ll be able to make key connections,” Brugger said.

At 59th and Florence streets, cyclists can break off and head toward the 58th Street Greenway
Green sharrows lead cyclists from the Cobbs Creek Trail to the 58th Street Greenway, a mostly off-road trail
58th Street Greenway
58th Street Greenway
58th Street Greenway
58th Street Greenway
58th Street Greenway
58th Street Greenway

These connections help support Cobbs Creek Trail as a day trip destination, and there are plans in the works that could take a day trip along the trail to the next level. The Clean Air Council and Parks & Rec are in the process of planning the Cobbs Creek Connector Project. If all goes as intended, this will extend Cobbs Creek Trail from its current dead end around 70th Street and Cobbs Creek Parkway to the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge, which boasts 10 miles of its own bicycle and hiking trails in addition to plenty of day trip worthy nature and wildlife access.

The first phase of that extension is already through the preliminary feasibility stage. Now Parks & Rec and the Clean Air Council are heading toward final design and hope to begin construction as soon as possible. Armstrong said the connector project is a priority for the city.

“I think it’ll add to the region’s growing trail network,” said Nick Rogers, transportation coordinator at the Clean Air Council. “There are trails like this being built all over the place, and the more smaller projects that get built and integrated, the better resource this is going to be to everyone in the region.”

Cobbs Creek 5K

On October 12 the Friends of Cobbs Creek will host the third annual Cobbs Creek 5K, which will use a portion of the Cobbs Creek Trail as its course.

“It was started with the goal to get people into the park, using the trail and just seeing how beautiful it is,” McCabe said.

Any funding the 5K raises will go toward programming in the park. “We’d like to build a better program base to get people out into the park and realize what a beautiful asset it is,” McCabe said.

Parks & Rec has been working in phases to engage the community around the park. The first phase of building community engagement was working with local police to make sure citizens concerned with safety, illicit activity or dumping in the park could raise those concerns and have them addressed by police. Now in the second phase of community engagement, Parks & Rec is working with the Friends of Cobbs Creek to develop programming like the 5K and a potential movie night.

“I think the more events take place, we’ll see more of a rise in engagement,” said Felicia Parker-Cox, community organizer for the Office of the Deputy Mayor and Parks & Rec.

For those interested in exploring the Cobbs Creek Trail for the first time, the 5K might be an ideal opportunity.

“Safety is always a concern of people in any trail, so having these type of organized events [people] feel a little more at ease going into the trail because you’re out there with a lot of other people,” McCabe said.

Registration for the 5K is now open. Anyone interested in volunteering the day of the race can contact Parker-Cox at 215.683.3605 or Felicia.Parker-Cox@phila.gov.

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