Home › New Jersey › Clifton
Running trails in Clifton, NJ
Clifton has 7 trails in the directory — 1 open 24 hours. 6 of them post opening hours, so you can check the gate before an early start. They're ranked here by rating weighted by review volume, across 1,783 Google reviews. Filter by surface, loop, distance, shade or lighting to get to the run you're actually planning — no made-up difficulty score, just the facts you'd check before driving out.
Weasel Brook Park
4.6 ★★★★★ 1,179 reviews
Recreation area with horseshoe pits, a playground, splash pad, pond, basketball courts & ball field.
Albion Memorial Park
4.6 ★★★★★ 227 reviews
Weasel Brook Lake
4.8 ★★★★★ 42 reviews
Richardson Scale Park
4.3 ★★★★☆ 46 reviews
Randolph Park
4.3 ★★★★☆ 42 reviews
No trails match those filters.
How to pick a trail in Clifton
- Match the surface to your legs. Asphalt and concrete are fast, predictable and runnable year-round but the least forgiving; crushed limestone and dirt take the sting out of high mileage; boardwalk is flat and scenic but slick in the wet. If your shins or knees are complaining, the fix that actually works is varying the surface you run on rather than chasing one "best" one.
- Loop or out-and-back? A loop finishes back at the car with no backtracking; on an out-and-back you simply turn round at half your distance.
- Check the hours before a 6am run. 1 trail in Clifton is open 24 hours — the rest can sit inside a park that gates at dusk and doesn't unlock until well after sunrise. 6 of the 7 listings carry posted opening hours — worth a look before you set an alarm.
- Long run? Check water and restrooms first. 2 have trailhead parking, 2 have restrooms, and 1 has a water fountain in Clifton. Anything over an hour and those stop being nice-to-haves — and in summer, shade counts double.
- The small things that decide it. 1 that runners describe as quiet, 1 dog-friendly, and 1 smooth and wide enough for a stroller or a wheelchair. Busy or quiet isn't a good-or-bad thing here: a busy path is the safer choice for a solo run at dawn, a quiet one is better for intervals.
More on all of this in the trail-running guides.
Browse Clifton trails by type
Running trails near Clifton
Worth the short drive — the closest towns with trails in the directory.