A Weekend On The Mullica: Three Rivers In One
August 6, 2026
August 6, 2026
The Mullica reads differently depending on where you put your feet in. Ten miles upstream you're in cedar shade with nothing but the sound of your own paddle. Downstream you're eating fried calamari to live music. Same river, different afternoons.
Most write-ups treat the Mullica as a single destination, which is why so many locals still haven't done the one thing that actually makes the river make sense: use all three of its personalities in the same weekend.
The upper Mullica is a wilderness paddle inside Wharton State Forest, New Jersey's largest state forest at roughly 125,000 acres across Atlantic, Burlington and Camden counties. The middle river runs past Batsto Village, a preserved 19th-century iron and glass town that still hosts weekly programming. The lower river opens up at Sweetwater, where a working marina doubles as a restaurant and event venue.
None of these is a substitute for the others. The trick is stitching them together.
Two outfitters do most of the shuttle work between Atsion and Sweetwater, and they specialize in different kinds of trips.
Pinelands Adventures, run by the Pinelands Alliance out of 1005 Atsion Road in Shamong, is the naturalist-leaning option. They offer 2, 4, 5 and 8-hour day trips on the Batsto and Mullica Rivers every day from April through October, conditions permitting. Jersey Devil Adventures, based at 847 S. White Horse Pike in Hammonton, is the other main livery, with a menu of four Mullica routes and, as of this season, hourly kayak and fishing-kayak rentals on Hammonton Lake and at the Sweetwater Marina & Riverdeck.
If you've never picked a route before, the differences matter more than the price:
| Trip | Length | Level | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Constable Bridge → Mullica River Canoe Landing | 2 miles, about 2 hours, beginner | Easy | Remote Wharton section with sandy beaches |
| Mullica River Canoe Landing → Sweetwater | Intermediate | Intermediate paddlers | Ends at the Riverdeck |
| Batsto Village → Sweetwater | 4 miles | Intermediate | Ties the middle and lower river together |
| Constable Bridge → Sweetwater | 6 miles, 4–6 hours, advanced | Hard | Full upper-to-lower crossing in one day |
| Atsion → Pleasant Mills (overnight) | 11 miles total, 6 to camp and 5 to pickup | Multi-day | Requires wilderness campsite reservation |
The Batsto-to-Sweetwater route is the one most locals overlook. It's the paddle that physically links the historic middle of the river to the social end, and it lets you finish the day sitting down to dinner instead of driving back to a car.
A couple of realities to plan around. First, the state now bills for every boat that goes on the water: the NJ Department of Environmental Protection requires a $2.12 per person livery fee for all activities in Wharton State Forest, and outfitters pass it through. Jersey Devil's short trip runs $60 for a kayak, $100 for a tandem or canoe, and $40 if you bring your own boat, plus a $6.18 per-boat convenience fee that goes to NJ DEP toward maintenance of Wharton State Forest. Pinelands Adventures' overnight is $85 for a single kayak and $130 for a canoe or tandem kayak, with a 10% discount for Pinelands Alliance members.
Second, if the overnight tempts you, understand what you're signing up for. Permits are required, alcohol is prohibited, all trash must be carried out, and because the Mullica River Wilderness Campsite is accessible only by water, all campers must bring their own supplies. There is no drive-in backup plan.
What you're paddling through is worth the fee. The upper Mullica narrows under cedar stands, opens into wider stretches lined with white and yellow water lilies and purple pickerel weed, and much of the time you're accompanied only by the natural buzz of the forest. Bald eagles, ospreys, great blue herons, river otters, beavers and deer are among the wildlife regularly seen along the corridor.
The middle stretch of the Mullica is anchored by Batsto Village Historic Site at 31 Batsto Road in Hammonton. Two things locals get wrong about it. They treat it as a one-time visit rather than a rotating program, and they assume the interesting events happen in October.
They don't. The programming runs year-round and much of it is free.
Recent and upcoming 2026 highlights worth putting on a calendar:
If you want to see the mansion itself without waiting for an event, tickets are $3 for visitors over 12, $1 for ages 5–11, and free for children under 5, purchased at the Batsto Visitor Center. And for hikers, the gift shop stocked new merchandise in 2026: patches and stickers for the 1808 Trail, Tom's Pond Trail and the Mullica River Trail featuring native Pine Barrens species, plus a new "hiker's corner" in the shop with additional hiking-related items being added throughout the year.
Before Batsto was a preserved village, it was an industrial town whose furnace made cannons and cannonballs for the Continental Army, then switched decades later to producing windowpanes and streetlights for cities like Camden. Joseph Wharton bought the whole village in 1876 and turned it into a family estate.
That's the compressed version of what a mansion tour draws out. It's also why the middle river doesn't look developed today. Wharton's estate is the reason the corridor between Atsion and Pleasant Mills is state forest instead of subdivision.
Source for the above summary: NJDEP's Batsto Village page, which is the authoritative reference for tour schedules and site history.
By the time the Mullica reaches Sweetwater, it's wide enough for pontoons and the current has slowed. This is where Sweetwater Marina & Riverdeck sits, and where the river's cultural calendar picks up in the summer.
August alone has been unusually stacked:
The reason to know about the Riverdeck even if you don't drink or eat out much: it's the takeout point for the Batsto and Constable Bridge paddles. Ending a river trip at a working marina with food and live music is a different experience from ending it at a parking lot next to a portable toilet.
Sweetwater also runs a small on-site shop, Kimmie's Korner, which carries specialty items and clothing in-store. Useful if you paddled up wearing a wet swimsuit and want dry clothes for dinner.
The reason to think of the Mullica as one river with three personalities is that a single Saturday can hit all three without feeling rushed.
A workable version: launch at Batsto in the morning with Jersey Devil or bring your own boat and shuttle. Paddle the four miles down to Sweetwater. Have a long lunch and let the boat get loaded onto the shuttle. Drive back up to Batsto Village in the early afternoon while the mansion tours are still running. If it's a Saturday in April, add the evening Atsion Mansion tour. If it's a Saturday in summer, drive back down to Sweetwater for whatever event is on the calendar that weekend.
None of that requires more expertise than showing up on time and packing sunscreen. What it requires is thinking of the Mullica as a corridor instead of three separate outings.
If you live along the river and haven't done a full corridor day, this is the summer to do it. And if you're thinking about a home along the Mullica or in the surrounding Pine Barrens communities, Liz Hildebrand knows this stretch of Atlantic and Burlington County well. Get your instant home valuation and let's talk about what's possible on the water.
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