Brandywine Creek Trail

Brandywine Creek State Park protects the largest concentration of old-growth tulip poplar trees in the mid-Atlantic region, a grove of ancient trees that escaped the 18th and 19th century agricultural clearing of the Brandywine Valley because the land was preserved as a dairy farm by the du Pont family and donated to Delaware's state park system. The Brandywine Creek Trail loops through this extraordinary forest, passing tulip poplars with trunk diameters exceeding six feet and heights approaching 130 feet — trees that were already mature when the du Pont family arrived in Delaware in 1800 and may have been standing when William Penn established his colony in the 1680s. The canopy of these giants creates a soaring, cathedral-like atmosphere unlike any other forest in the region. The trail descends to Brandywine Creek, a swift, rocky river popular with fly fishers targeting smallmouth bass and channel catfish in the deep pools below riffles. The river corridor supports a ribbon of sycamore and silver maple floodplain forest below the upland tulip poplar grove. Osprey and bald eagles fish the creek regularly, and great blue herons maintain a large rookery in the area. In late April and May, the forest floor beneath the tulip poplars carpets in Virginia bluebells, trout lily, and Dutchman's breeches. The park's proximity to Wilmington makes it one of the most heavily used green spaces in Delaware, and weekend mornings bring large numbers of runners, dog walkers, and birders to the trail system.