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Pennsylvania Hiking Trails
The complete reference to recommended trails in the stateThe best of each region from Keystone Trails Association membersDescriptions of hundreds of trails plus a chapter on state's nine long-distance trailsProduced in association with the Keystone Trails Association, this is a guide to the best of Pennsylvania's hiking trails. Descriptions of each trail provide location, directions to the trailhead, suggested times to hike, terrain, special features, recreational activities, and suggestions for planning a trip. Maps and a selection of full-color photographs from the trails are included.
256 pages, Paperback
First published April 10, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 4, 2025
Review title: Hiking ideas sourcebook
This guidebook divides the state into nine regions, then proceeds roughly clockwise around the state starting in the southeastern corner. Each region is introduced with a general description of the geography, topography, climate, and distinctive features. A map of the region locates the public parks, forests, and game lands that host blazed and named hiking trails, with references to those that border or incorporate private property to alert hikers. Each identified trail is linked to the numeric key to the map and described in few paragraphs, with contact information and websites to access maps, local conditions, and camping permits/reservations. Note that there are very few actual trail maps in this book.
Hence my review title that is a sourcebook for ideas for your next hike. The 13th edition was published in 2008 so it is now approaching 20 years old, and I believe based on a search before I wrote this review it was the last edition. So even if trail maps were included, you would need to search online for current maps anyway (as I learned earlier this year after losing my way relying on a 30-year-old trail map that was not well blazed or maintained on the ground!). The editors recognized this and stress in the introduction that the book was not intended as a backpack trail map guide for that very reason, especially now that the internet era had made much more current information available from trail owners and maintenance organizations.
With that caveat in mind this is a good sourcebook. Starting in the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, most of the trails there are rails-to-trails or canal towpaths repurposed for hikers and bikers, often proceeding through urban or suburban parks and residential areas. As you move west and north the trails incorporate more natural areas, elevation increases, and evidences of past mining, lumbering, farming, and transportation that has shaped the landscape. My section of Pennsylvania, the Laurel Highlands (beginning on p. 85) is a good example, with hikes at Mt. Davis, the state's high point at 3.213 feet, and the 70-mile Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail from Ohiopyle to near Johnstown, which proceeds along ridges and valleys with evidence of lumbering and mining now reclaimed and restored to nature. As I learned while completing the LHHT a few years back, you are always in nature, but never in wilderness. The Pennsylvania Wilds region in the northcentral part of the state is the most remote and least populated so hiking opportunities to find solitude abound. The region around Wellsboro, now known as Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon but not identified by that nickname in the book, is especially beautiful.
I'll keep this with my trail maps and brochures I've collected from past hikes and ideas for future journeys. My favorite future hike from this book would be Ricketts Glen State Parks Falls Trail which passes 21 waterfalls on its 6.7 mile loop.
This guidebook divides the state into nine regions, then proceeds roughly clockwise around the state starting in the southeastern corner. Each region is introduced with a general description of the geography, topography, climate, and distinctive features. A map of the region locates the public parks, forests, and game lands that host blazed and named hiking trails, with references to those that border or incorporate private property to alert hikers. Each identified trail is linked to the numeric key to the map and described in few paragraphs, with contact information and websites to access maps, local conditions, and camping permits/reservations. Note that there are very few actual trail maps in this book.
Hence my review title that is a sourcebook for ideas for your next hike. The 13th edition was published in 2008 so it is now approaching 20 years old, and I believe based on a search before I wrote this review it was the last edition. So even if trail maps were included, you would need to search online for current maps anyway (as I learned earlier this year after losing my way relying on a 30-year-old trail map that was not well blazed or maintained on the ground!). The editors recognized this and stress in the introduction that the book was not intended as a backpack trail map guide for that very reason, especially now that the internet era had made much more current information available from trail owners and maintenance organizations.
With that caveat in mind this is a good sourcebook. Starting in the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, most of the trails there are rails-to-trails or canal towpaths repurposed for hikers and bikers, often proceeding through urban or suburban parks and residential areas. As you move west and north the trails incorporate more natural areas, elevation increases, and evidences of past mining, lumbering, farming, and transportation that has shaped the landscape. My section of Pennsylvania, the Laurel Highlands (beginning on p. 85) is a good example, with hikes at Mt. Davis, the state's high point at 3.213 feet, and the 70-mile Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail from Ohiopyle to near Johnstown, which proceeds along ridges and valleys with evidence of lumbering and mining now reclaimed and restored to nature. As I learned while completing the LHHT a few years back, you are always in nature, but never in wilderness. The Pennsylvania Wilds region in the northcentral part of the state is the most remote and least populated so hiking opportunities to find solitude abound. The region around Wellsboro, now known as Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon but not identified by that nickname in the book, is especially beautiful.
I'll keep this with my trail maps and brochures I've collected from past hikes and ideas for future journeys. My favorite future hike from this book would be Ricketts Glen State Parks Falls Trail which passes 21 waterfalls on its 6.7 mile loop.
December 31, 2018
Helpful, not a ton of detail on each trail, but I found some good ones which I then further researched online. Can't wait to hit the trails this coming spring!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews