Hiking Near Pittsburgh

~HIKING: HALF AN HOUR FROM PITTSBURGH~

          Below are three of the best hiking destinations within a half hour drive of Pittsburgh.  The three sites are very different from each other, but when I hike, I'm typically looking for solitude and silence, so I've listed them in order of my personal preference.  This write-up was done for outdoorsy friends who moved to the city from out west.  I do feel their pain.  If urban life is your thing, then Pittsburgh is a wonderful place to live.  But if you're a hiker living in Pittsburgh, then you've got to work a little to find the sweet spots.  I moved down here from the wilds of Northern Pennsylvania, where the hiking and kayaking is superb.  But if you learn to appreciate the place for what it is, and if you're willing to lower your expectations, then an outdoors enthusiast can really discover some remarkable spots close to Pittsburgh... (Of course, if you're willing to extend your travel time to one hour, your options improve dramatically.  And if you allow yourself an hour and a half, you've really got some excellent choices, like the pristine and far flung Quebec Run Wild Area of Forbes State Forest.)  

*HILLMAN STATE PARK

Hillman has everything from mixed hardwood forests to broad, grassy fields.    

ABOUT: Hillman is managed by the Game Commission, even though it’s technically a state park.  It has nothing but wild land: no restrooms, no water spigots, no playgrounds.  There are lots of great trails, but none of them are blazed or mapped, so there’s some risk of getting lost until you figure out the lay of the land.  You can still find the remains of old farms in some parts of the park.  Because much of the land was once strip mined, it’s got open grassy areas, undulating topography, and scrubby woods.  To the untrained eye, it just looks like a curious place with lots of small hills, mounds, and sudden dips.  Most people would never know that this land was utterly pillaged sixty years ago.  In fact the rolling country makes Hillman popular with mountain bikers.  The open meadows make it popular with suburbanites who want to let their dogs run (which I hate).  Hillman is big, and it can be roughly divided up into five separate trail zones.  A good place to start is in the southeast corner, which is the easiest part of the park to find.  Later, you can branch out from there. 

GETTING THERE: Good trailheads at Hillman are exactly half an hour from Pittsburgh.

1)      Take I-376 West from the city. 

2)      Take Exit 60-A onto US-22 West.

3)      Go about 10 miles, and take the “Bavington” exit.

4)      Turn RIGHT off the exit, and go a very short distance to a T in the road.

5)      Turn LEFT at the T onto Steubenville Pike.

6)      TO HIKE THE SOUTHEAST, go about two miles (?) from the T and take a sharp RIGHT onto Knowlton Road.  There are parking areas at the trailheads.

7)      TO HIKE THE CENTRAL PARK, go past Knowlton Road to Haul Road, which is the next public lane on the RIGHT.  This is a gravel road with parking and trailheads on the left and right.

*STATE GAME LANDS #117

The countryside at SGL 117--like many of us who go there--is just trying to heal.  It has a strange, stark beauty.

ABOUT: SGL 117 feels like the Australian Outback or maybe the Russian steppes.  There’s some woods, but the place is mainly grassland and scrubby brush.  Most of it was strip mined back in the days when coal companies weren’t required to replace topsoil and replant trees.  Even more than Hillman, SGL 117 bears the scars of its past.  It's wild and lonely, and the look is almost lunar in places.  If it's solitude that you want, this place is not much visited by anyone but hunters.  It makes a good hike.  The game land is three miles across, and the whole expanse (from the parking area on Bavington Road to PA-18) is crossed by a nice old gravel road with gates at both ends, so that vehicles can’t get onto it.  If you stray off the road and into the woods just to the north of it, you can bushwhack to some quiet ponds in deep valleys.  Bushwhacking is easy here, and since there’s so much open space, you don't really need to fear getting lost if you wander off the road. Most serious hunting takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but just to be safe, check the Game Commission website for hunting dates before venturing out.  Sundays are always safe.    

GETTING THERE: SGL 117 is very close to Hillman.  Follow steps 1-5 above, then: 

1)      In the village of Bavington, turn LEFT onto Bavington Road, just before the bar.

2)      Go a few miles on Bavington Road, keeping an eye open for parking areas on the right side of the road.  These usually have Game Commission signs that say things like “Hunt Safely.”  The first parking area is where the gated road is found.  Park there and follow the road into the game lands on foot, then branch off. 

*RACCOON CREEK STATE PARK

Although it gets the most traffic, Raccoon Creek also has the wildest character, the most natural topography, and the densest, most mature forests.

ABOUT: With a 100-acre lake, a nice beach, and an excellent trail system, Raccoon Creek is THE outdoor escape for Pittsburghers.  For that reason, you’re more likely to find other people on the trails here...and their damned, unleashed dogs.  It's prettier than the two hiking destinations named above, but it's also more heavily used.  Raccoon is a very large park with many miles of trackless woods.  Most of this park has never been strip mined, so it’s got a wild character with nice wooded hills and deep stream valleys.  However, it is five or ten minutes further away from the city than Hillman.  Also, because Raccoon Creek has all the modern amenities (camp sites, cabins, a beach, snack bar, organized outdoor events, etc.), it gets downright crowded in the summer.  I prefer to go to Raccoon in the winter, when I have the place mostly to myself. 

Raccoon Creek is one of the biggest state parks in PA; it actually has a 20-mile backpacking loop trail.  There’s a good hiking map of all the trails in the park.  Try to avoid the “mixed use trails” because the horses really tear them up and make them muddy for hiking.  The most crowded trails are in the “Wildflower Reserve” at the easternmost tip of the park.  I like the western half of the park best.  

GETTING THERE: Raccoon Creek State Park is conveniently divided in half by PA-18. 

1)      Again, just as if you were going to Hillman or SGL 117, take I-376 West.

2)      Take Exit 60-A to get onto US-22 West. 

3)      Pass Bavington and go to the very next exit, marked “Florence / Burgettstown.” 

4)      Coming off the exit, get in the far LEFT lane and turn LEFT (north) at the light.

5)      Follow PA-18 through a few villages and into the park.  You’ll see a sign at a parking area on the LEFT that says “Frankfort Mineral Springs Natural and Historical Area.”  There’s a good trailhead here onto the Heritage Trail, into the western part of the park. 

Check out the official park map for the many miles of other trails. 

~TAMER SPOTS / CLOSER TO HOME~

PANHANDLE TRAIL This is a “rail trail” that runs all the way into West Virginia.  It’s fun to bike, especially the westernmost part, beyond Burgettstown.  www.panhandletrail.org 

MONTOUR TRAIL This is also a “rail trail” that runs in a semi-circle around Pittsburgh from the Monongahela Valley to the Ohio Valley.  www.montourtrail.org. 

SETTLER’S CABIN PARK is just south of all the shopping centers in Robinson Township and has some fairly remote trails for a quick hike close to the city. Check out a map.  

BOYCE MAYVIEW PARK in Upper St. Clair has some pretty rugged backcountry trails, believe it or not.  They get better and more remote the closer you get to Chartiers Creek. Here's the map.