RailTrailWxRailTrailWxRail trail guide
Venango County, PA
A 26.98 mile rail trail in PA.
Connecting trails: Sandy Creek Trail, Samuel Justus Recreation Trail
Planning a ride? Check the hourly forecast.
The northern reach of the Allegheny River Trail runs about 27 miles from Franklin south to Emlenton, tracing the eastern bank of the Allegheny River through Venango County. It is paved, flat, wooded and deeply shaded, with the river on one side and valley walls on the other. Riders pass the Sandy Creek Trail junction, the petroglyphs at Indian God Rock, and two long railroad tunnels, Kennerdell and Rockland, bored through the ridges. It is a quiet, remote ride where you can enjoy the serene beauty of the Allegheny River.
For centuries, the Allegheny River here was a travel corridor for American Indians, who left carvings on the sandstone landmark early settlers called Indian God Rock. In the 1850s the Allegheny Valley Railroad pushed up the eastern bank, and the line later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Buffalo and Allegheny Valley Division, hauling crude oil, refined petroleum, and freight out of the booming Venango oil region. To carry the tracks across the river, the Jamestown, Franklin and Clearfield Railroad built the Belmar Bridge, a 1385’ span completed in 1907 at a cost of five workers' lives. The Rockland Tunnel followed in 1916, bored to bypass a slide prone loop of track at Woodhill. Rail traffic faded with the oil economy, and the last train crossed the Belmar Bridge in the 1980s. The Scrubgrass Generating Company acquired the corridor in 1984 and donated it to the all volunteer Allegheny Valley Trails Association, founded in 1990 to turn abandoned Allegheny watershed railways into trails. AVTA paved the grade into the Allegheny River Trail, installed a pedestrian deck on the Belmar Bridge in 2000, and today maintains almost 60 miles of connected paved trail from Oil City through Franklin to Emlenton.
Hour by hour scores for heat, wind, rain, and shade on Allegheny River Trail (North).
Free account required for most trails. Pine Creek is free for everyone.
Managed by Allegheny Valley Trails Association
