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The Chester Valley Trail is a paved, rail-grade path that runs about 19 miles along the floor of the Great Valley, from Exton in Chester County east through Malvern, Paoli and King of Prussia to Bridgeport and Norristown in Montgomery County. It follows the old Chester Valley Branch of the Reading, a limestone and lime hauler, and finishes by crossing the Schuylkill River on the DeKalb Street Bridge to meet the Schuylkill River Trail. The surface is smooth asphalt, 10 to 12 feet wide, and the grade never exceeds about one percent. Expect a suburban ride: corporate campuses, parks, truss bridges over busy roads, and plenty of road crossings.
Chester Valley Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Chester Valley Trail has about 117 to 165 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, birding, running, biking, and walking, with April, May, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Chester Valley Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Chester Valley Trail peaks October 30 to November 8, typically around November 3. The trail has 38% deciduous coverage, with the majority being yellow-poplar, red maple, white ash, black oak, and white oak.
The Chester Valley Railroad opened to public travel on September 12, 1853, and its heaviest burden was stone from the quarries of the Great Valley. The valley had been farm country laid over limestone, and the limestone made lime, so quarries and kilns lined the corridor. A charter had first been granted in 1835 to the Norristown and Valley Railroad, but the project sat until 1850, when it was revived under the Chester Valley name. The line ran down the valley from Downingtown to the Schuylkill River, with a branch to the Cedar Hollow Lime Company quarries. After a reorganization the company became the Philadelphia and Chester Valley Railroad and passed to the Reading, which ran it as its Chester Valley Branch. Conrail took over in 1976, and by 1991 the branch was defunct. That same year Chester and Montgomery Counties first considered turning the rail bed into a trail. Construction finally began in 2009, and commissioners cut the ribbon on the first four miles, from Exton Park east to Route 29, on September 21, 2010. The seven-mile Tredyffrin section to King of Prussia followed in January 2014, and the Exton section to Main Street at Exton opened that September. On March 13, 2023, Montgomery County opened its 3.8-mile extension through Bridgeport and across the DeKalb Street Bridge to the Schuylkill River Trail in Norristown. Chester County is now building west toward Downingtown.
