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The Conewago Recreation Trail is a five-mile crushed stone rail trail in northwestern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It runs from the Conewago trailhead on Route 230 north of Elizabethtown to the Lebanon County line, where it meets the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail, which continues another 15 miles toward Lebanon. The route follows Conewago Creek through farm fields, a boulder field, wetlands, and stretches of woods, with six marked road crossings and five parking areas along the way. The grade is rail flat, and the only real slope is a short, paved ramp at the Mill Road crossing in Aberdeen. Old Trolley Line Park sits beside the trail at Beverly Road with restrooms and picnic shelters.
Conewago Recreation Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Conewago Recreation Trail has about 123 to 167 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, birding, running, e-biking, 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 Conewago Recreation Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Conewago Recreation Trail peaks October 27 to November 10, typically around November 2. The trail has 22% deciduous coverage, with the majority being yellow-poplar, chestnut oak, red maple, white oak, and black oak.
Robert H. Coleman laid the Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad in 1883 to steal iron ore traffic from the rival Cornwall Railroad. Coleman owned the Cornwall Iron Furnace, and the new line carried ore between the Cornwall mines and Lebanon. It also carried passengers to Mount Gretna, the resort Coleman built in the hills. The railroad was later extended southwest to Conewago Junction to meet the Pennsylvania Railroad main line, and that extension is the ground this trail now occupies. By 1910 eight passenger trains a day ran the route. A traveler boarding at Conewago Junction at 10:50 in the morning could reach New York City before 5 that afternoon. The Pennsylvania Railroad eventually bought the line from Coleman. Highways drew the passengers and freight away through the middle of the twentieth century, and service faded. Hurricane Agnes wrecked the tracks in 1972 and ended more than 80 years of train traffic. Penn Central formally abandoned the Cornwall and Lebanon branch in 1979. That same year Lancaster County bought the Lancaster County portion, from Route 230 to the Lebanon County line, for $50,000, with help from the Pennsylvania Department of Community Affairs, and opened it as a recreation trail. The county rebuilt the trail in 2006 at a cost of $560,420, about half of it paid by Pennsylvania DCNR. Lebanon County later developed its side of the corridor as the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail, so the two trails now meet at the county line and run as one continuous path.
Lebanon Valley Rail TrailHighlands Trail
