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The Lehigh Canal (South) segment of the D&L Trail covers about 41 miles of the Lehigh River valley from Weissport to Hugh Moore Park in Easton, mostly on the Lehigh Canal towpath with stretches of former railroad bed. It squeezes through Lehigh Gap in the Kittatinny Ridge, where the Appalachian Trail crosses, then follows the canal past its locks through Slatington, Northampton, Catasauqua, Allentown, Bethlehem, and Freemansburg to the Chain Dam. The surface is mostly crushed stone with paved city sections and one on-road link on North Dauphin Street between Hanover Township and Allentown. The D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (North) segment lies upstream; the D & L Trail: Delaware Canal Towpath segment continues from Easton.
D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (South)
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (South) has about 114 to 158 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, running, birding, 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 D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (South)!
In half of past years, color along the D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (South) peaks October 22 to November 4, typically around October 29. The trail has 35% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, northern red oak, chestnut oak, white ash, sweet birch, and white oak.
Josiah White and Erskine Hazard founded the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in 1818 to move anthracite out of the hills at Mauch Chunk. Their Lehigh Canal was rebuilt for two-way traffic from 1827 to 1829, 46 miles from Mauch Chunk to Easton. Pennsylvania dug the Delaware Canal from Easton to Bristol between 1827 and 1832, and the first coal boat reached Bristol that July. Upstream, the company dug the canal on through the Lehigh Gorge to White Haven by 1843 and chartered the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad to reach Wilkes-Barre. In June 1862 a dam failure above White Haven washed the gorge canal out for good. The Lehigh and Susquehanna replaced the drowned canal and the Central Railroad of New Jersey leased it in 1871, while Asa Packer's Lehigh Valley Railroad hauled coal down the far bank. The last paying boat left the Delaware Canal in October 1931, and the company closed the Lehigh Navigation in 1932. Pennsylvania made the Delaware Canal a state park in 1940. The Central Railroad of New Jersey gave up its gorge line in 1972. Lehigh Gorge State Park took the empty rail bed in 1980, and Congress created the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor in 1988. Its namesake nonprofit has joined towpaths and rail beds into the 165 mile D&L Trail since. This segment is the long middle of the Lehigh Canal, consisting of both towpath and rail bed from Weissport through Lehigh Gap, Slatington, Allentown, and Bethlehem to the Chain Dam at Easton.
