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The Greater Hazleton Rail Trail runs about five and a half miles east from the edge of Hazleton, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, along the bed of the old Delaware, Susquehanna and Schuylkill Railroad. The main trailhead sits at the junction of Route 93 and Route 424. From there the wide crushed limestone path passes five fitness stations in the first mile, crosses one marked road, and settles under a forest of mature trees. Near the middle it follows a hard packed gravel road past an overlook of the Dreck Creek Reservoir and its dam, then runs a causeway through wetlands before ending at Hazlebrook Road. The grade is rail flat, so it suits families, casual cyclists, and strollers.
Greater Hazleton Rail Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Greater Hazleton Rail Trail has about 116 to 157 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, birding, running, biking, and walking, with May, September, 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 Greater Hazleton Rail Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Greater Hazleton Rail Trail peaks October 13 to 23, typically around October 17. The trail has 50% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, chestnut oak, white oak, and gray birch.
Coxe Brothers and Company, the anthracite firm that ran the mines at Drifton, Jeddo, Eckley, and Beaver Meadow, incorporated the Delaware, Susquehanna and Schuylkill Railroad in 1890 to move its own coal. Eckley Brinton Coxe served as its president. The line ran east of Hazleton across the plateau, and this trail follows its abandoned bed. In 1998 the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce set up the Greater Hazleton Civic Partnership, and that same year the Partnership formed a Rails to Trails Committee. Its charge was to find and build a public hike and bike trail on the rail beds left over from the coal era. The right of way was never bought outright. The Hazleton City Water Authority, Butler Enterprises, and Cabot Corporation still own it, and the Partnership holds it on a 50-year lease. The first four miles opened from the Route 93 trailhead with a crushed limestone surface. Pennsylvania's Keystone Fund supplied $361,000 toward the work. On May 25, 2009 the trail was certified as a National Recreation Trail. The Partnership has since pushed the path east past the Dreck Creek Reservoir toward Hazlebrook Road. Its long term goal is a link to the D&L Trail at the Lehigh Gorge, which would make the route about 16 miles long.
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