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The Huntingdon & Broad Top Rail Trail follows the old Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad for about 13 miles along the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River in Bedford County, from Tatesville north to Warriors Path State Park near Saxton. The crushed limestone path is rail-grade flat and mostly shaded, with the river close at hand for much of the way. It crosses the Raystown Branch at Cypher on a rehabilitated railroad trestle, passes Cooper's Recreational Area near the midpoint, and runs through the former coal and iron towns of Hopewell and Riddlesburg. Beyond Riddlesburg the trail threads the Red Cut rock cut before reaching the state park.
Huntingdon & Broad Top Rail Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Huntingdon & Broad Top Rail Trail has about 120 to 161 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 Huntingdon & Broad Top Rail Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Huntingdon & Broad Top Rail Trail peaks October 19 to 27, typically around October 23. The trail has 58% deciduous coverage, with the majority being chestnut oak, red maple, northern red oak, sugar maple, and white oak.
The Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad was chartered on May 6, 1852 to carry semi-bituminous coal off Broad Top Mountain and to give local mines a route that broke the Baltimore and Ohio's monopoly on coal from the Cumberland area. Trains were running from Huntingdon to Saxton by the end of 1855. That same year the main line reached Hopewell by way of Riddlesburg. In 1863 the Bedford Railroad laid track from Mount Dallas up to Hopewell, and the two companies merged in 1864. Coal was the cargo, joined by passengers and the mail. The Riddlesburg Iron Furnace and its coke ovens fired up in 1868 and fed the line for decades. The road peaked before World War I, then faded with Broad Top coal. It declared bankruptcy on October 11, 1953, ran its last passenger train that November, and went out of existence on March 31, 1954. The main line north of the Cypher bridge was scrapped that spring. The Everett Railroad took over the four miles south of Tatesville and kept them until 1982. The rails between Tatesville and Cypher stayed in place until 2008. Broad Top Township bought the right-of-way and opened the first phase of the rail trail in 2012, then built it out in stages, rehabilitating the Cypher trestle over the Raystown Branch. The final 1.7 miles from Red Cut to Warriors Path State Park opened in October 2025, completing the trail.
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