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The Knox & Kane Rail Trail runs 31 miles across the high plateau of Elk and McKean counties, from the Forest County line on PA 66 through Kane and Mount Jewett to the Skywalk at Kinzua Bridge State Park. It is a former Baltimore and Ohio branch later run by the Knox and Kane tourist railroad. The surface is packed crushed stone, and the grade never tops one percent. West of Kane it crosses Allegheny National Forest country on three rebuilt trestles. East of Kane it clears a 490-foot trestle near Lantz Corners, threads Mount Jewett, and ends at Kinzua Viaduct. The Trail Association of the McKean/Elk Divide (TAMED) keeps the western 23 miles and the Mt Jewett to Kinzua Bridge Trail Club the eastern 8.
Knox & Kane Rail Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Knox & Kane Rail Trail has about 100 to 148 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, running, biking, walking, and birding, 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 Knox & Kane Rail Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Knox & Kane Rail Trail peaks October 9 to 17, typically around October 13. The trail has 62% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple and black cherry.
Freight last crossed the Kinzua Viaduct in 1959, and for 28 years the world's one time highest railroad bridge stood silent at the end of this corridor. The line began as part of the Pittsburgh and Western Railroad, a three foot narrow gauge system pieced together from earlier narrow gauge lines in the late 1800s. The Baltimore and Ohio later ran it as its Northern Subdivision. In the 1940s and 1950s the branch loaded coal in quantity and carried glassmaking sand to Knox Glass. The viaduct, built in 1882 and rebuilt in steel in 1900, drew Erie Railroad excursion trains long before the tourists of the 1980s. Pennsylvania created Kinzua Bridge State Park in 1963 and opened it in 1970. In 1982 the B&O quit the branch and Sloan Cornell bought the right of way for his Knox and Kane Railroad. From August 1987 steam excursions ran from Marienville through the Allegheny National Forest onto the viaduct. A tornado dropped eleven towers in July 2003. The railroad stopped in 2006, and the Kovalchick Corporation bought it at auction in 2008. The corridor was rail banked for trail use in 2009. The Mt Jewett to Kinzua Bridge Trail Club formed in 2015, and Headwaters Charitable Trust finished buying the corridor in 2017. TAMED built outward from Kane while the club built from the Skywalk to Lantz Corners. In June 2026, a major gap closed, and the 31 miles from the Forest County line to the Skywalk opened as one trail. Plans are to connect the trail to the Rail 66 Country Trail, for one continuous 74 mile rail trail.
Twin Lakes Trail
