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The Slate Heritage Trail follows Trout Creek for about three miles between Slatedale and the Main Street Trailhead in Slatington, where it meets the D & L Trail beside the Lehigh River. It uses the old Lehigh Valley Railroad slate branch, so the grade is rail flat, with only a gentle fall toward Slatington. Pavement covers the Slatington mile; crushed stone carries the rest west through Washington Township and Emerald to the Slatedale athletic fields. Four bridges cross the creek, including a restored railroad trestle and the Trout Run Covered Bridge with its picnic pavilion. Slate benches, a slate restroom building, and interpretive panels mark the quarry country the line once served.
Slate Heritage Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Slate Heritage Trail has about 115 to 163 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, birding, e-biking, running, 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 Slate Heritage Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Slate Heritage Trail peaks October 20 to November 1, typically around October 25. The trail has 39% deciduous coverage, with the majority being chestnut oak, red maple, northern red oak, white ash, and white oak.
Two Welsh quarrymen found slate leaning against a barn near Slatington in 1844 and knew what they were looking at. William Roberts and Owen Jones leased land and opened the first quarry the next year. A school slate factory followed in 1849 on the north branch of Trout Creek, and the town took the name Slatington from the stone. Slatedale, up the creek to the west, did the same. By 1914 more than twenty quarries were at work in the area, and many of the hands were Welsh. The Lehigh Valley Railroad opened a branch up Trout Creek in 1874 to carry freight and finished slate from the quarries to its main line at Slatington. Roofing slate, blackboards, and school slates rode this line to the river. The branch ran until 1947, and the quarry trade it served was already fading. In April 2001 a committee of the Northern Lehigh Historical Society took up the empty right-of-way as a rail trail, working with Slatington Borough, Washington Township, and Walnutport. Volunteers restored the original trestle over Trout Creek, set two pedestrian bridges, and raised the Trout Run Covered Bridge from the ground up. The Slate Heritage Trail opened on October 4, 2004, with the covered bridge dedicated the same year. The society still maintains the trail today, with slate benches, a slate restroom building, and interpretive panels along the way.
