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The Stony Valley Rail Trail follows the old Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad grade for about 21 miles up Stony Creek, from the Ellendale gate east of Dauphin to an overlook above the Lebanon Reservoir. The whole route lies inside State Game Lands 211, a roadless block of forest between Second Mountain and Sharp Mountain that Moravian missionaries named St. Anthony's Wilderness. There are no towns, no services, and almost no road crossings. The grade climbs gently and steadily eastward on a coarse gravel and cinder bed under a nearly continuous canopy. Along the way it passes the ruins of the Cold Spring resort and the mining ghost town of Rausch Gap, where the Appalachian Trail crosses.
Stony Valley Rail Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Stony Valley Rail Trail has about 121 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 Stony Valley Rail Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Stony Valley Rail Trail peaks October 21 to 29, typically around October 24. The trail has 70% deciduous coverage, with the majority being chestnut oak, red maple, northern red oak, and sweet birch.
In 1742 a Moravian missionary looked down on this valley from a ridge and named it St. Anthony's Wilderness. Coal changed that. Dr. Kugler opened a mine on the north slope of Sharp Mountain in the 1820s, and from 1849 to 1854 the Dauphin and Susquehanna Coal Company built a railroad up Stony Creek from the Susquehanna River to Rausch Gap. The line became the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad. It hauled anthracite west toward the river and carried summer guests to the mineral-water hotels at Cold Spring. The valley filled with mining towns: Rausch Gap, Yellow Springs, Cold Spring, Gold Mine, and a stop called Water Tank. Rausch Gap alone had about 1,000 residents by 1860. In 1872 the railroad moved its shops and offices from Rausch Gap to Pine Grove, and the town emptied within a decade. The coal seams played out around 1890 and lumbering took over. The Cold Spring hotels burned in 1900. Coal and lumber still moved on the line until 1939, when the railroad gave it up. In 1945 the Pennsylvania Game Commission bought about 44,000 acres of the valley as State Game Lands 211 and turned the railroad bed into a restricted-access trail, one of the earliest rail trails in the country. The grade has changed little since. Today the Appalachian Trail crosses it at Rausch Creek, the Horse-Shoe Trail joins it near the west end, and the Game Commission opens the gates to cars for one day each October.
Appalachian TrailHorse-Shoe Trail
