AMC is collaboratively planning a trail network that seeks to protect and connect the ecological and recreational assets of the Pennsylvania Highlands and to create “close-to-home” outdoor recreational opportunities.
The Pennsylvania Highlands Trail Network will extend the Highlands Trail (130 miles in New York and New Jersey) across the Pennsylvania Highlands, roughly 1.9 million acres from south-central PA at the Maryland border to New Jersey including 13 counties (Bucks, Montgomery, Northampton, Lehigh, Chester, Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon, Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Adams, and York).
The trail network will link existing trails such as the Horse-Shoe Trail, Mason-Dixon Trail System, and Appalachian National Scenic Trail with new trail segments including loops and spur trails. The trail network will also aid in implementing the PA Highlands Greenway vision (link to PA Highlands Greenway thumbprint) by acting as a corridor that will connect undisturbed natural lands and adjacent protected lands throughout the PA Highlands Greenway.
With assistance from the National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program as well as other partners AMC has developed an action and implementation plan, which will be implemented this fall. Through our advocacy efforts AMC has been supporting the RTCA program.
In order to promote the Trail Network as well as other recreational opportunities in the Pennsylvania Highlands AMC is creating a Pennsylvania Highlands Recreational Map as well as cards featuring individual hikes in the Pennsylvania Highlands.
View a map of the PA Highlands Trail Network area (PDF, 1.5 MB)
See a slideshow from the Hike the Highlands Trail Celebration>>
For more information:
Highlands Trail in the New York and New Jersey Highlands
For information about the PA Highlands Trail Network Project contact:
Jennifer Heisey, Mid-Atlantic Recreation Planner
610-868-6906
