The Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail (LHHT) runs 70 miles through Pennsylvania from Ohiopyle to PA RT 56 just a few miles west of Johnstown. While Pennsylvania has no shortage of backpacking trails, the LHHT is one of the more popular trails. The trail travels it entire length along Laurel Ridge. This part of Pennsylvania features some of the highest elevations in the state with the LHHT topping out at 2,961', making it one of the highest trails in PA.
Unlike most trails in Pennsylvania that travel on state forest lands, much of LHHT travels on state park and State Game Lands. Since camping on Game Lands is prohibited and PA State Parks require reservations, camping is limited to designated shelter areas. Eight shelter areas are spaced out along the trail, anywhere from 5-12 miles apart. Each shelter area contains five shelters and up to thirty tentsites. With the exception of Grindle Ridge Shelter Area, all of the shelter areas have a water pumps. All of the shelters have pit toilets, bear poles, and trash cans. Some even have firewood. Unlike shelters on other trails, the LHHT shelters all have a fireplace at the front of the shelter as well.
The LHHT also has mileage markers at every mile. While I have seen this on a few other trails, it isn't that common. The trail is marked with Mile 0 at the south end of the trail and Mile 70 at the north end. Since we were hiking southbound, we had a countdown of the mileage as we passed each marker
I have known about the LHHT for many years. While I was interested in hiking it, I always lived somewhat far from the trail. Since I moved to West Virginia, I'm less than two hours from the southern end of the trail. I was looking for a shorter thru hike and it seemed like the right time to hit the LHHT. Since the trail is not a loop, a shuttle is required to get from one end of the trail to the other. With shuttle prices kind of pricey for just one person, I reached out on several PA hiking and backpacking groups on Facebook for a hiking partner. I didn't have any luck.
I just so happened to reach out to Jeff Mitchell about a new proposed trail in Pennsylvania. Jeff literally wrote the book on backpacking in PA with his book Backpacking Pennsylvania: 37 Great Trails. He was looking to thru hike the LHHT and we agreed to backpack it together to avoid hiring a shuttle. Jeff has backpacked the AT, Colorado Trail, Long Trail, Northville Placid Trail, and countless shorter trips. He seemed like a good fit to join me on the LHHT. Jeff was available at the end of June and we had our trip planned. We started on Friday, June 27th.
Day 1
Northern Terminus to RT 271 Shelters
13.1 Miles
We met in Ohiopyle around 1030AM. Jeff left his car in the dedicated LHHT lot in town and we drove my van to the northern terminus just west of Johnstown. The drive was a little over an hour. We hit the trail just after noon.
After a week with temperatures in the 90s, it was slightly cooler, but extremely humid days and temps in the mid to upper 80 were still forecasted . The trailhead sits between 1200' and 1300'. Over the first 4-5 miles hiking south, the trail gradually climbs to the height of Laurel Ridge between 2,400'-2,700'.
Water pumps provide water at most of the shelter areas. We found that pumping water was a workout in itself. It was difficult to fill bottles without a second person. We were surprised to find that the shelter areas had men and women's bathrooms with pit toilets. Most of the shelter area bathrooms had toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and bear proof trash receptacles. All of the shelter areas had bear poles for food storage.
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Foggy forest at our first shelter
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When night fell, it didn't take too long for mice to emerge in the shelter. The mice didn't really seem to bother my gear too much, but I did have them crawling on me a few times. Because the shelters have a large fireplace blocking half of the shelter opening, the shelter was stuffy on the humid night. I didn't sleep under my quilt much of the night, giving the mice easier access to crawl on me.
It didn't end of raining much after we settled in the shelter for the night. I could see some distant lightning, but it never seemed to get too close. Probably most impressive was the light show from the lightning bugs in the forest. At one point we heard a barred owl.
Day 2
RT 271 Shelter Area to RT 31 Shelter Area
24.4 Miles
We started our second day with a mile walk back to the trail from the shelter. Around 745AM we were back on the LHHT. We had a long day planned of 24.4 trail miles plus, the bonus mile on the shelter side trail. Unlike other trails, there isn't much flexibility on the LHHT for camping. You have to stick to your reservations. Although we only saw rangers at one shelter, apparently it's pretty common for them to check reservations at the shelter areas. Jeff made the reservations and I was agreeable to his plan. With long nights in late June, I wasn't too concerned about the mileage. Because of shelter area spacing 24.4 miles seemed like the best option.
Although it wasn't raining, everything was quite wet from the night before. It was still quite humid. Because of the saturated vegetation, we both opted to start the day in our wet socks. Chances are that dry socks wouldn't stay dry for too long any way. This proved to be the right strategy with sections of dense ferns and other vegetation encroaching the trail at places.
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| Toad |
We weren't on the trail very long before we encountered one of the LHHT best features. The LHHT passes by and through lots of rock features. The trail frequently passes through corridors of tall rock and rock mazes. Most of them, the walls along the trail are much taller than a person.
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The first of many rock features the trail
hikes through |
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| In a rock maze |
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| Moss lined many of these features |
Most of these rock features are covered with lichens and bright green moss. These rocky areas seemed to pop up out of nowhere. We would be hiking through a flat ridge top of ferns and hardwoods. Then all of the sudden you would come to these rock features. They were definitely one of best features of the trail and quite abundant.
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| Rock tripe |
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| Another mossy rock maze |
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| Closeup of the bright green moss |
One of the reasons I wanted to hike the LHHT in June, was to catch the mountain laurel blooms. Mountain laurel grows quite abundantly in the Alleghenies. If you can catch the blooms at their peak, it's quite a scene. While we were a little late in June to catch the peak blooms, we did encounter quite a few laurel thickets still near their peak. Some of the laurel you could see was past peak, but we did pass enough blooming flowers to make me happy.
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| Mountain laurel |
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| Laurel on the edge of the trail |
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One of the better Laurel thickets
Still at peak bloom |
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| Dense laurel thicket |
We found ourselves cruising along the ridge on pretty easy terrain for the most part. There really isn't much in the way of elevation change with the trail sticking to the ridge. Apart from the rock tunnels and corridors the trail really isn't too rocky either. Probably the biggest obstacle is where the trail passes through stretches of ferns and crowd the trail.
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| Chicken of the woods |
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| Dense ferns crowding the trail |
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Tiny mushrooms overtaking
A stump |
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| A narrow rock corridor |
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| In the middle of the rock corridor |
Another neat feature of the trail was the mushrooms. The past couple months have been quite rainy. This seemed to provide good habitat for mushrooms. There were quite a few varieties growing along the trail.
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| Hiking through dense ferns |
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Two seats with a tic tac toe
Table carved out of stumps |
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| Mushrooms growing between rocks |
We passed a few other interesting things along the trail. At one point, trail maintainers carved a couple of chairs out of stumps with a table in the middle. On the table was a carved tic tac toe board with game pieces. A little further along, the trail crosses the Forbes Road, a historical wilderness road from 1758.
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The trail crosses the historic
Forbes Road |
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| Laurel lining the trail |
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| Closeup of a gillled mushroom |
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| Large rock formation |
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| Passing thru another rock cleft |
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| This rock formation looked like a ship |
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| Another interesting formation |
The weather improved and even became sunny by midmorning. The first day, the ridge was dry with no water sources. We started to encounter more small streams as we headed south. Right after crossing US 30, we came to the nicest stream in our first 25 miles. We had lunch at the stream and took advantage of the sun to help dry our socks and shoes.
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The LHHT had bridges over every little
Creek and ditch |
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An example of a bridge over a nearly
nonexistent dip |
After lunch it seemed sunny and dry. I put on my dry socks. That was a mistake. Within a few minutes it started to thunder. The rain soon followed. When the rain started I switched back to my damp socks. I didn't want two pairs of wet socks if I could help it. The thunder never seemed too threatening and the rain lasted just long enough to make everything wet again.
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| A tectonic cave along the rock maze |
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| Hiking along a rock wall |
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| A tight rock maze |
The LHHT doesn't have too many views for a 70 mile trail. Later in the afternoon we reached Beam Rocks. Beam Rocks is an open rock outcropping with a view over the valley and a distant ridge with wind turbines. This was our first view in nearly 25 miles. By the time we got the there, the sun had been out a while and things started to dry. We took an extended snack break with time to air out our wet feet. I decided to put my dry socks back on.
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| Beam Rocks Overlook |
About four miles beyond Beam Rocks, the LHHT reaches the PA Turnpike. The trail crosses the Turnpike on a snowmobile/hiker bridge. The overpass is even labeled so passing vehicles on the Turnpike know they are driving under the LHHT. By the time we reached the Turnpike, clouds started to move in with some distant thunder. We couldn't really see the sky in the forest. From the bridge, we had a clear view to the west. The sky was ominously black. It looked like an apocalyptic storm was moving in. The storm must have slid to the north because we didn't get too much rain or scary thunder for how threatening the sky looked. Once again, I switched back to my damp socks.
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| The trail crosses the PA Turnpike |
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| Crossing the Turnpike |
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| Storm moving in over the Turnpike |
The storm didn't last too long, but once again left the vegetation wet. About a mile and a half past the Turnpike, we reached the halfway point of the trail. We reached our home for the night at the RT 31 Shelter Area about 805PM. We once again had a shelter and we were the only ones in the area for the night. Fortunately, this shelter area was much closer to the main trail compared to the extra mile each way to our previous shelter.
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| Foxglove |
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| Halfway through |
The shelter was stuffy from the humid night and the fireplace blocking the airflow. I did seem to sleep better than the first night. I didn't notice any mice at this shelter. Perhaps that's why I slept better. Either that, or I was tired from the humid 25 mile day and slept through any mice crawling over me. Once again there was quite an impressive display of lightning bugs after dark. At times you could here road traffic in the distance from RT 31. It wasn't too loud though and didn't cause any problems sleeping. My only real problem with this shelter area was the water from the pump. The water was quite rusty, but the rust filtered out.
Day 3
RT 31 Shelter Area-Ohiopyle Shelter Area
26.2 Miles
We were on the trail about 745AM. We had an even longer day planned than yesterday with 26 miles ahead of us until or next reserved shelter. After a couple of days with rain, the forecast looked a little better. We started the day however hiking in low clouds that left the ridge misty.
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| Lily |
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| The LHHT is lush this time of year |
I really didn't want to start the day in wet socks. With no rain forecasted I put on my dry socks. The high humidity and low clouds left the vegetation pretty wet however. It didn't take long for my dry socks to become pretty damp.
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| Nice section of trail |
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| Lots of mushrooms with the rainy spring |
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| Another foggy morning along the ridge |
Not far beyond RT 31, we saw our first deer on the trail. Deer are pretty abundant in PA. I'm surprised we hiked nearly 40 miles before seeing one.
The trail crosses another road when it reaches Seven Springs Mountain Resort. The trail follows service roads and ski trails as it makes its way through the ski area. Hiking through the ski area gives you a taste of hiking the Colorado or Long Trails, which both pass through multiple ski area. We did get a few partial views while passing through the resort. Unfortunately, the low clouds clinging to the ridge didn't provide us with the best visibility. The trail reaches its high point of 2,961' when leaving the resort. Shortly after leaving the ski area behind, we stopped for our first break of the day.
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| Cloudy view from the slopes of Seven Springs |
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| Lily at Seven Springs |
After dropping from the high point, the trail crosses a road at the base of Seven Springs near a main lodge. You can get a meal at the lodge, which is within sight of the trail crossing. We didn't stop at the lodge. However, we did take advantage of a spigot with potable water by the road crossing. The next couple of miles of trail cross Blue Hole Creek. The creek contains heavy metals and isn't recommend for drinking, even with purification. We enjoyed the clean water and stocked up for our next several miles.
After our lunch, we reached a couple of rock outcroppings with views just a couple minutes later. Had we known we were so close to a couple of nice vistas, we would of had our lunch there. The two viewpoints were only a few minutes from each other.
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| Middle Fork viewpoint |
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| Looking further south from the viewpoint |
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| Zoomed in shot of the view |
Even though it was still pretty warm and consistently sunny in the afternoon, it didn't feel quite as humid. I was happy to have dry feet for the rest of the day. I also appreciated that the brushy sections were also dry.
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| Morning glory |
As we moved south, the trail came across water more frequently. It seemed like we were never too far from a stream. We didn't see any water sources at all on the first 13-14 miles on our first day of hiking. Every single stream we crossed had a bridge over it. Even some very small ditches had bridges over them. The trail maintainers really don't want hikers crossing even the narrowest tickle.
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| Graveyard along the trail |
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| Small cascade |
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| Looking down a pipeline right of way |
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| Crossing the gas pipeline |
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| Good stretch of trail |
Early in the evening, we reached on of my favorite spots on the entire LHHT. The trail skirts a small lake. There is a nice view of the lake as the trail crosses the outlet. As we walked along it, you could hear croaking frogs. The name of the lake isn't marked on the map, but I seen elsewhere that it's called Bullrush Pond. We took our last break of the day by the outlet. I enjoyed soaking my feet for a moment and cleaning some of the mud off my legs too.
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| Lake between mile 13 and 14 |
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| Mushroom near the pond’s outlet |
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| I believe these are Angels of Death |
Even though we hiked about 18 miles at this point, we still had about 8 miles to hike to the Ohiopyle Shelter Area when we left the pond after 6PM. The trail crosses several small streams in this section. We went through at least one more rocky corridor in the evening. Generally the trail was fairly easy as it cruised around 2,400'-2,500' before gradually climbing to 2,700' over a couple miles. We spooked a few deer as the forest grew darker.
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| Shallow creek |
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| The rock features continue further south |
The last mile and a half of the day, the trail began its steepest descent that we encountered to this point. The trail drops as it roughly follows the course of a steep mountain steam. By this point we were losing light quickly and we had to start using headlamps. Jeff was hiking in the front, and generally his light was enough that I didn't have to use mine too often. When sections of the trail were a little rocky and wet, I would turn my light on to avoid tripping or stepping in a deeper puddle.
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| Cruising along the trail in the evening |
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| Twilight view |
We didn't get to the shelter area until 930PM. By then it had been completely dark for about 15 minutes. The shelters were a short, but fairly short drop from the main trail, down to the creek. I was happy to have a shelter reserved after such a late night. Even though there was a pump at the shelter, the creek seemed like the better choice after the rusty water at the shelter last night. We were the only ones at the shelter area.
Jeff gathered water, but went to bed without eating. He had a pretty big snack back at the lake. I was hungry and decided to cook. Almost immediately I knocked over my pot. I didn't lose much of my ramen, but I made a mess. I did my best to clean the spilled food out of the dirt to avoid attracting rodents, but there were some morsels of noodles still in the dirt. I wanted to shovel my dinner down and go to bed, but it seemed to take forever to cool enough to eat. I didn't get to bed until 1030PM.
Since it was already long after dark, it didn't take long for the mice to emerge. I could hear them scurrying around, climbing over my gear, and even felt them on me a couple times. Even though I was pretty tired from two long days in the fairly hot weather, I didn't sleep great. The shelter was really stuffy. It was noticeably warmer as we dropped off the ridge and the shelters don't have much airflow with the fireplace blocking most of the open side. The noisy mice didn't help with my sleep.
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| Our last shelter on the LHHT in the morning |
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| Our shelter at Ohiopyle (Bidwell) Shelters |
Day 4Ohiopyle Shelter Area to Southern Terminus
6.3 miles
Despite a somewhat restless night, I felt pretty refreshed by morning. We slept in a little later with a short day ahead of us. We hit the trail about an hour later than the previous two mornings.
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| Interesting mushrooms |
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There were quite a few varieties of
mushrooms along the trail |
The trail dropped steeply for a half mile or so after leaving the shelter before reaching Lick Run. Lick Run is a nice mountain stream sitting around 1,500', and our lowest point since the start of the trail. Leaving Lick Run, the trail climbs back up to 2,100'. This was the steepest climb of the entire trail for the southbound hiker. There was a little relief from the humidity yesterday afternoon, but it was quite muggy this morning. The climb felt even steeper in the humidity.
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| A newer bridge over Rock Spring Run |
The trail levels out for a mile or so. Much of the level terrain was filled with fairly dense vegetation crowding the trail. The level ride didn't last too long before another descent lost most of the elevation we gained. This was followed by the second steepest climb on the trail for the southbound hiker.
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| Small window of a view |
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| Good tread |
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| Back into overgrown trail |
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| Another newer bridge |
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| Crossing a shallow, rocky stream on a bridge |
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| Nicely groomed trail |
We topped out above 2,000' for the last time on the second climb. At this point we had less three miles left on the LHHT. This was the start of the best views on the entire trail. We came to our first outcropping before the final descent into Ohiopyle. A fantastic vista looks upstream over the Youghiogheny River and the ridges that surround it. I consider this the best view of the entire trail. After a short descent we reached another rock outcropping overlooking the river and probably the second best view on the entire trail in my opinion.
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| The first vista over the Youghiogheny |
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| My favorite view on the LHHT |
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| Second view of the Youghiogheny |
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| Ridge upstream over the river |
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| Tomcat enjoying the view |
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| Another view at the ridges over the river |
Leaving the second overlook, the trail drops relatively steeply. There are a couple partial views through the trees as you lose elevation. The last mile and a half of the trail levels out. We passed a couple of trailside rock features in the last mile or so. We encountered the first rhododendrons with blooming flowers since the beginning of the trail.
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| Black cohosh? |
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| More mushrooms |
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| The last mile |
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| Rhododendron flowers near the south end of the trail |
We reached the official end of the trail at Mile 0 around 1130AM. We hiked the trail in less than 72 hours. Even though were officially finished with the trail, there is a short walk of maybe 1/4-1/2 mile to actually reach town and where we were parked.
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| Mile 0- the end of the line |
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| The last few feet of the trail |
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| Sign at the southern trailhead |
We weren't quite finished however. We decided to end our hike at Ohiopyle Falls in the middle of town. We walked another 1/4-1/2 mile along the river until we reached the overlook at the falls. The photo doesn't do much justice because the river is so wide, but the falls actually drops about 20' and is pretty impressive up close and quite loud. We returned to the car to get rid of our gear and change into less smelly clothing before enjoying an apres-hike burger in town. Within 20 minutes of getting off the trail it began to thunder. While we were eating, it rained pretty hard while we were inside. I guess we finished our hike at just the right time.
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| Ohiopyle Falls drops about 20-foot |
Overall, I enjoyed the LHHT. I found it to be a fairly easy hike for the most part. For me, the biggest challenge was dealing with the humidity and wet feet. It has been a few years since I have been on a backpacking trip that was this humid for the duration of the trip. While the trail may not have that many far-reaching views, the lush green forests, varieties of mushrooms, and abundant rock features are quite attractive. I really enjoyed Bullrush Pond as well. I'm glad I finally tackled the LHHT.
It was kind of nice backpacking with someone else on this trip. While I did hike with several different people I met on the Colorado Trail last year, it was usually not much more than a few miles at a time and we would eventually part ways after a few days at the most when our plans differed. This was the first time I actually set out on a backpacking trip with someone in at least 12 years when I lived in Maine and the J Man joined me on several trips. Jeff has a lot of backpacking experience and some stories to share and lots of knowledge identifying plants and such.
After the finishing the trail, I wanted to check out a couple waterfalls in Ohiopyle State Park, just a few minutes from town. First, I went to Meadow Run Slide. This isn't that much of a waterfall. It's a long sluice with a decent drop that forms a natural waterslide. The area was pretty busy with people swimming. I ended up taking quick swim myself at a pool near the bottom of the slide to help wash off 72 hours of trail funk off my body. I felt refreshed and a little cleaner. The water was chilly, but felt great on a humid day in the upper 80s.
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The main section of Meadow Run Slide with people
at the top to get a sense of scale |
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Pool where I took a dip, it was over my head
right off the rocks |
I then headed over to Cucumber Falls. Unfortunately my trip to Cucumber Falls didn't go as planned. As I got to the parking area, I reached some sort of organized event going on. It turned out they were shooting a movie at the falls. I was stopped twice on my way down to the falls to stay out of the shooting line of sight. I wasn't able to actually get too close to the falls. I was able to snap a quick photo between takes from a distance and then left. The falls is quite pretty though with a 30-foot drop from an overhanging cliff. I'm glad I took a dip at the slides since I couldn't get to the water here.
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| Cucumber Falls with actors between takes |
More Information
A free map of the trail with an elevation profile, mile markers, points of interest, and shelter detail is available at the Ohiopyle State Park Visitor's Center at the south end of the trail. Some of the trailheads have maps as well.
Maps, general information, trail alerts, and campsite reservations can be found by calling 724-455-3744 or visiting
Laurel Ridge State Park. Camping reservations cost $4/person per night for PA residents and $5/person per night for out of state residents plus a small transaction fee as of this posting.
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