Laurel Highlands Trail - Section

The Laurel Highlands Trail is a 70-mile point-to-point backpacking route crossing the Laurel Ridge from Ohiopyle south to Seward in Westmoreland County, and this out-and-back section samples the trail's northern terminus near Ohiopyle. The route climbs aggressively from the Youghiogheny River gorge through mixed oak forest and mountain laurel thickets onto the broad crest of Laurel Ridge, one of the defining landforms of the Allegheny Plateau. Mountain laurel blooms in spectacular pink and white masses in June, transforming the ridgetop into a continuous flowering corridor. The trail is blazed with yellow diamonds and maintained by volunteer crews, passing through remote second-growth forest with no road crossings. Designated backpacking shelters at roughly eight-mile intervals are reserved through the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, making multi-day traverses straightforward to plan. Day hikers sampling the northern section encounter the steepest terrain on the entire route, with sustained climbs of several hundred feet per mile immediately out of Ohiopyle. The ridge top rewards with long views westward over the Yough River valley and eastward toward Chestnut Ridge. Wildlife is abundant: black bears, white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and timber rattlesnakes are all year-round residents. The trail is open for skiing and snowshoeing in winter, when the shelters remain available on a first-come basis.