Stony Valley Trail, Pennsylvania

The Stony Valley Trail is a 19 mile trail located near Harrisburgh, PA. We are from New Hampshire, but make many trips to Pennsylvania to ride the many beautiful trails. Click here to get a printable map of the trail and map of directions to the trail.

There are only two ways to get to the trail; at the eastern end near Ellendale and the western end near Dauphin. We started from the western end. To get there from Harrisburgh take Rt.322 north for 8 miles to Dauphin/Stony Creek exit (Rt. 255). Take exit and go 0.3 mile. Turn right at Stony Creek sign onto Schuylkill St. Go 0.1 mile and turn right onto Erie St. Go 0.1 mile and turn left onto Stony Creek Rd. Go 4.8 miles to Ellendale Rd. (dirt). Go 1.9 miles to the trail head.

This is the most isolated trail we have cycled in Pennsylvania. It follows the Stony Creek, but it is not very close to it most of the way and so we disn't have many views of the creek. It is through the middle of a forest and tree lined all the way. We bicycled out and back about 15 miles and there were no road crossings. The trail is against a large hill covered by boulders on the south side.

There were a few people on bicycles using the trail to reach fishing spots. We saw two groups of cyclists with guns coming from opposite ends of the trail. We were worried since we were in state game lands but a closer look showed that the guns were paint ball guns. We're glad we weren't in the middlel of a paint ball fight between the two groups. These were the only people we saw on the trail. We were there in April; it is probably more used in the summer.

The trail surface is relatively smooth, but not as smooth as many of the crushed limestone surfaces of other Pennsylvania trails. Here are pictures of the trail. There are several streches of several hundred feet with coarse gravel. We used mountain bikes with road tires which were fine. Hybrids would also be OK but we wouldn't use road bikes here.

We bicycled about 14 miles to the site of an old settlement at Rausch Gap. Even though this area is now isolated and is state game hunting land there was once mining here. The railroad was mainly used by the mining companies. Click here for historic information about the area the trail passes through. This source lists distances between points on the trail. It has an interactive map which connects to pictures and to descriptions of places along the trail. It has historic information on the railroad and coal mining and settlements along the route such as at Rausch Gap.

There is another reference to the history. This describes a trip from the eastern end of the trail at Gold Mine Rd. It got its name from a supposed gold mine which probably never existed. Here is a reference about this alleged mine.

At the site of Rausch Gap there is sign about the former community. The trail crosses Rausch Creek here. Because of the coal mines the water in Rausch Creek is acidic and fatal to fish. The creek enters into Stony Creek and so this water would be devastating to a majopr fishing stream. A short distance from the bridge there is a "diversion well". The entire stream is diverted by a pipeline through a chamber containing crushed limestone. The water pressure causes limestone to be ground into powder mixing with the with the water to reduce its acidity. It is worth walking to this spot to see the stream disappear into this chamber and come out. This site has info about the workings ofl the diversion well.

In general the trail is pleasant, but compared to other Pennsylvania trails which follow closer to streams we were disappointed in not getting better views. Back to Home Page.