Perkiomen Trail

Happy Father's Day!


Moss Covered Rocks

In 1874, the Perkiomen Railroad was carved out of the hillside along the Perkiomen Creek - this railroad later became the Perkiomen Branch of the Reading Railroad - leaving the main line at Perkiomen Junction just west of Washington's Headquarters building in Valley Forge National Historic Park and headed north to Emmaus, just west of Allentown, PA**. The tracks are mostly long gone now.

The main line still exists (now Norfolk Southern) and goes from Philadelphia to Reading and then north to the coal mines in the Poconos.

The red shale rock (under the moss) was hacked out by pick axe and manual labor around 133 years ago. Montgomery County bought the railroad right of way in 1978 and converted it into Perkiomen Trail. This portion of the 19 plus mile trail is nicely shaded and has great views of the Perkiomen Creek. I've walked every inch of this trail - some of them dozens of times or more.

The nicest thing about this stretch of trail in the red rock cut is that it is shady and usually the rocks keep the air nice and cool - so walking there in the summer is much nicer than walking anywhere else outdoors.

**This is the Allentown that Billy Joel sang about in the song of the same name.

Perkiomen Trail and Trail Side Pictures I wish I had taken, especially the one labeled "Root Over Rock" which I have seen and know exactly where the tree root in the picture is located!