Best Camping Trails in Pennsylvania

This is beautiful

Nice

Beautiful views and stunning rock formations. Keep alert though because this trail intersects with others and we got turned around more than once. take a map with you.

Beautiful trail with lots of great vistas at the top. Completed the 30.5 in 44 hours, 2 nights, going north bound. The terrain changes up a lot, from flat, incline, decline, rocky, stream crossings and just about everything in between so it is a great trail to get a bit of everything. There are lots of camping sites on the first half from the southern terminous but on the second half we spotted a lot less and didn't see any in the last 6 miles but we were moving quickly because it was raining so we could have missed something. Also the second half is the most senic if you are going north bound. There was plenty a water along the way. We saw 8 people NoBo on the second day and a group of 3 guys and a dog head SoBo along the trail.
All in all this would be a great trail to take your time. I would have love to do this trail in 3 days instead of rushing through but we had a time limit.

Great hike! Nice views and a chance to see the river at water level and above

Hiked on a humid Sunday evening. The trail was empty with only a few people at the falls. The trail to the falls is easy, but getting to the pools below is definitely challenging. Not sure if there’s an easier way to get to the bottom. The water is very cold but refreshing and the scenery is fantastic.

Great veiws! there are three great campsites on the north side of the mountain in the grassy area close to the east part of the trail. there is also a spot about a mile down the AT from the east. AT section is pretty smooth hiking with a couple uphills. the scenic section has nice veiws and just a little rocky on spots.

Great hike with the family yesterday. We hiked the outer loop and also all of the extension trails. It was a total of 8.5 miles and that took us 5 hours to complete.

just completed this trail for the first time in many years. I wanted to see the changes over the last 15 years. much of the trail is the same with the exception of two severe blowdowns which have occurred in the last few years. From what I was told there was a teenage girl who tragically lost her life during one of the storms. The trail is still quite and a great place to clear your head of all the day to day stress. I saw many deer for the two days I was on the minister and north country trails and many bear footprints as well.
This trail is heavily used at times in the summer months but you probably will not see many people.

I walked over a hr though Hibernia Park very relaxing today 7-13-18 a little buggy

Great trail..marked really good..2 overlooks. Warrens Window and Canyon Vista. 4.7 miles took me almost 4 hours with a few stops.

Awesome trail with some mildly rolling hills. Minimally technical. Over the past 10 years that I've been running this trail weekly I've only seen one bear, one rattlesnake, one coyote, but lots of deer. Very safe.

Great trail for a day hike. I would travel counterclockwise and there are a few areas where you can venture away from the trail towards the river for some great scenery of the rapids. If you are in the area go ahead and put this on your list!

trail is very poorly maintained. I was trenching through thick tall weeds for a good ½ mile after the bog. lots and lots of downed trees on trail. a few were about 4' above the trail. I love the outdoors so I can't knock it but I did it once and that was enough for me.
I thought with the black forest trail being nearby, I was in for a treat but it turned out to be much less than expected.
overall I won't say terrible but I won't be returning to that section.

Very easy hike to see a beautiful waterfall. However, this time of year there were a ton of people there swimming and blocking the path. Would go again later in the year.

Really easy trail. Hardest part was walking back up the hill to the car. I would not recommend going after it has rained. Definitely muddy near the bottom. Good for dogs and even kids.

What a neat geological attraction! I enjoyed the beauty of the CCC stone stairs, which I think add a lot to the scenic beauty of this trail-especially next to rainbow falls.

love this place

My 5 year old and I did the red loop on 7/82018. I was going to do a completely different trail but at the last minute figured we could get on it early and just take our time. About 1/2 way thru the trail just kind of disappeared. Being that I had my mini me in tow, I really wasn't paying attention to the numbered posts more that I was just following the arrows. Totally my mistake. I ended up using one of the maps that I grabbed at the the trail head and a compass and ended up back up, after maneuvering thru some tricking terrain, in the middle of "a" trail. Unfortunately, it was the black trail. This time I paid attention to the numbers and realized i where I was in the loop and and headed back to link back up to the red trail. Once I was back on the trail it was smooth sailing from there. We were out there for about 6-7 hours (stopping at the rivers, big rocks and anything else a 5 year old wants to stop for) and only saw a grand total of 5 people and a dog. 1 was a runner, 2 + the dog lived near by, and a man and his son were doing some fishing. All in all, this is not for kids (the description doesn't say kid-friendly) and is off the beaten path. The markings could have been better (in lieu of some official signs, there were pink ribbons tied to the trees...when they stopped is when we ended in no mans land) but for a more experienced hiker this was pretty good. Just a few streams but no major waterfalls/rivers. If nothing else from this reviews, like others said, grab a map or else it will be some tough sledding.

My backpacking buddy and I completed this hike June 17, 2018. I had hiked there years ago and the experience was the same. Wonderful! There are some uphills and downs so I guess the moderate rating is on the mark. we hiked into the Morrison camping area for the night on the 16th and hiked out the next day. I rated this as 4 stars because on the way out we skirted much area that had been logged out and the trail was very tight with brush and small growth. These tight areas were made even more difficult because of the constant rain on the way out. trail maintenance is lacking in certain areas but over all it was a fun time.

very beautiful...And pleasant.. but easy to loose track of the trail..good camspites near the river...

Today was a great hike. The blue markings on the trees were easy to follow and the views throughout were beautiful. Took us about 3 hours.
We enjoyed the babbling brooks throughout the tails. Mostly shaded. The vistas are well worth the hike to see.

Very steep heading up but once you get to the North Trail it levels out just in time for the views. Well worth it. Woodpecker Trail to North Trail then Appalachian Trail back to Woodpecker put us somewhere just over 5 miles.

Very awsome trail tons of water falls to see wonderful views

I didn’t go on the actual hike, but we checked out the field and the boards by it. Definitely worth coming to because it was an awesome view and it had interesting history. Check it out!

I love running this trail. Very well marked. Difficulty level varies depending on what side you are on. Some days the run calls for steep and rocky terrain. Some days it calls for a nice flow with some rolling hills. Or run the whole thing and get the best of both worlds. Plenty of bathroom, porta potty, stops. Two thumbs up.

My son and i do many different trails and decided for an easy walk to hawk falls and we were pretty disappointed when we got to the falls and found a huge group of people with coolers of beer and even a grill going. Music blasting etc. We couldn’t even get to the water to cool off. Please don’t get me wrong i love bbq’s and some cold beer but i believe there is a time and place. Personally i don’t feel the trails are the place to be partying especially when people bring small children for the experience and to come up to that was very disappointing. .

Can get very rocky at times but the view from the 501 lookout never gets old!

Great trail stayed at the AT campsite not crowded on a Friday night. Rocky, yes but no worse than most other sections of the AT in PA/NJ. Good hiking shoe is certainly recommended. There is a water source 1/4 mile south of the campsite on a separate trail. Parking off I80 can fill up very quickly. I got packed up and down to my car by 830 am and the parking lot was already full. The nearby creek has some popular water features many families coming early in the AM for just the creek. Many many options from this trail intersection include the Mt Tammany trail.