Allegheny National Forest

My friends and I visited the Allegheny National Forest on a random road trip, and our first stop was Kinzua Bridge. I had never heard of the bridge until this trip to Pennsylvania, and on top of that I hadn’t even realized that much of it had been destroyed! Instead of removing what remained, part of the original bridge was preserved and transformed into an overlook. The result is one of the more unusual attractions I’ve come across in Pennsylvania, combining the ruins of an old railroad bridge with some excellent views of the surrounding mountains.

When we visited the bridge, we found a brand-new visitor center and museum. The woman behind the desk told us it had opened for the first time just the day before we arrived! The museum explains the history of the bridge and what eventually destroyed it. Built in 1882, the Kinzua Bridge was an impressive engineering achievement and, when completed, was the tallest railroad bridge in the world. It only held that record for a couple of years, but considering when it was constructed, the size of the bridge was still remarkable.

The bridge was originally built to help transport coal by railroad and remained in commercial service until 1959. It later became a tourist attraction, and in 2002 the bridge was closed so restoration work could begin. Then in 2003, while that restoration was still underway, a tornado passed directly through the valley. Powerful winds caused a large section of the bridge to collapse, leaving the twisted towers scattered across the valley floor as seen in these photos.

Rebuilding the entire bridge would have cost tens of millions of dollars, and since it was no longer needed for railroad traffic, the decision was made to preserve the surviving section instead. The remaining bridge now extends out over the valley as a pedestrian overlook, while much of the wreckage remains visible below. These photos show the views from the bridge, which must be especially impressive during autumn when the surrounding forest changes color.

After visiting Kinzua Bridge, we drove farther into the Allegheny Mountains to hike and camp for the night. We had originally planned to do a much longer trail, but because we arrived so late we switched to the Rimrock Trail. The trail begins near the Rimrock Overlook and quickly descends into the forest, making it an easy place to combine a relatively short hike with some great views.

Rimrock Overlook provides one of the best views in this part of the Allegheny National Forest. The photo above shows part of the overlook, while below is the view in the opposite direction. The water below is part of the Allegheny River system, which continues south toward Pittsburgh. There the Allegheny joins the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River.

From the overlook, my friends and I planned to hike about a mile toward the water and camp somewhere in the woods. From the map we knew there was a trail leading down toward Kinzua Beach, but we initially had trouble finding it. We even briefly pushed through some thick bushes before realizing there was no way that could be the trail. Eventually we returned to the overlook, where a local pointed out the stairs. We felt a little less stupid after seeing them because they’re surprisingly difficult to notice unless you’re standing almost directly in front of them. The stairs descend through a narrow passage in the rocks, and once we made it through there was finally a sign confirming that we were on the Rimrock Trail.

Here’s a photo of the woods we hiked through when we briefly went off trail and nearly decided to camp there. Allegheny National Forest is home to wildlife including black bears, white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, and plenty of smaller animals. I had hoped we’d come across a bear, but that never happened. In fact, the chipmunk photographed below was about the most exciting mammal encounter I had! I must have seen a dozen chipmunks throughout the forest.

The chipmunk was actually in a grassy area near Kinzua Beach. The beach is a relatively small recreation area along the water where visitors can swim and relax during warmer weather. We were there in the morning and practically had the place to ourselves. None of us were particularly motivated to jump into the water, although the sandy area and nearby recreation facilities looked like they’d be much busier on a hot summer afternoon.

While there weren’t many people swimming, there were plenty of boats on the water. Speedboats like the one above seemed pretty common, and even at night while we were camping we could occasionally hear one passing in the distance. The boat below was considerably more elaborate and even had a second-floor waterslide leading straight into the water!

Before this trip, most of my recent outdoor adventures had revolved around training for Mt. Everest, so this was the first time in a long while that I’d gone camping after such an easy hike. People probably don’t camp along this short section of trail very often, and we found plenty of fallen wood around our campsite. In places that receive more campers, finding enough usable firewood can sometimes be difficult, but that certainly wasn’t a problem here. With all the extra wood lying around, we ended up building an unnecessarily large campfire!

The heat may have disturbed the salamander photographed below, which suddenly appeared from beneath the leaves near our campsite. Between the forest, water, wildlife, and camping, this part of the trip ended up being a nice reminder that an outdoor adventure doesn’t always need to involve a difficult mountain or a major expedition.

This is my final photo from Allegheny National Forest. While we had the campfire going, one of my friends who loves to cook was making dinner for us. We were sitting around enjoying a few beers when I looked straight up at the trees and took this photo of the forest canopy. It was a simple ending to a short road trip, but between Kinzua Bridge, Rimrock, the river, and camping in the forest, Allegheny turned out to have a lot more to explore than I had expected.