By jmcginnis11 on February 05, 2010
Stretching through picturesque southern York County, the Heritage Rail Trail County Park is one of the best greenways in this part of the country. After starting in downtown York, the trail follows the Codorus Creek to the city limits, then passes several industrial areas, which, while not aesthetically pleasing, nonetheless highlight the city's heritage as a manufacturing hub. Factories quickly give way to serene woodlands, bucolic farms and small towns a little further south, and dominate the trail's landscape for the remainder of the distance to the Mason Dixon Line and beyond. Highlights include the pictureqsue viaduct over Twin Arch Road, historical Howard Tunnel and the restored train stations in Hanover Junction, and New Freedom, and the beautiful, aptly named village of Railroad, which is nestled deep in a wooded hollow and features numerous old buildings. Although the rail line that parallels the trail is currently inactive, a company is currently purusing the possibility of opening a tourist train in the next couple years, and there have also been proposals to revive freight service. These plans, if successful, should not affect trail use, and, to the contrary, will be another great addition and tribute to the corridor's railroad heritage.
By cmefix on September 14, 2009
We took a ride on this trail, the Friday, over the 4th of July weekend. We started out in York so the scenery does not start to get nice until the first stop on the trail, although it was still a nice way to start the ride. This is pretty much a mountain bike trail as it is crushed stone all the way to the Maryland border. The trail itself was well taken care of, clean and well marked. Most of the trail is tree covered with sections that open up to completely no cover at all. It was really nice to ride past the little towns the trail crosses and to hit up the one rest area with food/water, as we ran out of water on our return trip. If you have the time as we did drive to the Railroad or New Freedom parking lots and ride the trail into Maryland. Its packed dirt but you get to ride downhill and the trail is narrow with shrubs on both sides before it opens up about a mile or so. The ride back is up hill and seemed to take forever so be prepared.
By pagrunner on August 21, 2008
I use the trail 4 or 5 times a week to jog or bike. Everyday I see more and more people enjoying the lovely scenery and peacefulness of the trail and at the same time doing something good for their health. I have a question because on this site it says there is an active rail line and there have been no trains on this trail for over 7 years and the last train was a dinner train that ran only on weekends. This went out of business.
This is of concern because if they started to try and revive the rail line, this would greatly impact the trails safety and quality.