Hiking the Great Woods of Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park

by Brian Schwarz, your Hiking Megalopolis guide

Everyone should have access to the woods, regardless of any qualifier you can think of - I mean EVERYBODY! That's why it's so amazing that Philadelphia - a city with shocking income disparity and blocks that are segregated along race and class lines - is home to a public resource so close to the urban core where anyone can gain access to an in-tact contiguous woods, with an easy-to-follow 5-mile hiking loop that leads through the urban wilds and only crosses a busy park road once!

Mountain bikers and competitive cross-country runners already know about sections of these great trails. Still, strikingly few hikers take the time to get to know this truly unparalleled hiking experience. Despite their proximity to the heart of the city, this is not some second-rate hike you do when you can't make it to the Wissahickon, the Reading Prong, Blue Mountain or the Poconos. Hiking the great woods of Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park actually feels like entering the lungs of this great city.

Topo map shows terrain, beneath the trees of West Fairmount's Great Woods

Most people who have been to West Fairmount Park are probably most familiar with aspects of the Centennial District, which includes the Philadelphia Zoo, the Horticultural Center with its Japanese Garden, the Mann Center for Performing Arts and the Please Touch Museum in Memorial Hall. Most also know the many picnic areas and the spectacular view to be seen of the Philadelphia skyline from the Belmont Plateau. But fewer know of the woods that lie east of the plateau, on either side of the ridge where you'll find Chamounix Drive and the multi-use Speedway Trail.

The Great Woods of Fairmount Park can be divided into two parts, Belmont Woods and Chamounix Woods. The Belmont Woods is a unique urban-riparian experience.  Bound by Greenland Drive to the north, Chamounix Drive to the west and the sweeping grassy knoll of Belmont Mansion to the south. It is bound by the Schuylkill Expressway, too, and the trails here dip down below the massive interstate highway taking you into quiet wetland zones where creeks trickle down through a mixed-growth forest. Trees that are hundreds of years younger trees, providing a unique forest experience with a high canopy and a dense understory. It's an experience that rivals and even tops many Pennsylvania state forests, most of which are still quite young in comparison.

The Great Woods of Fairmount Park - Belmont and Chamounix

The Satellite image above shows the near contiguous Great Woods of Fairmount Park. Notice where the Strawberry Mansion Bridge enters the picture, crossing the Schuylkill River on the bottom right of the photo. As the road enters the park it is called Greenland Drive until it reaches Chamounix Drive. Belmont Woods are to the left of Greenland and extend all the way to the edge to the grassy area in front of Belmont Mansion. The woods north and west of Chamounix Road stretch as far north as the Schuylkill Expressway - right up to the I-76/Roosevelt Boulevard interchange - then wraps around Chamounix Hill to continue back to Greenland Road.

Here's the best part - the Great Woods of Fairmount Park is home to an extensive network of wilderness trails that nearly ANYONE can do and where EVERYONE is welcome. That's right - you don't have to be a moneybags or have special equipment and such to enjoy these woods! Just strap on a sturdy pair of shoes, carry water and snacks, and carry a pack so you can haul out any trash you make while enjoying the woods. These are the people's woods!

Don't worry that the trails back in these woods are not marked; you can trust all of the trails to lead you eventually to a road. If there is a trail back there that just peters out and doesn't go anywhere - and I haven't found one yet after at least 15 trips to scout trails - then just turn back around and take another route. That's what's so amazing - you're never far from a way out of the woods, yet you could get lost in there for as long as you choose to. These Philadelphia woods are the epitome of the urban wilds.

GPS Map of the Great Woods Hike in West Fairmount Park

The above map shows a recent 5.3-mile hike I took, starting at the Chamounix Mansion Youth Hostel (see the green dot?) and doing a loop of the entire Great Woods Hike. During the hike, I only crossed traffic once - at the intersection of Belmont Mansion and Chamounix Drives, which, as it turns out, is at the three-mile mark, an excellent place to stop and have lunch at the Chamounix Picnic Area.

The road crossings at Ford Road and Greenland Drive each have wooded pedestrian crossings, where if you'd like to exit the woods you may, but you certainly don't have to. Just to give you an idea of how long it would take to do this 5..3-mile loop, I did the entire thing in about three hours, taking several breaks to sit beneath the towering trees and listen to the many birds that call these woods home. Because it is at once so accessible while feeling so remote, you can break up the hike any way you choose and still walk out of the woods feeling refreshed.

So are you ready to explore the Great Woods of Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park? Follow this link to a description of an epic loop hike that begins at Historic Strawberry Mansion, just across Strawberry Bridge in East Fairmount Park.

Also, for more information of other opportunities to explore the urban wilds and other hiking areas throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania and beyond, go to Facebook and like the Hiking Megalopolis community page. Free hikes are often listed. And please, TELL YOUR FRIENDS you saw it on Hiking Megalopolis!

Exploring the Uplands Hiking Trails of East and West Fairmount Parks

by Brian Schwarz

For the past six weeks, I have been exploring the uplands trails of East Fairmount Park. And today, inspired by The New Fairmount Park plan presented last night by the folks at Penn Praxis in conjunction with the City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department, I decided to check out some of the trails of the West Fairmount Park uplands as well. Here's a list of the Fairmount Park trails I've identified so far:

East Fairmount Park Trails

Lemon Hill Trail (Fairmount Avenue to Girard Avenue)

Uplands view from the Lemon Hill Trail of the Shuylkill River Trail below

This trail starts inconspicuously near the corner of Fairmount Avenue along Kelly Drive. Take the dirt path between Kelly Drive and Pennsylvania Avenue until it leads into the woods at 27th Street. At the 29th Street pedestrian bridge, turn left down hill, cross Sedgley Drive, and continue into the woods in front of Lemon Hill Mansion. This single-track dirt trail takes you along the escarpment between Lemon Hill and Kelly Drive, popping out of the woods only briefly between Oshanter Drive and the Lemon Hill Gazebo overlooking the Schuylkill River. It continues in the woods behind the gazebo all the way to the base of the steps at Girard Bridge. It ends here, but if you cross under the bridge you will find Glendinning Rock Garden just beyond Brewery Hill Drive.

Glendinning-Cliffs Trail (Girard Avenue to Reservoir Drive)

Cliffs mansion, in Sedgley Woods, along the Glendinning-Cliffs Trail

This trail begins at the Glendinning Rock Garden near the intersection of Kelly and Brewery Hill drives and leads up through Sedgley Woods to the abandoned Cliffs mansion, ending along Reservoir Drive at 33rd Street. Take the path that leads up to a doorway in an old stone wall, taking the stairs up to the top, and continue on the trail that leads up and to the left. At the top of this hill there is a veritable spiderweb of trails, but there is an outer ring trail you will follow out to the Schuylkill River overlook and then back along the railroad tracks. When the trail dips down and you see an entrance to the tracks, take it. Take the railroad tracks trail to the left, crossing under the railroad bridge. Then, look on the opposite side of the tracks for a trail that leads up into Sedgley Woods. Take this trail to the top of the hill where you will find a meadow. At the northwest corner of the meadow you find the Cliffs mansion. The trail continues out of the northeast corner of the meadow, where you will pass through the disc golf course and exit at the border between Sedgley Woods Disc Golf Course and the Strawberry Green Driving Range.

Boxers Trail (Reservoir Drive to Strawberry Bridge and Kelly Drive)

Mount Pleasant mansion as seen from the Boxers Trail, East Fairmount Park

The Boxers Trail is an amalgam of paved multi-use trail and gravel cart path that extends from Reservoir Drive at 33rd Street all the way to Strawberry Bridge. Follow the paved path past Sedgley Woods and Smith Playground & Playhouse, until it cuts across a field toward Fountain Green Drive. Near the base of Fountain Green, a gravel cart path enters the woods and continues along behind Mount Pleasant and several other historic homes before coming out of the woods again at the corner of Reservoir and Randolph drives. The Boxers Trail returns to pavement, arching around Randolph Drive between Laurel Hill Mansion and Edgley Field, continuing on to Strawberry Mansion. Behind Strawberry Mansion, the trail continues down two sets of steps, the first leading to Strawberry Bridge, and the second leading all the way to Kelly Drive.

West Fairmount Park Trails

Chamonix Woods Trail (Greenland Road to Falls Road)

"Brown Bear Stump" along the Chamonix Woods Trail, West Fairmount Park

This hilly run goes from Greenland Road, just west of Martin Luther King Drive, and leads up through Chamonix Woods to Chamonix Mansion. Enter the woods on the south side of Greenland Drive, then take the trail that hooks back and passes through a stone arch bridge. Continue on this wide trail - a former cart path or remnants of an old trolley line perhaps - as it sidles the Schuylkill Expressway. Just as the trail begins to go uphill, notice a single-track dirt path crosses it. The high trail goes to the left, passing by Chamonix Ball Fields, and the low trail goes to the right. Both will eventually join up again and take you all the way up to Chamonix Mansion. Cross the cul-de-sac, and the Chamonix Woods Trail continues down an old cart path, across an old stone bridge, where it turns sharply onto a smaller trail to the right. Continue on this path to its terminus near the intersection of Falls Road and Neill Drive.

Chamonix Creek Trail (Chamonix Drive to Ford Road)

Beneath the old stone bridge along the Chamonix Creek Trail

Across the cul-de-sac from Chamonix Mansion, located a few feet to the right of the cart path portion of the Chamonix Woods Trail, you will find a trail that is blazed bright orange and unofficially maintained by rogue mountain-bikers. According to locals, mountain bikers came in at night and blazed this overgrown historic trail by pruning back weeds and painting bright orange stripes on trees. Follow the orange blazed trail as it leads down to Chamonix Creek and continues as it passes beneath an old stone bridge (over which the aforementioned cart path passes) and continues to a spot along Ford Road just north of Chamonix Drive.

NOTE: Stay tuned for updates on this page, as I will add to it whenever I discover new trails and trail connectors - including the trails of the Belmont Plateau and West Park Wetlands.