Wissahickon Valley Park

There are 57 miles of trails in Wissahickon Valley Park, a lush, 1,800-acre gorge, crossing forest and meadow before plunging down to the sun-dappled waters of the Wissahickon Creek.

Visitors find themselves lost in a feeling of wilderness as they walk, bike or ride horse through this undisputed gem of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park system.

Permits are required to use the upper trails for off-road biking or horseback riding.

The History

Despite the feeling of quiet wilderness, visitors find plenty of history in Wissahickon Valley Park.

The Wissahickon Gorge belongs to the Piedmont Province of Pennsylvania, a strip of sloping land rising from the Atlantic coastal plain on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains. The creek drops more than 100 feet in altitude as it passes through the gorge, before it finally merges with the Schuylkill River.

A series of stone bridges and huts date back to the WPA era, two beloved statues pay tribute to the Leni Lenape tribe of Native Americans and the early Quaker settlers who once loved these grounds, and the now-crumbling dams offer gurgling memories of industrial mills that once drew power from the creek.

The Fairmount Park Commission acquired the 1,800 acres of the Wissahickon Valley in 1868 in order to preserve the purity of the City’s water supply. Mills and taverns were demolished, and in 1920, the wide road paralleling the creek was closed to vehicular traffic and became Forbidden Drive.