Yough Trail ‘a wonderful asset’ of the Mon Valley
Scott Beveridge/O-R Bob Hand, director of Westmoreland Yough Trail Chapter, is seated where the paved road meets the Youghiogheny River in Cedar Creek Park, Rostraver Township.
Scott Beveridge/O-R An Adirondack lean-to provided by the Westmoreland Yough Trail Chapter for campers who choose to overnight in Cedar Creek Park, Rostraver Township
Scott Beveridge/O-R A tunnel of green greets those who head south on the Yough River Trail from Cedar Creek Park in Rostraver.
BELLE VERNON – When the road comes to an end at Cedar Creek Park, cyclists will encounter a breathtaking view of the meandering Youghiogheny River and a biking trail that will take them to either Pittsburgh to the north or southbound to Cumberland, Md., depending on how far they want to pedal.
For those who prefer to stick closer to where the Yough River Trail passes through the Westmoreland County park in Rostraver Township, there are 10.2 miles of crushed limestone trail surface, much of which cuts through a tunnel of unspoiled forest.
“Everything is natural,” said Bob Hand, a director of the Westmoreland Yough Trail Council, whose volunteers monitor and improve this section of the Great Allegheny Passage.
“This is a wonderful asset, but it’s also an economic generator,” said Hand, pointing to nearby West Newton, where three bed and breakfasts, a bar and restaurant and a bicycle shop have taken root as a result of the trail traffic.
This former Pittsburgh & Lake Erie rail line opened as a public trail in Rostraver in the early 1990s, prompting the park at Municipal and Evergreen drives to expand to the river’s edge.
As visitors head south on the trail from the park, they will quickly find an Adirondack lean-to with a stone cooking grill near the river’s edge for camping and also a campground with raised areas for pitching tents.
From there, the trail leads to a tufa formation or porous sedimentary rock with a waterfall and moss.
This section of the trail also has a granite monument honoring victims of the Port Royal Mine disaster that killed 10 coal miners in a methane gas explosion in June 1901.
The trail later passes the mammoth underworks of the Smithton Bridge along Interstate 70 before it cuts through an area popular with birdwatchers and reaches a picnic shelter at a popular swimming hole known as Smithton Beach.
The Rostraver section south ends not far from the coal patch named Van Meter.
The trail route north passes by another unique rock formation known as the mailbox, which has many small holes across its face, likely caused thousands of years ago when the river took a different route. Further north sits the abandoned Banning No. 4 Mine, a reminder of when much of this area provided the coal for Pittsburgh’s steel industry. The Rostraver trail corridor north of the park ends near Route 136 at West Newton.
Rostraver is the area along the trail where nearly everyone on the path says hello to each other with a smile as they cross paths, Hand said.
“The closer you get to Pittsburgh, the less that happens,” he said. “This is where it starts. City folk are conditioned to not speak to each other.”
Hand also said there isn’t a litter problem on this trail, as it’s kept clean by its users who pick up trash and put it where it belongs.
The next event at YRT is Trail Appreciation Day, which will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 5 at the visitor center just north of the West Newton Bridge. Free hot dogs and refreshments will be served while guests can meet the volunteers who make this resource possible.