Outside Pittsburgh Is A Serene Pennsylvania State Park With Trails For Hiking, Mountain Biking, And Birding

In stark contrast with Steel City's industrial architecture and heritage, the vast area surrounding Pittsburgh is rife with natural parks ideal for laid-back hiking, biking, and even wildlife spotting. A place featuring all the above is Hillman State Park –- a serene pocket of green with several dedicated trekking and mountain biking trails, as well as birdwatching opportunities galore. Adding to that, Hillman State Park is easily accessible as a day trip from the city, thanks to its proximity (it's just a 30-minute drive away). You're also likely to hear bikers refer to the park as "Bavington", a nickname derived from its neighboring community.

With 3,600 acres of woodland pines and winding paths, it should come as no surprise that Hillman State Park has dozens of trails suitable for a variety of outdoor delights: cycling, walking, and even horseback riding. Depending on the season, visitors can also enjoy fishing and hunting, as the park is part of Pennsylvania's State Game Lands and is regularly used by sport hunters. On the other hand, visitors can enjoy wildlife spotting year-round, with spring bringing a chance to enjoy migration season and fall attracting raptors and warblers during the cooler climate spell.

Unlike its neighboring state parks, Hillman is more rustic (and less maintained), and consequently chosen as a more serene alternative for hikers, bikers, and wildlife watchers who want to experience a more intimate immersion in nature. However, that means visitors should be prepared to find little or no essential facilities (including no restrooms or picnic rest areas), and indeed no amenities along the trails and trailheads.

There are over 34 miles of trails in the park, spanning a variety of distances and suitable for all skill levels. All of them allow hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding (though watch out for seasonal closures), and they're a great way to dive deeper into the park to enjoy serene birdwatching. The 0.8-mile-long Gelding Trail is easily accessed from the southwestern entrance to the park, and it's among the shortest, flattest, and easiest out-and-back walking routes. From this pine-filled, woodland trail, visitors can easily pivot to a longer hike filled with wildlife, which is also a prime path for mountain biking on gravel: the Switchback, Abby, Haul, and Van Gorder Trail.

Hillman State Park may not be a match to Pennsylvania's Great Allegheny Passage, which features among the most breathtaking trails according to riders. Yet, lovers of the sport on two wheels can enjoy Hillman's wealth of mountain biking trails crossing a corner of nature-rich southwestern Pennsylvania. The park is an ideal playground for bikers, with almost 30 miles of maintained single-track, double-track, and dirt roads available to both experienced and novice riders. Trails include the Airport Trail South / Rollercoaster (rated at a medium-to-difficult skill level) and the easier, 2-mile-long Short 'n' Sweet Trail. When planning a visit, it's worth noting that mountain biking is restricted during hunting season. 

Regardless of which path travelers pick, they can count on a wide variety of landscapes to be found across the park: wetlands, ponds, and high grasses at the Wetlands and Old Mare Trail; birds, butterflies, and tranquillity at the Meadow Trail; and tall pines along well-marked routes at the Figure 8 and Pitch Pine Trail.

This Pennsylvania park has established a reputation as a great birdwatching destination, with avian categories including raptors, thrushes, and warblers. Visitors have good chances of spotting American woodcocks, nuthatches, and ovenbirds – all listed among the commonly spotted specimens on the observation logging platform, eBird. The park is closely linked to the ecosystem of Raccoon State Park, an area remarkable in its own right as Pennsylvania's underrated park with a waterfall, beach, and wildflowers. In fact, Hillman State Park shares a designated conservation mandate with the latter, which includes several bird species. Eastern bluebirds, ruffed grouse, and Louisiana waterthrush are among the dozen notable ones present in the park.

As the home of biodiversity havens such as the Allegheny Mountains and a chunk of the Great Lakes, it should come as no surprise that Pennsylvania is considered among the best birdwatching destinations in the U.S. However, birds are not the only extraordinary creatures that Hillman State Park fosters. Visitors can also have the chance of encountering deer, muskrat, rabbits, and beavers. And, of course, hunting game is also abundant, including pheasants and turkeys.

The presence of diverse habitats in the park is no doubt the reason for such variety, with wildflowers growing close to streams, milkweed in the vast fields, and fragrant ferns and cedars in the forests. It is even more impressive that this biodiversity thrives so close to a large urban and developed area. In fact, while downtown Pittsburgh is about half an hour's drive (27 miles), the city's international airport is right next door (only 14 miles) to Hillman State Park's grounds.