Mid-Atlantic Highlands

Mid-Atlantic Highlands. Delaware Canal State Park. The Mid-Atlantic Highlands region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut forms 3-5 million acre forested greenbelt around the densely populated areas of Philadelphia, New York City, and Hartford.

The region stretches from northwestern Connecticut across the Hudson Valley of New York, through northern New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania, and ends near the Maryland border. Its forested ridges, fertile farms, pure stream, and reservoirs comprise the rugged foothills between Appalachian Mountains and the increasingly urbanized Piedmont and Atlantic Coastal Plain regions. The United States Congress designated this landscape “Nationally Significant” when it passed the Highlands Conservation Act in 2004.

Pennsylvania Highlands Trail Network , The Appalachian Mountain Club is working with conservation and recreation organizations, private landowners, and local, state, and county governments to extend the Highlands Trail along the length of the Pennsylvania Highlands, from the Delaware River at Riegelsville, PA south to the Maryland border. More than 130 miles of the Highlands Trail have been established from Storm King Mountain, NY to Riegelsville, PA.

The Pennsylvania Highlands Trail Network will protect and connect the natural, historic, and recreational features of the Pennsylvania Highlands and promote close-to-home outdoor recreational opportunities for the people living and recreating in this region. The vision for the trail network includes new trail segments and links between existing rails such as the D&L Trail, Perkiomen Trail, Horse-Shoe Trail, Mason-Dixon Trail System, Schuylkill River Trail, and Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The trail network also will aid in conserving the Pennsylvania Highlands Greenway by connecting undisturbed natural areas and adjacent protected lands throughout the Pennsylvania Highlands.

To find out more about the Pennsylvania Highlands visit: www.outdoors.org/PA_Highlands.

Pennsylvania Highlands , The Pennsylvania portion of the Highlands encompasses roughly 1.9 million acres and includes portions of 13 counties (Bucks, Montgomery, Northampton, Lehigh, Chester, Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon, Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Adams, and York). The PA Highlands has been designated a “Mega Greenway” by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.