Located on the eastern slope of Chestnut Ridge, Quebec Run Wild Area in Forbes State Forest offers 7,441 acres to explore. There are many miles of trails with opportunities for hiking, backcountry camping, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, hunting, and fishing.

Visit the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources website for more information and maps for Forbes State Forest and Quebec Run Wild Area.

Quebec Run Wild Area is definitely less crowded than other nearby hiking areas, such as Ohiopyle State Park. It is a more rustic experience. To my knowledge, there aren’t any restrooms and the trails might not be as well maintained, but it’s still a beautiful and quiet place to spend some time in nature.

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Summary

  • Parking- Plantation Trailhead Parking
  • Bathrooms- No bathrooms at the trailhead.
  • Distance and Difficulty – These are not indicated on the map but I would describe it as easy to moderate. There are some small ups and downs without a lot of elevation change. My Strava recording measured about 2.5 miles. Check out the Strava breakdown below for more information.
  • Kids Ages- 4 years and 2 years
  • Taking the Kids- My 4-year-old hiked the entire trail on his own. My 2-year-old hiked about halfway and then she rode in a backpacking child carrier.
  • Orange – We wore hunter orange because we went hiking during the hunting season. We picked up some orange vests at Dick’s and my kids wore orange reflective vests which we use all the time for hiking and playing outside in the dark in our neighborhood.
We wear hunter orange when hiking during hunting season.

Directions and Parking

To Plantation Trailhead Parking – From Uniontown, take Route 40 East (National Pike). Take the second right past the Summit Inn on Wharton Furnace Road (Sr2003) toward Ellitosville. Continue for about 6.4 miles then continue on to PA 381 South for 1.4 miles. Make a right on (Sr2005) onto a road that is not paved.

Continue for about 0.6 miles keeping right when you see a sign for Quebec Run Wild Area.

The road leads to an open parking area where you’ll see trailhead signs.

The Hike

We really didn’t know what to expect with this hike. The distance for this trail wasn’t listed on the map. We went off this post from All Trails which described the trail as a 1.4-mile loop. But according to my Strava, this hike was more like a 2.5-mile loop.

For no particular reason at all, we chose to start with the trailhead sign on the right and complete our loop counterclockwise.

The trail was well marked with red markings which kept my kids entertained chasing down the next trail marker.

You can tell this trail isn’t visited too often. Parts of it are overgrown and there are logs down across the trail at times. But we managed just fine and just kept following the trail markers.

There were a few small ups and downs but not much elevation change overall.

Looping back to the parking area, it felt like we were walking more on a service road when we came out at the other trail marker.

This hike didn’t offer many major features like an overlook or a waterfall. But it was simply a nice and quiet walk in the woods and my kids enjoyed kicking leaves, clearing sticks off the trail, and chasing down trail markers. We visited on an ideal hiking day as far as the weather on a weekend and didn’t run into anybody.

Here is a breakdown of our hike for reference. My Strava app was acting up a bit and I may have cropped this off a little. The hike felt more like 2.5 miles to us.

On that particular day, we took a short drive after the hike, picked up some goodies at Fuel Coffee Works, and gave our kids some playground time at Wharton Township Recreational Park.

There is still a lot I have yet to explore in Quebec Run Wild Area, but here is another hike in Quebec that we enjoy.

Some other comparable nearby loop hikes include the Yellow Loop in Bear Run Nature Reserve and the Ferncliff Peninsula Hike in Ohiopyle State Park.

Nearby Attractions