Lehigh River Segment: 16.7 miles
The D&L Trail follows the path of the Lehigh Canal from Easton to Bethlehem and Allentown, the most populated section of the trail. Barges primarily hauled coal and iron from mines and foundries upriver beginning as early as 1818.
The Mansion House Bridge provides a pedestrian crossing over the Lehigh River leading into Jim Thorpe.
The pathway is paved at the beginning of this stretch but later is surfaced with crushed stone. Just before crossing the Lehigh River on the Hill Road bridge 2.3 miles past Easton, history buffs might enjoy continuing straight to Hugh Moore Park, home of the National Canal Museum, where visitors can ride a mule-drawn canalboat.
About 6 miles farther down the trail from the bridge, you’ll find the Freemansburg Canal Education Center, located in a restored mule barn from 1829. The historical site features a canal lock, lock tender’s house, and the ruins of a gristmill. Passing through neighboring Bethlehem, you’ll have a clear view of the towering Bethlehem Steel chimneys across the river. Once a major steelmaker, the site is now home to an entertainment and cultural events venue named SteelStacks. This section of trail ends at Canal Park in Allentown.
Following the bend in the river north begins an 8-mile gap in the trail, where most of the route, except for a 0.5-mile path through Allentown’s Overlook Park, is on shared roads.
Middle Lehigh River Segment: 31.7 miles
An unimproved, but open, 1.4-mile section of the D&L Trail runs along the east side of the Lehigh River in Catasauqua and North Catasauqua. The path resumes at the intersection of Canal Street and West 10th Street in Northampton at a trailhead it shares with the 6-mile Nor-Bath Trail. (An interesting side trip is the Ironton Rail Trail, across the river in Coplay, where nine towering obsolete cement kilns are preserved in Saylor Park.)
From the Northampton trailhead, the D&L Trail is paved for 1.3 miles through Canal Street Park and crosses the Lehigh River on the PA 329/West 21st Street bridge (bicyclists are encouraged to walk). On the west riverbank, the crushed-stone pathway—which follows the former railbed of the Lehigh Valley Railroad—travels upstream around a few bends through lush forests and towering cliffs with breathtaking views of the river. In 11 miles you’ll reach Slatington, where you’ll find the Slate Heritage Trail junction; both are named for the abundant slate deposits mined here.
Across the Lehigh River via the PA 873/Main Street Bridge is the 3.9-mile Walnutport Canal Spur that passes through Walnutport, where old locks, a lock tender’s house and museum, and ruins of an aqueduct are visible.
Lehigh Gap and Lehigh Gorge State Park Segment: 24.9 miles
Staying on the main D&L Trail for 2 miles after the Main Street Bridge, you’ll enter the narrow Lehigh Gap. The Lehigh River and a highway also squeeze through the Kittatinny Ridge water gap, and the Appalachian Trail crosses the river here too. You’ll pass the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, which sits on a 750-acre toxic cleanup site left behind by a zinc processing company. This area represents an environmental success story, as it has been revegetated and returned as a habitat for native birds and wildlife.
From the nature center, it’s another 7 miles to Weissport. Note the 1-mile-long section of shared roadway on Riverview Road between East Penn Township and PA 895. Lehighton to Weissport has another 1-mile on-road segment that heads north on Lehigh Drive and then east across the river at Bridge Street to a section of trail heading 1.7 miles south to Parryville or 3 miles north toward the borough of Jim Thorpe. Just before crossing the river, you can also head 0.5 mile north to Lehighton on a spur that provides access to the downtown area, where you’ll find a variety of restaurants and the headquarters for the Lehighton Outdoor Center, a biking and whitewater rafting outfitter.
On the east side of the river, the route from Weissport formerly ended just before Jim Thorpe, requiring local shuttle services to serve trail users passing through. Through a partner effort, a new pedestrian bridge, completed in the summer of 2019, enables users to seamlessly cross from Weissport west over the Lehigh River into Jim Thorpe on off-road trail, where trail users can head north along the river to Lehigh Gorge State Park and beyond.
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