I have just moved to Pittsburgh from California and started to miss mountains very much. Do you have any suggestions of nice hiking or rock-climbing areas within a driving distance from Pittsburgh? Thanks a lot!

Check this: http://www.mountainproject.com/v/pennsylvania/105913279

Lots of good territory to the south of you in West Virginia. Dolly Sods Wilderness is very unusual in a great way for east coast hiking and backpacking. Seneca Rocks is one of the classic climbing areas in the east. Both should be very reasonable drives for a weekend trip from Pittsburgh.

There is hiking and backpacking in the Allegheny National Forest in NW PA.

McConnells Mill State Park, Racoon Creek State Park, the North Country Trail, and the Bear Run Nature Reserve are all less than an hours drive from Pittsburgh and offer a variety of hiking opportunities.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/ ... smill.aspx

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/ ... creek.aspx

http://www.northcountrytrail.org/explore/ex_pa/pa.htm

http://www.paconserve.org/92

I second McConnells Mill, the Slippery Rock Gorge Trail is one of the best trails you will find in Western PA. Also some great climbing areas down in the Gorge as well. Look at the Rachel Carson Trail http://www.rachelcarsontrails.org/rct, and if you are really brave you can do the entire trail during the Challenge next June.

Allegheny National Forest is the best remote hiking near Pittsburgh. There are many trails and great bushwacks.

McConnell's Mill SP is a fun hike on the SRG trail.

There is are a few nice hikes in Cook's Forest.

Thank you all for these suggestions, I am glad there are many options!

Hey Mountain Girl, you're in my neck of the woods now. I live a couple of hours south of you.

West Pennsyltucky is not California. That is true. I grew in in L.A. and San Jose. I feel your pain.

But West Pennsyltucky is a very special place with a lot of wonderful things to do. I moved here 10 years ago and haven't looked back.

The whitewater is particularly good in this area. Pittsburgh has a very large whitewater kayaking club. If you've ever thought about whitewater kayaking, now is the time to do it. There is AWESOME whitewater from New York all the way down to Georgia. A popular spring vacation is a "Southern Trip," in mid-late April. Everyone loads their kayaks onto their roof racks and heads south for 2 weeks, following the water and winding their way through some of the best whitewater in the USA.

The hills of West Pennsyltucky are quite beautiful. Everyone else calls them "mountains" but you and I know better. Lots of good hiking. Really beautiful if you can get past the feeling that "This isn't the Sierra Nevada."

There are numerouos ski area SE of Pittsburgh, namely Seven Spring and Wisp. Typical Easy Coast skiing, so sharpen your ski edges at a good bevel. Telemark skiing is popular around here, too. Lots of hippies.

Seneca Rocks is a popular climbing area in NE West Virginia, my guess is that it's about 4 hours from you. The New River Gorge is a great spot during the spring and summer. The summers here are really too hot and clammy to go climbing.

Don't be depressed. Get out there and have fun!

Sierra Ledge Rat wrote:The hills of West Pennsyltucky are quite beautiful. Everyone else calls them "mountains" but you and I know better. Lots of good hiking. Really beautiful if you can get past the feeling that "This isn't the Sierra Nevada."

No, there are no mountains here in West PA, they aren't really hills either. We live on an "elevated plateau" which streams/rivers have cut gorges into. This leads to West PA trails having a ton of ups and downs. A ten mile hike here will have the same amount of elevation change as a hike in the mountains of North Carolina (never been to CA so I can't speak to that) but instead of climbing 2,500' and losing 2,500' on the return, here you will go up 100' 25 times and down 100' 25 times. Does PA compare to CA? Well....no (unless you are speaking about our football/hockey teams, then yea we kick everybody's a$$) but West PA is a little hidden treasure.