The federal share is small and it sits in one corner
Federal agencies hold 608,796 acres in Pennsylvania, 2.1 percent of 28,804,480. The split is Forest Service 514,183, National Park Service 53,876, Department of Defense 24,840 and Fish and Wildlife Service 15,897. The Bureau of Land Management figure is zero, and the national BLM route layer this site uses for motorized mileage holds no Pennsylvania records at all, so no BLM number appears anywhere on this page.
Almost the whole Forest Service share is the Allegheny National Forest, in the northwest, which means the rest of the state has federal land only in patches: Delaware Water Gap in the east, a set of Corps of Engineers reservoirs, two wildlife refuges and a long list of historic sites and battlefields. The Park Service lists 26 units, trails and affiliated areas with Pennsylvania ties and counts 19 national parks in the state.
Practically, that means a Pennsylvania trip is planned around named properties rather than around a region of open public land. You choose a forest district, a gorge or a reservoir, read what that specific office allows, and drive between them on highway. Towns are close together and the distances are short, which is the compensation for the lack of one big block to roam.
Source 54
Two and a bit million acres of state forest, and the roads through them
The Bureau of Forestry describes a system of 2.2 million acres in 50 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, divided into 20 forest districts, and calls it 13 percent of the forested area in the Commonwealth. It is aimed at what the bureau calls dispersed, low-density outdoor recreation, which in practice means very few developed facilities and a great deal of gravel.
The largest districts are in the north-central Pennsylvania Wilds and on the Allegheny Plateau. Sproul covers 305,450 acres, or slightly more than 476 square miles, mostly in western Clinton and northern Centre counties. Susquehannock has 265,000 acres, Elk almost 217,000, Bald Eagle 194,602, Moshannon 190,031, Tioga 161,890, Tiadaghton 146,539 and Loyalsock 114,552. Further south the pattern breaks into tracts: Tuscarora 96,025 acres, Rothrock over 96,000, Michaux more than 85,500, Delaware 83,519, Buchanan 71,683 in 19 separate tracts, Forbes almost 59,000 in 15 tracts and Gallitzin 24,370.
The road figures are what a driver wants. Sproul publishes more than 300 miles of road, about half limestone surfaced and the rest native stone. Tiadaghton has over 260 miles, built in the first place for fire protection. Moshannon has more than 200 miles of gravel, again roughly half limestone and half native soil. Susquehannock has 170 miles and sixteen vistas. Loyalsock has more than 140 miles and ten named overlooks, and warns to take care in winter, when many of its roads receive no maintenance.
Each district publishes a Public Use Map, and that map is the authority on which roads and drivable trails are open. On top of the permanent network, the bureau opens roughly 500 more miles of administrative road in 18 of the 20 districts for the autumn hunting seasons, keeps many of them open into January, and says a high-clearance vehicle with four-wheel drive and tire chains may be needed.
- 01Sproul, office at Renovo: 305,450 acres, more than 300 miles of road, the Whiskey Springs and Bloody Skillet ATV trails
- 02Susquehannock, office at Coudersport: 265,000 acres, 170 miles of road, sixteen vistas, the 43-mile Susquehannock ATV trail
- 03Elk, office at Emporium: almost 217,000 acres and a long part of the 127-mile Elk Scenic Drive
- 04Tiadaghton, office at Waterville: 146,539 acres and over 260 miles of state forest road
- 05Loyalsock, in the Endless Mountains: 114,552 acres, more than 140 miles of road, ten named vistas
- 06Tioga, office at Wellsboro: 161,890 acres and the Pine Creek Gorge Natural Area
- 07Michaux, in the South Mountain country: more than 85,500 acres and the state’s southernmost ATV trails
- 08Forbes, in the Laurel Highlands: almost 59,000 acres in 15 tracts, and Mount Davis at 3,213 feet
Source 4
The Allegheny National Forest, and the reservoir at the middle of it
The Allegheny was established in 1923 and calls itself over half a million acres in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania, run from a supervisor’s office at Warren. The 12,000-acre Allegheny Reservoir sits in the middle of it behind Kinzua Dam, and the forest counts about 4 million recreation visitor days a year. It supplies about a third of the world’s black cherry furniture veneer and carries oil and gas wells throughout, so logging trucks and well traffic are part of the road picture.
The climate it publishes is the one to plan against. Summers are warm and moderately humid with average temperatures of 75 to 80 degrees. Winters are moderate at 20 to 25 degrees with about 60 inches of snowfall a year, on roughly 40 inches of annual precipitation. The recreation areas date from two waves of building, the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and the years after Kinzua Dam was finished in 1965, which is why so much of what a vehicle can reach sits on the water.
The Motor Vehicle Use Map decides where you may drive, and the forest states the test in one line: if a route is not on the map, driving on it is prohibited. The Allegheny and the Clarion both carry wild and scenic river designation, and the forest points to their scenic, natural, recreational, scientific, historic, ecological and fisheries values as the reason.
Source 35
Where a vehicle may legally go
Pennsylvania draws its line by vehicle class rather than by road. A Class I ATV has a maximum width of 50 inches and a maximum dry weight of 1,200 pounds. A Class II ATV exceeds one or both. The state maintains 908 miles of ATV trail and says that riding is only permitted on designated trails in state forests, and that state forest roads, state parks and state game lands are not open to ATV riding. A registered, inspected, insured, street-legal truck is neither class, so none of that 908 miles is yours.
What is yours is the state forest road network, and the rule for it is 17 Pa. Code 21.110. Keep to the posted speed limit or 25 miles per hour where none is posted. Stay off roads posted closed unless you have written permission from the department. Do not run a commercial operation on the roads without authorisation. The vehicle must be registered, inspected and insured, and you must hold a valid driver’s licence. Breaking those is a summary offence under section 7505 of the Crimes Code.
On the Allegheny the equivalent line is drawn by forest order. Nothing over 64 inches wide may use a forest trail at all, and the Penoke, Willow Creek and Rocky Gap trails stop at 50 inches. Speed on forest trails and forest roadways is capped at 25 miles per hour, and over-snow vehicles at 45 on roadways. Anyone riding the designated motorized system needs a permit displayed on the machine: $35 for a calendar year or $10 for a day.
Source 7
Camping: a numbered site, a permit and seven nights
State forests offer primitive and motorized camping with no modern facilities, no water, no dump stations and no hook-ups. That is the whole menu, and it suits a self-contained vehicle well. Motorized roadside camping means a designated campsite identified by a name or number, a valid permit in hand, and no more than seven consecutive nights on one permit, after which you must vacate the site for at least 48 hours before reapplying. Roadside, equestrian and rustic sites cost $10 a night for Pennsylvania residents and $15 for everyone else, and can be reserved up to 11 months ahead.
Primitive camping is the other route. A camper spending no more than one night at a site needs no permit, and the free permit becomes necessary as soon as you stay a second night, camp at a site posted as permit required, want a campfire during the spring wildfire season, use a vehicle for storage or transport, or camp in Pine Creek Gorge. The setbacks are firm: no camping within 200 feet of a forest road, 25 feet of a trail or 100 feet of a stream or open water, and none at all in designated natural areas. Groups over ten need a letter of authorisation.
On federal ground the ceilings are similar and the wording is federal. The Allegheny caps occupancy at 14 days within any 30-day period across the whole forest. Corps of Engineers projects allow camping only at designated sites and cap it at 14 days in any 30 consecutive days at one project. State parks require a valid camping permit for the area you are in before a tent, sleeping bag or mobile camping unit goes down.
Source 14
Seasons: thaw, fire, dust, then a groomed winter
Snow is the first thing to check, because it varies more than the size of the state suggests. PennDOT publishes an average by engineering district: 14 inches a year around Philadelphia, 23 across the south-central counties, 43 through the northern tier, 52 in the Bedford to Somerset country, 64 on the north-central plateau, 83 around Erie and Warren and 84 in the south-west. By county the extremes are Clearfield at 93 inches and Crawford at 90.
Spring is the season that changes plans. PennDOT posts seasonal weight limits on roads whose structure cannot take the freeze and thaw cycle, and hauling on routes approved under a Letter of Local Determination is prohibited between February 15 and April 15 during spring thaw conditions. Those postings are aimed at heavy haulers rather than at a pickup, but they are the clearest published signal of when the ground under a secondary road is soft.
Fire follows immediately. The Bureau of Forestry puts the greatest wildfire danger in March, April and May and again in October and November, and says 99 percent of Pennsylvania wildfires are caused by people. That is why a campfire on state forest land between March 1 and May 25 needs a permit even when nothing else about your camp does.
Winter closes the loop. State forest roads that open for hunting become joint use with snowmobiles after early December, and the bureau is blunt that they are groomed for snowmobiles, not plowed or cindered like other public roads, and may be impassable from snow depth or ice. Statewide, PennDOT aims to keep roads passable rather than clear, plows major highways before rural ones, and notes that salt loses its bite below 23 to 25 degrees.
Source 45
The Corps of Engineers built the big water
The Corps Lakes Gateway lists 23 Army Corps projects in Pennsylvania, spread across the Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Baltimore districts, from Shenango River and Youghiogheny River in the west to Blue Marsh and Francis E. Walter in the east. Fifteen of the 32 federal campgrounds a vehicle can reach in this state are on Corps ground, which makes the Corps, not the Forest Service, the biggest federal campground operator in Pennsylvania.
Raystown Lake, in Huntingdon County, is the largest of them. The Corps gives it 8,300 acres of water extending 28 miles, inside 21,000 acres of public land. It is the one place in Pennsylvania where federal shoreline, federal campgrounds and a long approach through state forest country line up in the same day’s driving.
The rule that governs a night on any of them is 36 CFR 327.7. Camping is permitted only at sites or areas the District Commander designates, and camping at one or more campsites at any one project for longer than 14 days in any 30 consecutive days is prohibited without written permission. Leaving gear at a site to hold it, without occupying it, is prohibited as well.
Source 49
Passes and routes
-
Longhouse National Scenic BywayPaved
36 miles
A loop off Route 321 at Longhouse Drive, around the Kinzua Creek arm of the Allegheny Reservoir
The one national forest scenic byway in Pennsylvania, and the simplest way to see the Allegheny from a vehicle. It circles the Kinzua Creek arm through northern hardwoods of oak, black cherry and hemlock, passing Red Bridge Recreation Area, the Old Powerhouse, the Bradford Ranger Station, Rimrock Overlook, Kinzua Beach, Dewdrop and Kiasutha. Forest campgrounds and boat launches come off it at intervals, so it doubles as the spine of a two or three night loop. 37
- Vehicle
- Any car
- Season
- Listed as January through December
-
Bucktail drive, PA 120Paved
75 miles
Emporium through Renovo to Lock Haven
A narrow valley road along Sinnemahoning Creek and the West Branch of the Susquehanna, inside the legislative boundary of Bucktail State Park Natural Area. State Parks calls it a 75-mile scenic drive and notes that most of the land inside that boundary is privately owned, so the park is the corridor rather than a block you can camp on. PennDOT designated the same road, from Lock Haven through Cameron County to US 219, as the Bucktail Trail byway in January 2004. Sproul and Elk state forest roads climb out of the valley on both sides. 29
- Vehicle
- Any car
- Season
- Open year-round
-
Elk Scenic DrivePaved
127 miles
A loop reached from Route 144 in the west or Route 120 at Lock Haven in the east
A 127-mile loop through portions of five counties, much of it inside Elk State Forest, which itself covers almost 217,000 acres. The Elk Country Visitor Center sits on the route. Fall colour, juneberry and dogwood in spring, and mountain laurel and rhododendron in early summer are what the district tells people to come for, along with the animals the drive is named after. 27
- Vehicle
- Any car
- Season
- Open year-round, best at the September and October rut
-
Route 555 through the elk rangePaved
Weedville to Driftwood, in Elk and Cameron counties
The Game Commission puts as many as 1,400 elk across 3,000 square miles of Elk, Cameron, Clinton, Clearfield and Centre counties, and names Route 555 between Weedville and Driftwood as running through the heart of that country. Mornings and evenings are the hours to look, and the rut, which typically begins in September and carries through October, is the busiest time of the year in these towns. Winslow Hill, the Hicks Run viewing area on Route 555 and the Hoover Farm viewing area are the places the agency points people to. 28
- Vehicle
- Any car. Drive it slowly and expect animals on the road
- Season
- The rut runs from September through October
-
High Plateau Byway, SR 144Paved
Clinton and Centre counties, through Sproul State Forest
PennDOT designated State Route 144 inside Sproul State Forest as the High Plateau byway in 2002, and it is the only entry on the state byway list whose sign control is enforced by the forestry agency rather than a municipality. That tells you what the drive is: a paved line laid across the plateau with state forest on both sides and gravel leaving it in every direction. Pennsylvania has 21 designated byways, one forestry byway and four national scenic byways in total. 44
- Vehicle
- Any car
- Season
- Open year-round, with no winter maintenance on the forest roads that branch off it
-
Sproul State Forest road system
More than 300 miles
305,450 acres in western Clinton and northern Centre counties, off SR 144 and PA 120
The largest single block of drivable forest road in Pennsylvania, and the clearest answer to what a truck is for here. The district publishes more than 300 miles of road, about half limestone surfaced and the rest native stone, with vistas on the plateau looking down into the river valleys. Read the district Public Use Map before committing to a line, because an administrative road that was open in November may be gated in April. 18
- Vehicle
- Registered, inspected, insured vehicle with a licensed driver
- Season
- Year-round on the maintained roads. Winter roads are groomed for snowmobiles, not plowed
-
Tiadaghton State Forest road system
Over 260 miles
146,539 acres in Lycoming County, with tracts in Tioga, Potter, Clinton and Union
Over 260 miles of state forest road, built in the first place for forest fire protection and now the public access to the district. Wildlife watching and driving for fall colour are the two things the district says people come to do. This is the forest immediately north of Williamsport, which makes it the easiest large road network in the state to reach from an interstate. 20
- Vehicle
- Registered, inspected, insured vehicle with a licensed driver
- Season
- Year-round on the maintained network
-
Loyalsock State Forest roads and vistas
More than 140 miles
114,552 acres in Sullivan, Lycoming and Bradford counties, in the Endless Mountains
More than one hundred and forty miles of state forest road, and the best-signposted set of overlooks in the state system: High Knob, Canyon Vista, Forksville, Hoagland, Band Rock, Sharp Top, Bodine Mountain, Trout Run, Indian Trail and Pleasant Stream. The district asks drivers to take care on these roads in winter, which is the polite version of saying nobody is coming to plow them. 21
- Vehicle
- Registered, inspected, insured vehicle with a licensed driver
- Season
- Year-round, with the district warning that many roads receive no maintenance in winter
-
Susquehannock State Forest road system
170 miles
265,000 acres in Potter, Clinton and McKean counties, out of Coudersport
One hundred and seventy miles of road and sixteen vistas, in one of the eight state forests the bureau puts inside the Pennsylvania Wilds. The district lists deer, turkey, bear, hawks, grouse, porcupine and an increasing number of bobcat as what people see from the forest roads. The Susquehanna and Allegheny rivers both rise in this country. 22
- Vehicle
- Registered, inspected, insured vehicle with a licensed driver
- Season
- Year-round on the maintained network
-
Moshannon State Forest road system
More than 200 miles
190,031 acres on the Allegheny Plateau in Clearfield, Elk and Centre counties
More than 200 miles of forest gravel road, about half of it limestone surfaced and the rest native soil. The district calls driving to see spring green up, summer mountain laurel and autumn colour a favourite pursuit, and points out the Hoover Farm and Beaver Run wildlife viewing sites. The vistas here are subtle rather than dramatic, looking over Mosquito Creek and the other valleys draining the plateau. 23
- Vehicle
- Registered, inspected, insured vehicle with a licensed driver
- Season
- Year-round on the maintained network. Clearfield County averages 93 inches of snow
-
Mount Davis and the Forbes tracts
3,213 ft
Fifteen separate tracts across Fayette, Somerset and Westmoreland counties, south of Somerset
Forbes State Forest is almost 59,000 acres in 15 tracts along the Laurel Ridge and the Allegheny Front, and it holds the 3,213-foot Mount Davis, the highest point in Pennsylvania. This is the only part of the state where a drive gains real elevation, and it is the snowiest, which makes it the one corner where a winter trip wants mountain-state preparation. 24
- Vehicle
- Any car to the summit area; forest roads beyond it want clearance
- Season
- Year-round. PennDOT District 9 averages 52 inches of snow, District 12 next door 84
-
Colton Road to the west rim of Pine Creek Gorge
Five miles from US 6
US 6 near Ansonia south to Colton Point State Park
The quieter rim of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Colton Point State Park holds 368 acres on the west side, five miles south of US 6 at Ansonia. The east rim is reached instead by Route 660 west out of Wellsboro, ten miles of paved road that dead ends at 585-acre Leonard Harrison State Park, where the rim is about 1,883 feet and the drop to Pine Creek about 800. The park warns that navigation apps route people onto small dirt roads unsuitable for large vehicles, so follow the route numbers. 30
- Vehicle
- Any car on Colton Road itself
- Season
- Check with the park before a winter attempt
-
Hearts Content Road, SR 2002
3.7 miles to the entrance
The Hearts Content Recreation Area in the Allegheny National Forest
A short drive to a 122-acre stand of old growth, where the white pines run 300 to 400 years old. Among the more useful nights in the Allegheny for a vehicle camper, because the campground sits at the end of a maintained road rather than off a boat access, and the scenic area itself carries its own forest order restricting what may happen inside it. 38
- Vehicle
- Any car. 26 single sites and one group site
- Season
- Developed sites close for winter
-
Marienville ATV and off-highway motorcycle trail
14 miles
Forest Road 401 out of Marienville, Forest County
One of two Allegheny systems that takes a 64-inch machine, the other being the 39-mile Timberline trail. Penoke at 23.1 miles, Rocky Gap at 21.9 and Willow Creek at 10.8 all stop at 50 inches. A standing forest order also bans camping within 500 feet of the centerline of Forest Road 401 between the forest boundary and the stone pit at this trailhead, so plan the night elsewhere. 39
- Vehicle
- ATVs and motorcycles to 64 inches. Allegheny permit required, $35 a year or $10 a day
- Season
- Friday before Memorial Day to the last Sunday in September
-
Whiskey Springs and Bloody Skillet ATV trails
50 miles and 38 miles
Sproul State Forest, Clinton and Centre counties
The two largest ATV trails in the state forest system, and the ones with the most generous width limit, which is still 64 inches. Sproul runs them on both the summer and the winter calendar, so the ground between Renovo and the plateau sees machines for most of the year. Neither trail takes a full-size vehicle, and neither connects to one on the trail itself. 19
- Vehicle
- Registered Class II ATVs under 64 inches wide and under 1,800 pounds
- Season
- Friday before Memorial Day to the last full weekend in September, then again from the end of the regular firearms deer season to April 1
-
Michaux State Forest ATV trails
Over 30 miles in summer, over 40 in winter
More than 85,500 acres of South Mountain in Cumberland, Franklin and Adams counties
The southern end of the state runs the opposite policy to Sproul. Michaux holds its trails to Class 1 machines under 50 inches and 1,200 pounds, and parks riders at Big Flat and Piney Mountain. The forest is also the site of the first forestry school in the country, at Mont Alto. The statewide DCNR trail list gives 36 summer miles and 42 winter miles for the same system, so both counts are on the record. 25
- Vehicle
- Class 1 only: under 50 inches wide and under 1,200 pounds
- Season
- Friday before Memorial Day to the last Sunday in September, with some trails reopening the third Sunday after Thanksgiving until April 1
-
Northcentral Regional ATV Trail
Nearly 1,000 miles of designated roads and trails
Clinton, Lycoming, Potter and Tioga counties, with a 94-mile preferred route concentrated in Tioga
The unusual one, and worth knowing about even if you cannot ride it. Pennsylvania has stitched designated state forest trails and roads together with designated township roads and designated PennDOT-administered roads to give ATV riders long-distance travel by permit. It means that in this corner of the state a machine and a truck can legally share a road, which is not true anywhere else in Pennsylvania. PennDOT roads in the network closed on September 29, 2025 and reopened May 22, 2026. 11
- Vehicle
- Permitted ATVs only. A yearly permit is required for the whole network
- Season
- May 22 to September 27 in 2026
-
US 209 through Delaware Water GapPaved
The Pennsylvania side of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, between I-80 and I-84
The Park Service calls US 209 the main north and south road through the park on the Pennsylvania side, with Old Mine Road doing the same job on the New Jersey bank. The recreation area sits between two interstates, I-80 at its southern end and I-84 at its northern, which makes it the one piece of federal ground in Pennsylvania that a driver crossing the state can pick up without a long detour. Milford is the northern gateway and Delaware State Forest sits immediately behind it. 51
- Vehicle
- Any car
- Season
- Open year-round
-
Kinzua Bridge State Park and Route 3011Paved
Four miles north of US 6 at Mount Jewett, McKean County
PennDOT has designated Route 3011, which connects Route 6 with the Kinzua Bridge, as a byway since 2001. At the end of it, 339 acres of state park hold what is left of a viaduct that was 2,053 feet long and 301 feet high until a tornado took most of it down in 2003. Rebuilt as a pedestrian walkway in 2011, the remaining towers carry visitors 600 feet out over the Kinzua Gorge. It is the obvious detour off the Longhouse loop. 31
- Vehicle
- Any car. No camping in the park
- Season
- Open year-round
-
The National Road, SR 40Paved
The Maryland line to the West Virginia line, across Somerset, Fayette and Washington counties
PennDOT designated the whole Pennsylvania length of Route 40 as a byway in 1996, border to border. It crosses the Laurel Highlands within reach of Forbes State Forest and Mount Davis, the 3,213-foot state high point, and of the separately designated Laurel Highlands byway on Routes 711 and 381. This is the snowiest corner of Pennsylvania by PennDOT’s own district averages, so a winter run wants the same preparation a mountain state would ask for. 44
- Vehicle
- Any car
- Season
- Open year-round. PennDOT District 12 averages 84 inches of snow
Rules worth knowing
- Motorized roadside camping takes a permit and a numbered site
- Camping beside a state forest road in Pennsylvania is not free-form. Roadside camping is required to be done at designated campsites identified by a name or number, you must hold a valid camping permit and be at that site, and no permit is issued to anyone under 18. A permit is valid for no more than seven consecutive nights, and you must vacate the site for at least 48 hours before reapplying. Roadside, hike-in roadside, equestrian and rustic sites are $10 a night for Pennsylvania residents and $15 for non-residents, reservable up to 11 months ahead. 12
- One night primitive without a permit, and three setbacks
- A primitive camper spending no more than one night at a campsite needs no permit. The free permit becomes required the moment you stay a second night at the same site, camp where a site is posted as permit required, want a campfire during the spring wildfire season of March 1 to May 25, use a vehicle for storage or transportation, or camp in Pine Creek Gorge. Camping is prohibited within 200 feet of a forest road, within 25 feet of a trail, within 100 feet of a stream or any open water, and in designated natural areas. A group over ten people needs a letter of authorisation from the district office. 13
- The four kinds of camping the state forest rule recognises
- 17 Pa. Code 21.117 sorts every night on state forest land into four categories and sets a different test for each. Primitive camping without a permit is prohibited if the camper stays more than one night at a site. Motorized camping without a permit is prohibited outright, motorized meaning that a vehicle is used for transportation or storage at or near the camp. Group camping, which the rule defines as more than ten people camping together, needs written permission from the department. Water trail camping is allowed without a permit but is limited to two nights at a site. The section took effect on September 5, 2015. 33
- What 17 Pa. Code 21.110 asks of your vehicle
- The state forest traffic rule is short and it is the one that governs the driving most visitors come for. Keep to the posted speed limit, or 25 miles per hour where none is posted. Do not drive a road, trail or area posted as closed to motor vehicles without written department permission. Do not use state forest roads for commercial activity without written authorisation, with occasional residential deliveries excepted. The vehicle must be registered, inspected and insured, and the driver must hold a valid licence. A violation is a summary offence under section 7505 of the Crimes Code. 32
- Your truck is not a Class I or a Class II ATV
- Pennsylvania defines a Class I ATV as a machine on three or more inflatable tires with a maximum width of 50 inches and a maximum dry weight of 1,200 pounds, and a Class II as one that exceeds either. It then states that ATV riding is only permitted on designated trails in Pennsylvania state forests, and that state forest roads, state parks and state game lands are not open to ATV riding. A plated, inspected, insured truck is neither class, so it belongs on the road network under 21.110 and not on any of the 908 miles of trail. General ATV registration costs $20 for two years; limited registration is free, never expires, and is for private property only. 7
- ATV season dates, and the one place machines share a road
- Designated ATV trails on state forest lands are open from the Friday before Memorial Day through the last full weekend in September, with some trails reopening for winter use from the day after the last day of the regular or extended deer season through April 1. Riders must carry a certificate of registration, proof of liability insurance, a plate affixed to the machine and expiration stickers, and a helmet is required by law. Highway crossings must be made at roughly 90 degrees after a complete stop. The Northcentral Regional ATV Trail is the exception that proves the rule: designated township and PennDOT roads carry permitted machines there, and nowhere else. 8
- Registering a machine, if you tow one in
- Pennsylvania issues two kinds of ATV registration and the difference decides where you may unload. General registration costs $20 for two years and allows use off your own private property, which is what any state forest trail requires. Limited registration is free, never expires, and covers on-property use only. General registration comes with a plate, an expiration sticker and a wallet card; limited registration comes with a card and a plate but no sticker. None of this applies to a road-registered truck, which is registered under the Vehicle Code instead and is not eligible for the trail system at all. 10
- Eleven trails, eight forests, and none of them near each other
- The state forest ATV network is not one system. It is eleven named trails scattered across eight districts: Martin Hill at 18 miles and Sideling Hill at 15 in Buchanan; 43 miles in Potter County on the Susquehannock; 20 miles across Snyder and Union counties on the Bald Eagle; 17 miles in Lycoming County on the Tiadaghton; Whiskey Springs at 50 and Bloody Skillet at 38 on the Sproul; 36 summer miles in Adams and Cumberland counties on the Michaux; and Maple Run Track at 8, Burnt Mills at 7 and the Dixon R. Miller Recreation Area at 13 on the Delaware. Plan a machine trip around one district rather than a tour of several. 9
- Fourteen days in thirty on the Allegheny
- Forest Order 09-19-17-01 prohibits camping or otherwise occupying Allegheny National Forest lands for a period longer than fourteen days within a thirty day period, across the whole forest. Developed campgrounds carry their own order: no more than two motor vehicles per site, one wheeled camping unit per site and eight individuals per site. A separate order prohibits possessing firewood brought in from outside the area, so buy it where you burn it. 42
- Where you may not camp on the Allegheny, road by road
- Forest Order 09-19-17-15, in effect since May 2017, names the places dispersed camping is closed. No camping within 500 feet of the centerline of Forest Road 401 between the forest boundary and the stone pit at the Marienville ATV trailhead, or of Forest Road 125 between Forest Road 124 and SR 66/948. No camping or fire within 500 feet of the centerline of Hemlock Road in Glade Township. Designated sites only along Millstone Creek from Loleta and Forest Road 130 to the Clarion, along the Clarion River across Elk and Forest counties, and along Salmon Creek Road. Separate orders keep camping 1,500 feet back from the Allegheny Reservoir tree line and the Tionesta shore except at designated sites. 43
- If a route is not on the map, driving on it is prohibited
- That is the Allegheny National Forest’s own sentence about its Motor Vehicle Use Map, and it is the whole test for where a vehicle may go on that forest. The map shows the specific roads, trails and areas open to motorized travel and is published as a geospatial PDF and through the Avenza Map Store. Download it before you leave signal. Off the designated system, Forest Order 09-19-17-04 bans any off-road vehicle over 64 inches wide from forest trails, holds the Penoke, Willow Creek and Rocky Gap trails to 50 inches, and caps speed at 25 miles per hour on forest trails and roadways. 41
- An Allegheny trail permit, and what a day-use pass is not
- Anyone riding the Allegheny’s designated motorized trail system needs a physical permit affixed to the vehicle during the open season, which runs Memorial Day weekend through September. An annual permit is $35 and runs January 1 to December 31; a day permit is $10 and covers one day, can be bought up to two weeks ahead, and is not exchangeable or refundable if you do not ride. That is separate from the forest day use fee of $5 and the $65 annual forest pass, which cover developed recreation sites rather than trail riding. 40
- Corps of Engineers lakes: designated sites, fourteen days
- Fifteen of the 32 federal campgrounds a vehicle can reach in Pennsylvania sit on Army Corps of Engineers ground, which makes 36 CFR 327.7 the most-used federal camping rule in the state. Camping is permitted only at sites or areas designated by the District Commander. Camping at one or more campsites at any one water resource project for a period longer than 14 days during any 30-consecutive-day period is prohibited without written permission. Placing camping equipment at a site, or turning up without occupying it daily, in order to reserve it for later is prohibited, as is digging or levelling ground or building a structure. Pennsylvania has 23 Corps projects across three districts. 50
- Pennsylvania bans RVs and trailers at Tier 1
- PennDOT, the state police, the emergency management agency and the Turnpike Commission run a five-tier winter restriction system, reviewed hourly during a storm, and the first tier already reaches recreational traffic. Under Tier 1 the vehicles not permitted on affected roadways include recreational vehicles and motorhomes, motorcycles, and passenger vehicles including cars, SUVs and pickup trucks towing trailers. Tier 3 and Tier 4 keep all of those out while progressively banning commercial traffic, and under Tier 5 no vehicles at all are permitted except emergency responders. Active and planned restrictions are published on 511PA under Vehicle Restrictions. 47
- Spring thaw, and the roads that get posted
- Pennsylvania has no chain law, but it does post weight limits on roads that cannot take a freeze and thaw cycle. A posted roadway is any state or locally owned road carrying a weight restriction set under Section 4902(a) of the Vehicle Code. PennDOT uses seasonal postings where a road’s structural analysis shows a permanent posting may not be necessary, and says most of them relate to the early spring months when the freeze and thaw damage cycle is most prevalent. Hauling on routes approved under a Letter of Local Determination is prohibited between February 15 and April 15 during spring thaw conditions. Notice is generally two weeks and at minimum five days, and fewer than five only in an emergency. These postings are written for haulers rather than for light vehicles, but they are the published signal that the ground under a secondary road has gone soft. 48
- Five hundred more miles of road open in the autumn
- Every year the Bureau of Forestry opens roughly 500 miles of administrative state forest road, normally closed to vehicles, for the hunting seasons. In 2025 that covered 18 of the 20 districts from the start of the statewide archery deer season on October 4 through November 21, with many roads staying open through later seasons into January. Forest managers may close any of them at any time if weather threatens the road surface. After December 9 the roads become joint use with snowmobiles, and the bureau warns that a high-clearance vehicle with four-wheel drive and tire chains may be needed. 15
- Delaware Water Gap charges at the water, not at a gate
- There is no entrance fee to visit Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, but five swimming, picnicking and boat launch areas carry an expanded amenity fee of $10 per vehicle per day: Milford Beach, Dingmans Access, Bushkill Access and Smithfield Beach on the Pennsylvania side, and Turtle Beach in New Jersey. No fee is charged to people dropping off or picking up someone at any river access ramp, or to walkers passing through Smithfield Beach on the McDade Recreational Trail. Budget for the accesses you actually use rather than for the park. 53
- Pennsylvania has two fire seasons, not one
- The Bureau of Forestry puts the greatest wildfire danger in the state in the spring months of March, April and May, and again in the autumn months of October and November, and says 99 percent of all wildfires in Pennsylvania are caused by people. That is the reason a campfire on state forest land between March 1 and May 25 needs a permit even when nothing else about your camp does. Plan the shoulder seasons around a stove, and treat the autumn danger window as the same problem with drier leaves. 16
- Passable, not clear: what PennDOT promises in a storm
- PennDOT maintains nearly 40,000 miles of road and 25,400 bridges, which works out to more than 95,000 snow-lane miles, and it runs about 2,350 trucks, plows and spreaders with roughly 4,700 on-the-road workers. Over the past five winters it has used an average of 598,094 tons of salt. The stated aim is to keep roads passable rather than completely free of ice and snow, major highways are plowed and salted before less-travelled rural roads, and salt becomes less effective below 23 to 25 degrees, so low-traffic roads get anti-skid mixed in instead. On the lowest-volume roads the treatment is concentrated on hills, bridges, intersections and sharp curves. 46
- State parks: no gate fee, and no riding
- Pennsylvania runs 125 state parks over more than 300,000 acres and charges no entrance fee at any of them. In exchange the rules inside are specific. Under 17 Pa. Code 11.218, placing a tent, shelter, lean-to, sleeping bag, bedding material or mobile camping unit in an area without a valid camping permit for that area is prohibited. Under 11.216, an all-terrain vehicle may be used only in accordance with Chapter 77 of the Vehicle Code and only on an area, road or trail posted for all-terrain vehicles or with written department permission. Snowmobiles follow the same test plus a season that ends April 1. 34
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment
Road
Primitive Road
Road
Primitive Road
Trail
Roads open to all Vehicles, Yearlong
Roads open to all Vehicles, Seasonal
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Yearlong
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Seasonal
Special Designation, Yearlong
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails open to all vehicles, Yearlong
Trails open to all vehicles, Seasonal
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Yearlong
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Seasonal
Trails open to motorcycles, Yearlong
Trails open to motorcycles, Seasonal
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" in Width, Yearlong
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" or Less in Width, Seasonal
Wilderness Area
Wilderness Study Area
