Pennsylvania State Game Lands 322 is between Huntingdon and Petersburg boroughs, atop Warrior Ridge above the Juniata River. The lands have 4.4 miles of designated trails open to horses, biking, and hiking and most of it is pretty nice woodlands with very little use.
General Layout
There are several blocks to SGL 322 but horse riding trails are all east of Petersburg Pike and accessed from it.
The trails form a distorted X shape, with the junction at a hunting parking area which is only accessible to vehicles during hunting seasons. They are the dash-dot lines below.
Here’s a map from the Game Commission Mapping Center
Trying something new, here is a link to the SGL live map…
You can make loops from the X using the road but note that Petersburg Pike does get some traffic and sometimes people go faster than they should. Be especially careful at peak commute times, as people aren’t very considerate and sight distance can be limited.
Parking Options
There are several parking spots along Petersburg Pike:
- At the dual power lines (point 322-5)
- At the southern end of trails (point 322-4)
- Across from Grams Lane (point 322-8)
The pull-off at the power lines is big enough for two rigs. There is a bit of drop off at the edge of the road, so pull in slowly. You could ride from here on the power line road to reach the trails, but the gate is kind of hard to get around.
The pull-off at the southern trail end appears to be the shoulder of the road and doesn’t allow much space.
No information yet on parking at Grams Lane; we forgot to look.
Trail Access
If you park at the power lines (gate 322-5), the easy option is to ride north on the road 0.2 miles and the west leg of the X will start to your right. Unfortunately the gate is destroyed and the trail is blocked with stumps on a steep bank, so it’s a little hard to get onto the trail. We’re going to ask the Game Commission to fix this.
If you park at the south end, you are directly on the south leg of the trail.
If you park at Grams Lane, you are on the northwest leg of the X trails (really a gravel road back to hunting parking).
Our Ride
This view of our GPS track from May 2024 shows how we rode from parking under the power lines, north on the road, then got on the west leg of the X. We missed the turn to the north and instead rode the firebreak.
This ride was about 4 miles and took 1:15. It was a weekday evening or we would have gone further!
The sections we did not ride are marked in contrasting color. You can see there is a lot more to cover on our next visit.
You should probably skip the area in the circle where we crossed under the powerlines; it’s pretty overgrown.
Trail Conditions
In general the trails are scenic mature woodlands, with dirt footing. We were pleasantly surprised by how pretty it is. None of what we covered is very steep, it has just enough terrain to be interesting.
This is fairly high ground up on the mountain. When we visited after more than a week of on and off spring rains it still wasn’t too muddy, with only a few wet spots. The decent drainage is one of the best features of this area!
Areas around the big power line right of way are not very scenic and mostly overgrown brush. The road that runs under the powerlines can be ridden, but it is rocky and steep in places compared to the designated trails.
There is a wide cleared path (maybe a firebreak) north of and parallel to the big powerlines. It is definitely rideable, but keeps your eyes open as there are rocks and stumps and logs and other obstacles to navigate!
The northwest leg is really a road into the hunting parking and is surfaced with coarse stone. You probably want shoes or boots to ride this. It looks like the stone continues east of the parking lot for a ways. When the northeast branch cuts away it is hopefully not so rocky (we did not get that far).
The south leg of the X has large slabs of sandstone in places, which can get a little slick in wet conditions depending on your horse’s shoeing situation.
Game Lands Rules
Remember, there are restrictions of when you can use Pennsylvania State Game Lands for non-hunting recreation:
- You can always ride on roads which are open to public travel
(it may not be very safe during hunting seasons!). - You can ride on Sundays year-round except the new Sunday-hunting days
(which are currently only in the fall) - NO riding from…
last Saturday in September through the third Saturday in January
(but non-hunting Sundays are permitted). - NO riding before 1 pm from…
second Saturday in April through the last Saturday in May
(but non-hunting Sundays are permitted). - Designated trails which allow horse riding should be marked
(do not ride trails marked as non-horse).
Please always wear fluorescent orange on SGL!
