While poking around for new places to ride horses in Central PA, I stumbled upon Clearfield county’s visitor website, which mentions Wopsononock Natural Area for horseback riding. Familiar with “Wopsy” mountain outside Altoona, I had never heard of this natural area… and don’t natural areas prohibit horses?

Some digging revealed this is former Camp Wopsononock, a Scout camp until the county turned it over to DCNR in 2016. Articles describe it as 578 acres of high-quality woodlands.

Unfortunately there isn’t much information about this site online, and descriptions of it are vague and misleading, so I thought I’d share information as I piece it together.

Getting There

I took a quick drive there and found the entrance to the property is Little Muddy Run Road off of PA 253. According to the sign, it is the Wopsononock Tract. Nothing about a natural area.

Just off 253 there is a grassy parking area large enough for several trailers, though it’s on a bit of a slope. There are signs for named trails going off this lot. It appears they are blazed, so hopefully you can follow them with the help of the new map (below).

If you continue straight in on the road perhaps 0.1 mile, there is another lot to your left. It’s a little smaller and a little tighter access, but it is flat.

It appears nearby Little Muddy Run can probably supply water for horses. There is no running water and are no facilities for humans, just a parking lot! There is plenty of shade.

Note: Do not turn in at Williams Road (north of Little Muddy Run) as this quickly dead ends at a fenced pond and there isn’t much space to turn around. DCNR news claims there are picnic tables here somewhere but I did not see them.

Wopsononock Tract Location:

  • On PA 253
  • just NE of village of Allemans
  • at Clearfield/Cambria county line
  • Gulich township
  • 12 miles from Tyrone

OpenStreetMap link

Directions from Tyrone:

  • take PA 453 (Janesville Pike) west from Tyrone about 11 miles
  • turn left on PA 253 and go about 1 mile
  • entrance road is Little Muddy Run Rd on left (East) side

Trail Map

DCNR just came through with the following map!

Online info suggests that neighboring private property owners are not particularly friendly, so please try to adhere to the trails and boundaries shown.

You can also download the map as a pdf file to print or take along (1.2MB).

Trails

I haven’t gotten to check out the trails yet. They are listed as multi-user so you may encounter bicycles and hikers.

Please note that areas of Dawn Trail look pretty steep. Based on the map contours, they could be 10~15% grade.

Last update 2022.08.08