Dead Man’s Hollow Conservation Area (Near Pittsburgh, PA)

Dead Man’s Hollow Conservation Area has 8 miles of trails plus all kinds of side trails that include a couple of waterfalls, industrial ruins, table rock, and an enchanted staircase. This is a place that you can get lost in. Every turn has a new little side trail and a just wonderful to walk around in.

Dead Man’s Hollow has 4 different areas to park in. Each area has a different trails that leads down to the industrial ruins but with different views and different skill levels of hiking.

Note: Make sure that you where orange during the hunting season because I keep coming up on hunting places in the trees and across shell casings on the trail.

Parking-Boston, PA

The easiest of all hikes is from the Boston, PA and the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Trail parking area.

After parking in Boston, take the GAP Trail towards Pittsburgh.

This trail head is very wide and easy to walk down and has a great view of the Youghiogheny River when enjoying part of the (GAP) Trail.

It also has a bit of Rail Road Tracks left over from the the day when the Rail Road was around.

About 3/4 of a mile down the trail is the opening to the Dead Man’s Hollow Conservation Area.

At this entrance, the industrial ruins are just as you walk down a small hill.

The area was once a quarry and then a pipe factory.

It is so cool to walk around in it.

Even with all the spray paint.

Behind the ruins are tunnels which are available to walk through and are about as tall as a 10 year old child is. You can see the light at the other end of it.

Around the ruins are also trash from the pipe factories. The above picture is an over turned tree that grow up in an old trash from the pipe factory. The trash is embedded within the trees roots.

There are also some hidden leftover building and furnaces within the brush to the right of the ruins as you come down the trail. It is a small loop but should not be over looked.

Leftover item are also embedded in the trail such as bricks…

Old pipes and other things laying around the place.

Parking-Orchard Drive

The trail that leads down to the ruins from this parking area is about .36 miles and called Black Oak Trail.

It runs into the Dead Man’s Run Trail but is downhill a bit.

This is most likely the fastest way but the hill down is easy but a bit rocky with pipe and bricks within the trail.

It is not a hard trail but remember that a what does down has to go back up the hill to the car at the end of the day.

Parking-Catfish Pond Park

Catfish Pond is just down from the parking area and the fishing is great from everyone that was talking about it.

Cool Spirit Trail is a bit of a loop but it also has a trail off it that goes down to the ruins.

If you go to the right as you start the trail, then you will get to the waterfall.

The path will get you to this bridge that is over the waterfall.

It is hard to find a place to really see the waterfall well but go to the right and you can see this one and another one as well.

The waterfall had very little water but a bit.

The sister waterfall is just as low flowing.

I enjoyed my time in this area but I keep going the wrong way and keep finding new trails to explore.

Partly because of me wanting to see them but partly because the trail is not well marked.

The side trails are easy to get lost on but there is always a way to get back to the car, i.e. walking back on the side streets.

Take lots of water and a snack. Plus double your time that you plan to be here. The side trails and getting lost might take longer then you think about a little over a mile trail.

If you do get lost, keep going downhill and you will end up at the ruins at some point or listen for traffic and go towards it and you will find a road.

Also, this trail will get you to Table Rock. But my camera ditched the picture. But Table Rock is a rock structure that looks like a table and so cool.

Dead Man’s Run Trail & Quarry Trail

After passing the Ruins, just keep walking straight back into the forest.

You hit this bridge or you can go past it and turn back towards the Ruins.

This path will take you to the Enchanted Staircase…

The Enchanted Staircase leads you to Calhoun Road parking on the Witch Hazel trail which is about 1.67 miles long.

I did not go up them. I went past the staircase and on to the Quarry Trail and a bit of an unnamed trail.

But I love the rocks along this part a lot.

The trail splits and to the left is an overview of the Ruins which is really cool to look down on.

To the left is a trail that goes to the top of the mountain and you can look down on the GAP trail and across the river.

But this trail is very small and to fall would mean you could get very hurt or worst.

But back to the bridge and crossing it and going into the wild.

Just a nice path…

The stream runs through the valley but it also has all kinds of left overs from the factories.

But bring your water shoes if you go back into the woods very far as you will need to cross the street and the only thing being large rock or other items to cross.

They have these wonderful trees which you can look for…Totally cool.

This trail is just so wonderful and beautiful. The further back you go the less people you see which is way at one time…This is where bodies would be found.

Brief History

In 1874, a group of boys found a decomposing body hanging. In the years that followed the discovery, the area was used as a dumping grounds for bodies, criminal acts, and untimely deaths from suspicious drownings, gunfights, lightning strikes, accidents, and other grisly discoveries.

As you hike in the area, you can feel the loneliness of the area. The ability to get lost and the easy in which you could stumble over a body or from the top of the mountain, having a body fall.

Stories through the years have been of presences in the area, odors, voices when no one else is around, and other strange things. Always go with a friend that you trust that will not leave you behind.

Two book have been write about the area. Dead Man’s Hollow: An Oral History and More. It quickly sold out.

And the following which is available on Amazon.

Links in this post are affiliate links. Affiliate will pay me a small commission at no extra cost to you if you use my links. But all my links are items that I have bought or researched to give you options.