Damascus Forest Trail in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

Length:  1.2-mile loop
Time:  45 minutes
Difficulty: Moderate with one very steep hill

The Damascus Forest Trail is located in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania, on land owned by Damascus Township. Access is from a parking lot at 109 MacCubbins Road. If you use Google Maps, a search for Damascus Forest Trail will show the location.

The trail starts off through a meadow but quickly leads into the Damascus Forest. Nearly the entire hike is in the woods, so you don’t have to worry about the sun beating down on you.

Start of the Damascus Forest Trail near the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River

Typical terrain on the Damascus Forest Trail in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

I did the hike in late October when the trail was covered with leaves, and it was often hard to see a path. To remedy this, the trail is marked with yellow blazes, which are paint splotches on trees that you follow like Hansel and Gretel breadcrumbs. In a perfect world, you should be able to see from one blaze to the next, and the creators of the Damascus Forest Trail have done an excellent job. If it weren’t for the blazes, I would have had no idea where the trail was.

Yellow blazes mark the route of the Damascus Forest Trail in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

The forest is the type I like hiking through: tall canopy with an open floor largely void of vegetation. While there are a few rocks and roots on the trail, the surface is fairly smooth as far as hiking trails go. There are some hills, so don’t expect a flat and easy walking experience if you have mobility problems. With one exception, the most difficult hills are moderate at worse, and most of these come in the first quarter mile.

Typical terrain on the Damascus Forest Trail in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

There are a couple of places where you can see old stone walls. Such walls usually indicate that the area was once some sort of farm.

Old stone wall on the Damascus Forest Trail in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

One stone wall comes at the half-mile point on the hike. There is a gap in the wall, but an arrow on a tree instructs you to turn left prior to the wall. When you do, you’ll be faced with a very short-but-steep section of trail that leads down into a valley. It’s almost like going down a cliff. While only a hundred feet long, the grade is 25%, and most hikers agree that a grade of 15% is where strenuous starts. This is the steepest hill on the Damascus Forest Trail.

Old stone wall on the Damascus Forest Trail in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

Short-but-steep hill on the Damascus Forest Trail in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

Once at the bottom, the trail levels out. You’ll pass by more stone walls and, at least when I did the hike, large patches of baby pine trees. In some places there were so many that the ground looked as if it were covered in moss. Of course, these may be grown or dead by the time you do the hike.

Level terrain at the north end of the Damascus Forest Trail in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

Baby pine trees cover the forest floor along the Damascus Forest Trail in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

After 1.1 mile, the Damascus Forest Trail comes out on MacCubbins Road just a stone’s throw from the parking lot. Since a wayside exhibit at the parking lot stated that the trail was two miles long, I assumed it continued on the other side of the road. However, a plastering of NO TRESSPASSING signs on the adjacent property made it clear that this was not the case. Therefore, take a left and walk a tenth of a mile down the road to get back to your vehicle. The two miles stated on the wayside is way off.

The Damascus Forest Trail ends at MacCubbins Road in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

Keep off the property across the street from the Damascus Forest Trail in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

As far as forest trails go, the Damascus Forest Trail is one of the better ones. I’m not a big fan of walking through the forest, but I did enjoy this short hike.

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