Hidden Meadow Loop Trail Map (click to enlarge)
Length: .6-mile loop
Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Before starting out on a hike around Friendship Hill National Historic Site, be sure to pick up a trail map at the Visitor Center. While the map is printed in black and white and lists trails by name, keep in mind that directional signage at the actual trailheads and intersections goes by colors, not names. Green is for the Main Loop Trail. Red is for the various meadow trails. Yellow tends to be for short connectors between the red and green trails.
Directional signage on the trails at Friendship Hill National Historic Site
You can’t get to the Hidden Meadow Loop Trail without first hiking other trails. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone coming to the park specifically to hike it, so most likely a trip around the Hidden Meadow will be part of a longer hike. I did it, along with the North Meadow Loop Trail, while hiking the Main Loop Trail, a total distance of roughly six miles. The Hidden Meadow Loop Trail itself is .6 mile, not counting the distance you must hike just to get to it.
Before deciding to hike the Hidden Meadow Loop Trail, realize that there is no longer a meadow. What typically happens with a meadow is that it eventually gets filled in with trees. Thus, there may well have been a meadow many decades ago when the park opened in the early 1980s. There is an open area at the very start of the hike, but this is far from anyone’s vision of a meadow. Today, nearly the entire trail runs through a forest.
Start of the Hidden Meadow Loop Trail at the intersection with the Main Loop Trail at Friendship Hill National Historic Site
The loop portion of the Hidden Meadow Loop Trail does not start at the intersection with the Main Loop Trail. Instead, walk about fifty yards on the mowed grass path until the trail forks. That’s the start of the loop. I continued straight and hiked around in the clockwise direction.
Typical terrain on the Hidden Meadow Loop Trail at Friendship Hill National Historic Site
There are some small ups and downs along the route, but for the most part, the entire trail is level. It is basically a wide, mowed path through the forest with a few gravel segments here and there. The only thing that keeps it from being waist-high weeds is a lawn mower.
Typical terrain on the Hidden Meadow Loop Trail at Friendship Hill National Historic Site
In truth, the only reason to hike the Hidden Meadow Loop Trail is just to get more exercise. There is no meadow or anything else of scenic value unless you like looking at trees. It’s just a hike in the woods.
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Last updated on June 9, 2023
