Wolfinger Trail at Valley Forge National Historical Park

Length: .3 mile
Time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Moderately strenuous

Download the Valley Forge Trail Map (PDF)

The Wolfinger Trail is located in the Mount Misery area of Valley Forge National Historical Park. It is a short trail that runs between the Valley Creek Trail on the east side and the Mount Misery Trail on the west side. If hiking north from Yellow Springs Road, it’s roughly .4 mile from the start of either trail. If you are making a loop hike out of the Valley Creek, Horse-Shoe, and Mount Misery Trails and decide to cut things short, the Wolfinger Trail is your answer. Other than serving as a shortcut, it has no real purpose.

I was doing the aforementioned loop and decided to hike out and back on the Wolfinger Trail just so I could write a review of it. I started at the Mount Misery Trail intersection, and since this is at a higher elevation than the Valley Creek Trail, it should come as no surprise that the hike east towards Valley Creek is downhill. The surface is as rocky, if not rockier, than the other Mount Misery area trails. It’s also way steeper than any of the others, dropping nearly 450 feet in just a little over a quarter mile, with most of the drop coming near Valley Creek. It’s not tippy-toe steep, but I was pushing off on the balls of my feet on the way back up. It’s somewhere in between moderate and strenuous.

Heading downhill on the Wolfinger Trail at Valley Forge National Historical Park

Heading uphill on the Wolfinger Trail at Valley Forge National Historical Park

The Valley Creek / Horse-Shoe / Mount Misery loop hike is really a great hike, so I see no reason to cut it short. If you take the Wolfinger Trail, you’ll miss the summit of Mount Misery and the very cool ruins of the Colonial Spring Company bottling plant on the Horse-Shoe Trail segment of the hike. But hey, at least you now know what the Wolfinger Trail is all about.