Alpha Pass Trail

Alpha Pass Trail leads to one of the premier bouldering and rock climbing areas in western Pennsylvania, descending through the McConnells Mill gorge to a chaos of massive conglomerate boulders deposited by the glacial outburst flood that carved the Slippery Rock gorge. The conglomerate rock, a cemented mix of rounded quartzite pebbles and cobbles in a sandstone matrix, provides excellent friction for climbing and bouldering, and the varied sizes and shapes of the boulders create an extensive playground for both novice and expert climbers. Established bouldering problems are scattered throughout the boulder field, with the hardest concentrations in the Alpha Pass zone proper where two massive boulders nearly touch overhead, creating a narrow passage through which the trail squeezes. The park is one of the few Pennsylvania state parks where rock climbing is explicitly permitted, and McConnells Mill has hosted organized climbing clinics and competitions. Hikers who are not climbers will nonetheless find the boulder field fascinating to explore, scrambling over and through the massive stones with views down to the creek below. The surrounding forest of hemlock and mixed hardwood provides shade through most of the route. The trail connects to the Slippery Rock Gorge Trail, and combining the two routes provides a thorough exploration of the gorge's geological and ecological highlights in an outing of 3 to 4 miles.