Paw Paw Tunnel Trailhead
Paw Paw Tunnel Trailhead in Oldtown, MD, offers a scenic outdoor experience featuring a nearly 3/4 mile long dark tunnel that requires a flashlight, a moderate to challenging hiking trail loop with beautiful views including a waterfall and river overlook. The trail supports hiking, biking, and walking, and is kid-friendly with picnic tables and public restrooms available at a spacious parking lot. The trail is wheelchair accessible and offers a unique mix of engineering marvel and natural beauty for visitors to explore.
Reviews
Bring shoes with high soles/tread because it’s wet and slick in many places to be prepared to walk through wet muddy areas. Also make sure you bring headlamps or flashlights, there is no lighting in the tunnel. There is plenty of parking at the paw paw tunnel trailhead parking lot with some Porta-Johns available to use the restroom before your journey. Once you leave the parking lot you go on a nice gravel wide trail only a half a mile to reach to the tunnel. The tunnel is about 3/4 of a mile and dark. Once you reach the other side of the tunnel there is waterfalls coming down off the mountain and it’s very pretty. Then it continues on with a boardwalk and follows out to the trail marked with yellow or orange signs. You can take this trail back up the mountain side and eventually come out to the beginning walkway just before the tunnel and close to the parking lot. The whole trailhead loop I think is about 4 miles roughly… Maybe a little more. We went through the tunnel first and took the trail back to the parking lot afterwards. I would say the hike on the trail back up the mountain side is a little strenuous but not much. During this hike up the mountainside once you reach the top you will come to an overlooked looking over the river and seeing all the mountainsides. You also have the option to take the trail first and do the tunnel last… To do this go to the left at the beginning of the trail when you see a little wooden bridge to your left take that and follow the signs. We drove from about an hour and a half away maybe a little more and I would definitely recommend this place it was worth the drive! Make sure you bring some water and snacks to with your flashlights.
The tunnel is very dark and almost 3/4 of a mile long, so make sure you have light. The trail is around 5 miles long and absolutely beautiful.
Great area to walk or hike and explore an engineering marvel. Trail is taken care of and there are Porta potty at the parking area and before the tunnel entrance. Bring a flashlight as this tunnel is long, dark and there is no lighting whosoever.
Nice trail: It took us about 1 hour to walk uphill and back through the long tunnel. The tunnel looks shorter than it actually was. The trail was quite easy. We had wonderful weather so we enjoyed it. There is a spacious parking place and tables for BBQ.
It was a great trail day. 3 miles through the tunnel, up and down the ridge in a loop. Bring a flashlight for the tunnel. Moderate to hard assent up ridge. On the down slope, great view of the Potomac.