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Print Friendly MapThe Cross County Trail runs for 3 miles between the Schuylkill River Trail in Conshohocken and the village of Plymouth Meeting. The trail links suburban shopping with neighborhoods and mostly parallels a short section of I-476.
Plans call for extending the trail to a total of 17.5 miles, crossing Montgomery County on a north–south link and connecting with other regional trail systems.
On evenings and weekends you can park at the SEPTA station parking lots along the trail. You can also park in the lots owned by the big box stores found along the route.
Only the westernmost 3 miles of this trail exist. The surface is good, but there are one or two nerve-wracking crossings. The summary here states, "You can also park in the lots owned by the big box stores found along the route." but I'm skeptical that parking in the strip-mall lot off chemical road is legal when you aren't on mall property. When completed this could potentially be a very useful trail, but is not there yet.
I've been on this trail three times, and from my experience there, it was a solid trail but needs improvements. It has a great amount of potential, and could soon live up to its name.
The trail is serene on both sides of the Ikea/Home Depot Business area, it was an enjoyable experience for sure, but there were flaws that should be fixed.
Two of the crossings, which would be the main Ikea entrance and Gallagher Rd, are dangerous to cross and have poor signage. I highly recommend improving the signage to signal drivers of trail users.
Because of the trail being very serene on both sides and having a pleasant experience there, I would have rated this 5 stars, but it loses a star due to poor signage and dangerous crossings.
Only the first mile was pretty and serene....the rest was basically walking in Ikea and Home Depot parking lots....no thanks!
This was a great trail going from Conshohocken to plymouth. I was on the trail befor it was even paved and it was still under construction. Easy way for people to get to the plymouth meeting metroplex. And as the area changes it gets better and better.
At first glance, the name for this paved, suburban trail appears deceptive. After branching off the longer and better-known Schuylkill River Trail on Conshohocken's north side, the Cross County Trail heads northeast, following an abandoned rail line to Brooks Road, then paralleling Alan Wood Road around the massive strip mall whose anchor stores include IKEA and Home Depot. It rejoins the old rail line just south of Ridge Pike, continuing northeast to its current terminus at the corner of Germantown Pike and Chemical Road in Plymouth Meeting, little more than 3 miles in length. Despite providing a means for local residents to access nearby shopping centers, and, indirectly, further off center-city Philadelphia or Valley Forge National Park, the trail currently comes nowhere near traversing Montgomery County.
However, this is slated to change in the future. County officials recently began working on plans to extend the trail further east, connecting to the Wissahickon and Pennypack trails, as well as the proposed Penn-Tammany Greenway. Once this happens, the Cross County Trail will live up to its name and form a continuous greenway that zigzags through the suburbs immediately north of Philadelphia, connecting Conshohocken to Newtown, and perhaps eventually, the D&L Canal Trail. This greenway, in turn, will form part of the Circuit, the much larger network of trails envisioned to criss-cross the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
In the meantime, the trail serves as a nice community greenway that passes through scenic open-space on either side of the IKEA/Home Depot strip mall. Lush vegetation muffles most of the noise from nearby I-476, and the Metroplex, another shopping complex near Plymouth Meeting, features a Barnes & Noble that is great for stopping to relax and cool off during the warm months of the year. My only caveat is that much of the signage posted on the trail is faded or vandalized, and should be replaced.
the Cross County Trail in Conshohocken is a roughly 3 mile long paved path that loops around the edge of town.
It connects with the much larger Schuylkill (thank you spell check) trail at Conshohocken near the train station. In the other direction, it ends around Plymouth Meeting to a regular sidewalk, some business "parks" and a gas station.
As of June 24, 2013, the trail has a small section in Conshohocken that is under construction, so there is a detour with a *steep* incline, use caution!!!
This trail is nicely wooded with two exceptions:
1) It passes a Home Depot/Ikea center so you have to watch for cars entering and exiting the lots (sometimes at speed, and often blocking the path)
2) It passes a large shopping center (Barnes/Noble, Lowes (hey it doesn't discriminate big box), DSW) with three entrances, but these are traffic light and walk sign controlled, though still a tad dangerous
The rest of the trail is very lightly used when I went, it has some inclines so not one big long flat path. It's a nice ride, but b/c of some of the dangers of the road crossings it loses a star.
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