8 Scenic Routes Across Pennsylvania With Rest Stops Along the Way
PennDOT’s byway network stretches about 675 miles across 27 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
None of those byways come with a highway-style rest stop attached.
State parks fill the gap instead.
These are the scenic routes across Pennsylvania with rest stops along the way.
1. Elk Scenic Drive
Elk Scenic Drive is a 127-mile loop through five counties that the state forestry department maps for one reason, and that reason weighs several hundred pounds.
The Game Commission puts the herd at as many as 1,400 elk roaming 3,000 square miles of Elk, Cameron, Clinton, Clearfield, and Centre counties.
The rut runs September through October.
Bulls bugle.
That noise is why the loop’s two big stops are worth timing for October.
Winslow Hill outside Benezette has off-road parking, a pavilion, and portable toilets.
The Game Commission asks you to keep at least 100 yards between yourself and the animals.
Down the hill, the Elk Country Visitor Center on Winslow Hill Road runs 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, through the end of October.
Come November, it drops to five days a week and closes at 5.
2. Longhouse Scenic Byway
Longhouse Scenic Byway is a 36-mile loop inside the Allegheny National Forest that circles the Kinzua Creek arm of the Allegheny Reservoir.
You ride PA 321, PA 59, and Longhouse Drive.
The Forest Service keeps the loop open January through December.
The stop to plan around is Rimrock Overlook, off Route 59.
The Forest Service lists picnic tables, grills, and a vault restroom at the parking area, then a set of stone steps that drops 200 feet to the rocks.
The view covers the reservoir and every hillside around it.
Rimrock’s season runs late March to mid-December, so a foliage run in October lands inside the window with room to spare.
Bring the sandwiches.
3. Kinzua Bridge Scenic Byway
Kinzua Bridge Scenic Byway is the short spur, State Route 3011, that leaves US 6 at Mt. Jewett and runs roughly four miles north to Kinzua Bridge State Park.
Drivers already working their way across the northern tier on US 6 use the spur as the detour worth taking, since the park sits just off the highway.
The state parks department also lists it as a shared-use hike and bike corridor, so expect walkers on the shoulder.
The rest stop at the top is the park’s visitor center, open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. through October 31, with a picnic pavilion and RV parking outside.
The reason to get out of the car is the viaduct.
It stood 2,053 feet long and 301 feet high until a tornado tore through it in 2003, and the surviving towers became a 600-foot pedestrian skywalk in 2011.
The state parks department began a multi-year skywalk rehab in the fall of 2024, closing the glass floor for long stretches while the work continued.
The skywalk reopened on September 1, 2026, and stays open through October 31, 2026, with full rehab completion targeted for fall 2027.
4. Route 6
Route 6 crosses the northern tier for roughly 400 miles.
The whole corridor has carried a state Heritage Area designation since 2005.
That Heritage Area status is a different program from a Byway designation.
In October 2025, a 211-mile stretch of Route 6 through the PA Wilds region earned a separate Pennsylvania Scenic Byway listing.
The state forestry department posts a fresh foliage report every Thursday through the season, tracking the corridor’s color county by county.
Its counties are the stretch the department says peaks between October 1 and 10 in a typical year.
The stop worth a short detour sits past Wellsboro.
Turn onto PA 660 and follow the paved road 5 miles west to Leonard Harrison State Park, on the east rim of Pine Creek Gorge.
That’s a 10-mile round trip off Route 6, so the honest label here is a detour, not a stop along the way.
The park’s environmental center holds the park office and stays open from summer through the fall foliage season.
The state parks department warns that GPS apps often route drivers onto roads not built for large RVs and buses, so stay on the pavement.
Staying on the pavement means the overlook is worth the drive without risking the muffler.
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5. Laurel Highlands Scenic Byway
Laurel Highlands Scenic Byway strings 68 miles of PA 381 and PA 711 through the ridges southeast of Pittsburgh.
Its rest stop is the park many drivers on the road are heading for anyway.
Ohiopyle State Park covers about 20,500 acres around the Youghiogheny River Gorge, and PA 381 drops you into the middle of it.
The Laurel Highlands Falls Area Visitor Center doubles as the park office.
It's open seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., through October 31, then cuts back to Monday through Saturday, 8 to 4, from November 1 through April 15.
The falls are steps away.
Exhibits inside cover the wildlife in the gorge, which is a polite way of saying you can warm up while the kids decide whether the rafts look fun or terrifying.
6. National Road
National Road is the US 40 scenic route between the Maryland and West Virginia lines.
It carries the federal All-American Road label on top of its Pennsylvania Byway status.
Few roads hold both.
Fort Necessity National Battlefield sits right on it, 11 miles east of Uniontown and a mile west of Farmington, with the entrance on the highway.
The Interpretive and Education Center is the rest stop.
The Park Service keeps it open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., year-round except New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Wheelchair-accessible restrooms, a picnic pavilion, and a playground round out the stop.
The exhibits cover the road itself as much as the 1754 fight.
A 20-minute film called Road of Necessity runs in the theater, so the stop teaches you the history of the pavement you drove in on.
What a Pennsylvania Byway Sign Means
A Pennsylvania Byway sign, like the signs marking National Road above, is a confirmation sign, not a direction sign.
PennDOT's byways guidance tells its districts to post as few of them as possible.
The designation changes nothing about how you drive the road, since it carries no new speed limit.
What it does change is the roadside. PennDOT bars new billboards along a designated byway wherever any part of the sign would be visible from the road.
PennDOT's list runs to 21 state byways like this one, spanning roughly 675 miles across 27 of the state's 67 counties.
7. Journey Through Hallowed Ground
Journey Through Hallowed Ground is the National Scenic Byway that follows US 15 into Adams County from the Maryland line.
The stop is the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center at 1195 Baltimore Pike, a short exit off US 15.
The building is free to enter, and the Park Service lists restrooms, a bookstore, and two places to eat inside.
The museum, the film, and the Cyclorama painting each carry a ticket price, so a driver who only needs 15 minutes and a coffee pays nothing.
The Gettysburg Foundation, a nonprofit partner, runs the building and helps fund its exhibits.
Out on the battlefield, the Park Service's comfort stations stay open through park hours until mid-November, then lock up for the winter through March.
8. Great Lakes Seaway Trail
The Great Lakes Seaway Trail is the scenic Lake Erie shoreline byway that crosses Erie County from near the Ohio line to the New York line.
The National Scenic Byway Foundation puts the Pennsylvania stretch at 64 miles of the trail's 518.
The stop sits where Presque Isle State Park begins.
The Tom Ridge Environmental Center sits at the park entrance on PA 832 and opens 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, holding the park office, exhibits, and a 75-foot observation tower.
From November 1 to March 31 it closes on Sundays and Mondays.
Past the center, the park's loop road runs about 13 miles around the peninsula, and the park itself stays open from 5 a.m. to sunset every day of the year.
Climbing the tower first pays off: The lake looks like an ocean from up there, which is why the state parks department calls Presque Isle Pennsylvania's only seashore.
Service Plazas vs. Rest Areas
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission runs 17 service plazas, all open around the clock with fuel, restrooms, and food, though the restaurant vendors keep separate hours.
Byways don't get those.
PennDOT's free-road system is built around 14 welcome centers staffed 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week.
The centers sit on the interstates, not on US 6 or PA 381.
A byway driver won't find that pump on a forest road, so it pays to fill up before leaving the highway.
Stops That Close for Winter
Kinzua Bridge's skywalk is the first of several rest stops that close early for winter, shutting again on November 1 after its September reopening.
The visitor center below it moves its close from 6 p.m. to 4 p.m. the same day.
The Elk Country Visitor Center goes to weekends only from January through March.
Gettysburg's comfort stations lock for the season right after the Remembrance Day observances in mid-November, per the Park Service, then stay shut until spring.
Fort Necessity is the exception, holding 9 to 5 every day but three holidays.
A January drive on the National Road still ends with an indoor restroom and a 20-minute film inside the visitor center.
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