Slow Mornings and Covered Bridges: A Driving Tour of Cambria County's Back Roads

Some of the best travel happens at twenty-five miles per hour with no particular deadline. Cambria County rewards that pace. Once you leave Ebensburg's Main Street behind and drop down into the hollows and creek valleys that crease this corner of the Alleghenies, the scenery shifts fast: farmsteads tucked into hillsides, one-lane bridges over cold runs, stands of second-growth forest closing in on either side of the road.

Photo by Phil Evenden on Pexels.

This is a guide to doing that slowly and well.

Why Covered Bridges

Pennsylvania has more covered bridges than any other state in the country. Cambria County holds a quiet share of that legacy. These structures were covered to protect the wooden trusses from weather, not the travelers inside, and most date from the mid-to-late 1800s. A few survive in Cambria County in various states of preservation, and tracking them down is a genuinely satisfying afternoon project.

The Kring Covered Bridge, located in Chest Township, is one of the county's more accessible examples. It's a modest structure by covered-bridge standards, but the setting earns its own attention: a narrow road, a creek running underneath, trees leaning in from both banks. Plan to stop, get out of the car, and stand on the bridge for a minute. That's the point.

Before heading out, grab a copy of the Cambria County covered bridge map from the county's tourism resources or check with the Cambria County Conservation and Recreation Authority. Locations shift in status as bridges are repaired or closed, and you don't want to drive forty minutes to find a dead end.

Building a Route from Ebensburg

Ebensburg sits at roughly 2,100 feet in elevation, which means most drives head down before they head anywhere interesting. Route 22 gives you quick access east and west, but the real riding is on state routes and township roads.

A good half-day loop: head south on Route 160 toward Beaverdale, then pick up smaller roads tracing the West Branch of the Susquehanna's tributaries. The valley floors stay cooler than the plateau, and the morning fog in late summer hangs around long enough to give everything a watercolor quality. Come back north through Loretto, which sits on a ridge of its own and carries a completely different feel: the Saint Francis University campus, the historic Basilica of Saint Michael the Archangel, and a small-town quiet that doesn't feel staged.

Loretto is worth a stop on its own merits. Prince Gallitzin, the founder of the town, arrived in this remote corner of Pennsylvania in the early 1800s, and his story connects the area to a broader history of frontier settlement and Catholic mission work in early America. The basilica is open to visitors and worth twenty minutes of your time.

What to Pack and When to Go

Early morning or late afternoon light is the difference between a snapshot and a real photograph on these roads. Midday summer sun flattens everything. If you're driving for pleasure or photography, aim to be on the back roads before nine or after four.

Bring a paper map as backup. Cell coverage drops to nothing in certain hollows, and GPS routing sometimes sends you down roads that are technically passable but clearly not meant for low-clearance vehicles. A county road map from a local convenience store or the county planning office will serve you well.

Water, snacks, and patience are the other essentials. Some of the best spots on a drive like this have no amenities within ten miles. That's a feature, not a problem.

A Few Honest Notes

Not every back road in Cambria County leads somewhere photogenic. Some end in gravel pits or private property. Part of the experience is accepting that and turning around without frustration. The county's terrain is genuine and unpolished, and it doesn't perform for visitors.

That said, when you round a curve and find a wooden bridge sitting in morning light with a creek beneath it and nothing else around, the drive pays for itself completely. Cambria County's back roads don't advertise. They just sit there, waiting for the kind of traveler who thinks a slow Tuesday morning is a perfectly good reason to go somewhere.