Wissahickon Valley Park. Beautiful, spacious, exciting. This park is by far the best place to go hiking in Philly. In particular, the area of Wissahickon to the south just off Lincoln Drive. This is where you’ll find places like Hermit’s cave, Lover’s Leap, and the most important (at least, to this article) The Henry Avenue Bridge.
Its not the view from the bridge or the design of the bridge, even though it is so absolutely beautiful, it is the supports of the bridge and the graffiti that consumes them. The bridge is made of concrete and every single reachable inch of the supports is covered in a form of paint or ink. The artists that put their work up here make all sorts of designs ranging from inspired social or political murals to complex patterns to people’s initials. I can’t guarantee that all the graffiti will be family friendly, but I have yet to see anything that would be wildly inappropriate.
If you’re a photographer, painter, or poet, the Henry Avenue Bridge should be in your top 5 places to visit before the end of 2021, the amount of potential this place has for inspiration and creativity is insane. If you’re not one of those artsy people, there’s a good chance visiting here will turn you into one.
Getting here isn’t too hard, the best parking is on Forbidden Drive at the Ten Box. Then take the Wissahickon Bike Trail, the closest paved trail to the highway going south, just past the Henry Avenue Bridge and then turn right onto the Yellow Trail and stay on that. This way you stay on a paved path for 75% of the trip and then you have a nice easy dirt trail the rest of the way.
Alternatively, you can also go down Forbidden Drive, cross a small bridge, and turn left immediately onto the Yellow Trail. Going this way means climbing a steep hill on narrow dirt trail with rocks. Much more difficult than Option A.