For most of the year, a Peters Township weekend pulls in a lot of directions. Kids on the road for travel sports, dinners north toward the city, errands scattered from Bethel Park down to Washington. Fall is the one season that reverses the pattern. Between late September and the last weekend in October, the things worth doing here cluster inside a fifteen-minute drive of McMurray Road.
That is the case for staying close. Not a nostalgia argument, a logistics one. Three anchors carry it: a paved trail that runs the length of the township, two working farms on opposite sides of the ridge, and a municipal calendar that quietly does more in fall than it does in summer.
The spine most residents underuse
With the aid of a DCNR grant the original section of Arrowhead Trail was resurfaced in 2002. Arrowhead Trail is 3.5 miles in length. The trail runs from Route 19 to Brush Run Road. That is the practical description. The interesting part is what it is a piece of.
A portion of the Montour Trail within Peters Township is called the Arrowhead Trail. This 3.5-mile asphalt-paved section of trail runs from Route 19 to Brush Run Road, and is owned and maintained by the Township. The rest of the Montour is crushed limestone. Arrowhead is asphalt. In November, when the limestone sections upstream turn to wet grit under fallen leaves, the Peters section stays clean and rollable. Strollers, road bikes, and anyone still learning to ride benefit from that difference more than most residents realize.
The history is worth a minute. Although the Montour Railroad was originally organized in 1877, our section wasn't built until 1912-1914. Horses and manual labor cleared and leveled the site. The railroad transported coal 55 miles from mines in Mifflin and Library. Sweeping west and north to a "coal laundry" facility in Allegheny County, the train carried coal to coke ovens, then on to the Ohio River. Its cars also hauled wood to nearby lumberyards and served general stores along its route. One of these stores was operated by the McMurray family here in Peters Township. The township purchased the 100 acres of railroad right-of-way in 1985. Every time a family walks the Arrowhead in October, they are on a coal grade the McMurrays used to buy dry goods off of.
Two farms, two personalities, ten minutes apart
The temptation is to lump Simmons and Trax together as "the farm option." They are different products and worth choosing between deliberately.
| Simmons Farm | Trax Farms | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 170 Simmons Rd, McMurray | 528 Trax Rd, Finleyville |
| Distance from Peters Township High School | ~4 miles | ~7 miles |
| Farming since | Season runs Easter through December | Established in 1865 |
| Fall signature | Pick-your-own flowers, pumpkins, corn mazes | Fresh-pressed cider, hayride pumpkin picking |
| Fall Festival window | October weekends | Sept 20 - Oct 26 Daily 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. |
| Hayride pricing | Included in general admission at posted rates | $12 per person online $14 per person on day of at the red hut hayride booth Children 2yrs & under: Free |
The pick-your-own program at Simmons is the differentiator. Come to the farm and enjoy fall activities with Hayrides, Rubber Duck Races, Apple Rock Labyrinth, Five acres of Pumpkins, Hay Maze, 4 acre and 2 acre Corn Maze, 100 ft slide and smaller Fire Truck slide! Petting Zoo, Play Area, and Corn Play Bin. Households with early elementary kids get more mileage there. The wildflower fields are also open into the fall for anyone who wants to cut their own dinner-table arrangement.
Trax is the older brand and leans on it. For over six generations, the Trax family has passed down the importance of quality, tradition and family. That's probably why we're one of the oldest and most-awarded fruit and vegetable farms in Pittsburgh and the South Hills. Although we've been farming for 150 years, we still have that passion for growing good things to eat and bringing families together to enjoy them. The cider is the reason to make the drive. In the fall, your family will love our fresh-pressed cider, the Best Apple Cider in Pittsburgh. The Fall Festival attractions skew slightly older than Simmons: Hayrides 3 acre Corn Maze PYO Pumpkins Train (Recommended for Children) Bouncy House Balloon Chase 3 Rides on Giant Slide (Must be 36" Tall) Bungee Jumper Rock Wall Land Balls Leaps & Bounds Baseball Challenge Pony Rides Petting Zoo.
Households with a mix of ages have a workable pattern: Simmons on a Sunday morning for pumpkins and flowers, Trax on a Saturday afternoon for cider and the corn maze. The two do not compete for the same weekend hour.
The one Saturday to circle
If a resident circles a single date on the fall calendar, it should be September 26. When: Saturday, September 26, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PMWhere: Fire Station 1, located at 245 E. McMurray Road. The Peters Township Fire Department Open House will be on Saturday, September 26, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM at Fire Station 1. Community members are invited for family activities, demonstrations, tours of the apparatus, and more!
It lands the same weekend Trax's Fall Festival is in its opening stretch. A family can spend the late morning at Fire Station 1 on East McMurray Road, drive fifteen minutes south to Trax for a hayride and cider, and be home before dinner. That is the fifteen-minute-radius argument in one afternoon.
An October Saturday, built without leaving the township
Here is a working shape for the last Saturday of Trax's Fall Festival window, which falls on October 24 this year:
- 8:30 a.m. Park at the Route 19 trailhead at Brush Run Road. Walk or ride the Arrowhead out and back. The asphalt handles morning dew better than the crushed limestone north of the tunnel.
- 10:00 a.m. Cross Route 19 north to Simmons Farm on Simmons Road. Pumpkins first, then the corn maze while foot traffic is still light.
- 12:30 p.m. Lunch at home or in McMurray. The village pocket around East McMurray Road has enough options that nothing requires a highway.
- 2:00 p.m. Trax Farms in Finleyville. Cider, hayride to the pumpkin patch, giant slide for anyone tall enough.
- 5:30 p.m. Back home. The route from Trax Road to most Peters Township addresses is under twenty minutes.
The itinerary works because none of the four stops are more than eight miles from the high school on Rolling Hills Drive. Same tank of gas, four different environments.
What the amphitheater is still doing
The Peterswood Park amphitheater is best known for its summer program. Peters Township Parks & Recreation offers free Wednesday night concerts with food trucks throughout the summer at the amphitheater! The lesser-known point is that programming does not stop cleanly on Labor Day. Early September evenings on that lawn are still warm enough for a blanket and a food truck line, and the trees on the ridge behind the amphitheater are the first in the township to turn. Anyone new to the neighborhood should check the township calendar the first week of September rather than assuming the season is over.
A quiet note for anyone thinking about listing
Fall is the season Peters Township looks most like the version of itself buyers imagine when they type the name into a search bar. Mature street canopies turn. Front-porch pumpkins photograph well against the painted-brick and lap-siding facades common in the older parts of the township. The market softens by early November, but a well-prepared listing that hits the MLS in late September or the first two weeks of October catches buyers who spent the summer weekends at Trax and Simmons and started paying attention to the "For Sale" signs on the drive home.
That timing window is short, and the prep runs backward from it. Staging, photo-day styling, and a photography plan that uses the season instead of fighting it need to be locked before Labor Day. If a fall launch is on the calendar for a Peters Township home this year, Jonette Shanahan is available for a consultation on staging, pricing, and a launch sequence tuned to how buyers actually move here in October. In the meantime, the Peters Township neighborhood page has the current market read and a starting point for a home valuation.
