The Paw Paw Tunnel: What to Expect Before You Roll In

Where the Potomac ties itself into a series of tight bends near Paw Paw, West Virginia, the canal builders faced a choice: follow every loop of the river or bore straight through the ridge. They chose the mountain. The result is the Paw Paw Tunnel, a brick-lined passage carved by hand in the canal era that carries the C&O Towpath — and you — through solid rock instead of around it.

It stands today as one of the signature engineering landmarks of the entire towpath, and for thru-riders heading between Cumberland and DC it's often the single most anticipated moment of the C&O half. It earns the anticipation.

Dark is the honest word — genuinely, completely dark once the entrance shrinks behind you. There is no lighting of any kind. The towpath through the tunnel is a narrow ledge beside the old canal channel, with a wooden railing between you and the water, and the bricks overhead drip steadily in most seasons. The air runs noticeably cooler than outside, which feels wonderful on a summer afternoon and clammy in October.

The footing is uneven in places and the passage is long enough that the far portal starts as a pinprick. None of this is dangerous with a light and patience; all of it is memorable.

A few habits keep the experience fun instead of fraught, for you and everyone else in the dark.

• Walk your bike through — the National Park Service asks for it, and the narrow, slick ledge makes it the only sensible choice anyway.
• Bring an actual headlamp or bike light. A phone flashlight is a backup, not a plan.
• Announce yourself politely when passing hikers; voices carry strangely and startling someone at a railing is bad form.
• Expect drips from above — a cap or hood is worth having handy.
• Check NPS trail alerts before your trip: the tunnel closes periodically for maintenance, and the steep Tunnel Hill Trail over the top is the detour when it does.

The tunnel sits downstream of Cumberland on the towpath, comfortably within reach of riders working the western C&O — thru-riders typically pass it on their first or second day out of Canal Place, and strong day-riders treat it as a long out-and-back from the Cumberland trailhead. Consult the NPS mileage charts for exact distances and plan water accordingly; that stretch of towpath is among the quieter ones, with services thin on the ground.

If you're building a multi-day western-C&O basecamp trip, the lodging picture at the towpath's top end is laid out at tunnelhotel.com/co-canal-towpath-lodging.

Here's a theme worth leaning into: this corner of the Alleghenies is riddled with great holes in mountains. The Paw Paw anchors the canal side. Up the GAP, the roughly 3,300-foot Big Savage Tunnel crowns the summit near the Eastern Continental Divide. And on the rail line between Cumberland and Frostburg, the Brush Tunnel is something you can pedal through on actual railroad track aboard a Tracks & Yaks railbike — the 3-hour Mountain Ridge Rider runs through it at $119 for a tandem or $199 for a quad.

Our 1888 inn at 20 Depot St in Frostburg makes a natural base for all three: the C&O trailhead is 16 miles of GAP descent away, the railbikes launch next door, and a night here starts at $79.79 for a queen with tax built into that figure. Stack your tunnel trip together at tunnelhotel.com/book.