173 places
State parks and forests from Lake Erie to the Delaware
Photo: Nicholas from Pennsylvania, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pennsylvania has well over a hundred state parks and more than two million acres of state forest, and between them they take in every kind of country the state has: waterfall glens and river gorges, mountain lakes, Lake Erie beaches and the deep woods of the north. Most are open all year for hiking, swimming, paddling, camping and picnicking.
Alongside them are a national forest, a national recreation area on the Delaware, wildlife refuges and many smaller preserves. Fees, hours and rules vary by place and season, and some lands are open to hunting, so check before you go.
Our picks
State park · Colley Township, Sullivan County
The Falls Trail drops through two wooded glens past more than twenty named waterfalls, among them 94-foot Ganoga, under old-growth trees, with Lake Jean's beach and campground up top.
State park · Stewart Township, Fayette County
The Youghiogheny roars through a deep gorge here, with Ohiopyle Falls at the edge of the village, whitewater rafting, natural rock waterslides on Meadow Run, Cucumber Falls and the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.
Photo: Hubert Stoffels from Pittsburgh, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
State park · Millcreek Township, Erie County
A sandy peninsula curving into Lake Erie, with miles of swimming beaches, a lighthouse, the Perry Monument, lagoons for paddling and a spring bird migration that draws birders from far and wide.
Photo: Ruhrfisch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
State park · Shippen Township, Tioga County
From the east rim of Pine Creek Gorge, overlooks frame the canyon's classic views, and the steep Turkey Path zigzags down past waterfalls to the creek, with a visitor center on top.
Photo: Ruhrfisch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
State park · Hamlin Township, McKean County
The surviving towers of the Kinzua Viaduct, half-toppled by a 2003 tornado, now carry a skywalk with a glass-floored lookout high over the valley, the twisted wreckage still lying below.
Photo: Nicholas from Pennsylvania, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
State park · Kidder Township, Carbon County
Its famous Boulder Field, a vast, flat expanse of rocks left by Ice Age frost, is the big draw, but the park also has Hawk Falls, a sandy swimming lake and cold trout streams.
Photo: Mtruch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The full list
A swimming lake in the mountain forest of the Laurel Highlands, with a grove of old-growth hemlocks, stone and timber buildings left by the Civilian Conservation Corps and miles of trout water.
A tea-colored lake fringed by bogs, where a boardwalk leads among carnivorous sundews and pitcher plants, with CCC-built cabins, a beach and miles of forest trails all around.
Mountains wall in the valley around this small lake, with a beach, Civilian Conservation Corps cabins and the Tuscarora Trail climbing to ridge-top views through the surrounding state forest.
Lake Arthur, a favorite of sailors, fills a valley once scarred by coal mines and oil wells, now restored as rolling woods and fields with beaches, cabins and a lakeside bike trail.
The Youghiogheny roars through a deep gorge here, with Ohiopyle Falls at the edge of the village, whitewater rafting, natural rock waterslides on Meadow Run, Cucumber Falls and the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.
Near the Appalachian Trail's halfway point, with an old iron furnace, the Appalachian Trail Museum, swimming in Fuller Lake, a flooded ore pit, and a second, larger lake with a beach and boating.
Glendale Lake reaches into many wooded coves across the high Allegheny Plateau, with a long shoreline for boaters and anglers, a big campground and a swimming beach.
Two lakes on the Pocono Plateau, ringed by Civilian Conservation Corps cabins, beaches and campgrounds, with trails into the Bruce Lake Natural Area and the surrounding state forest.
A big colony of bats summers in an old church and winters in a former limestone mine here, alongside historic lime kilns, a lake with a beach and trails through woods and wetlands.
Giant old-growth pines and hemlocks, some centuries old, crowd the Forest Cathedral, with a fire tower for treetop views and lazy canoe trips down the Clarion River.
The core of the Hopewell Big Woods, an unbroken sweep of forest with two lakes, rocky trails for hikers and mountain bikers, and the restored iron village of Hopewell Furnace right next door.
A long reservoir in the rolling hills, busy with sailboats and anglers, with a marina, a swimming pool, cabins, a paved bike path and bridle trails along the shore.
A classic Depression-era park with a small lake, rustic log cabins and a beach, where trails wind through woods regrowing after a 1985 tornado and lead into the Quehanna wilds.
Spring wildflowers carpet the park's renowned Wildflower Reserve, Raccoon Lake has a beach and boating, and a short trail leads to the old Frankfort Mineral Springs.
Campers, boaters, anglers and hikers have plenty of room to spread out around a big lake with a sandy beach, in the ridges along the old Lincoln Highway.
A rugged little gorge cut by Great Trough Creek, with a swinging suspension bridge, Balanced Rock perched improbably on a cliff, Rainbow Falls and an old Ice Mine that breathes cold air in summer.
Sailboats and fishing boats ply Lake Marburg's many coves, a resting place for migrating ducks and geese, in rolling farm country near the Maryland line, with bridle trails, a pool and a campground.
A lake named for the conservationist governor is the centerpiece here, popular with sailors, paddlers and anglers, with a swimming beach, cabins and a lakeside campground.
Day-trippers from the Pittsburgh area come for the sandy swimming beach on this wooded lake, with boating, fishing and trails close by and cabins and a campground just up from the shore.
A mountain lake on Little Pine Creek, cradled by steep forested ridges, with a beach, campground and trails climbing to views over the Pine Creek country.
The Falls Trail drops through two wooded glens past more than twenty named waterfalls, among them 94-foot Ganoga, under old-growth trees, with Lake Jean's beach and campground up top.
The Schofield Ford Covered Bridge spans Neshaminy Creek in this park of old farm fields and woodland, laced with paved paths and bridle trails and home to a historic mill.
A small lake dammed on the West Branch of Tionesta Creek, with a sandy beach and campground and the big, quiet woods of the Allegheny National Forest all around.
Rustic log cabins built by the Civilian Conservation Corps line a clear trout stream that runs down to the Clarion River, a favorite for easy canoe floats, with a small beach and hemlock-shaded trails.
The stone furnace stack and surviving buildings of a 19th-century iron village sit beside a small swimming lake, with trails climbing into the rugged Seven Mountains.
A tranquil lake in rolling farm-and-forest country where loons and ospreys stop over, with a sandy beach, cabins and a campground a short drive from Pine Creek Gorge.
Wooded hills laced with bike and bridle trails surround a lake of quiet coves, with a swimming pool and campground within easy reach of Scranton.
A restored 1800s gristmill, a covered bridge and the old Blue Ball Tavern cluster near Holman Lake, with a big swimming pool and a trail along the bed of a narrow-gauge railroad.
A sandy peninsula curving into Lake Erie, with miles of swimming beaches, a lighthouse, the Perry Monument, lagoons for paddling and a spring bird migration that draws birders from far and wide.
Pennsylvania's largest lake, shared with Ohio, offers beaches, cabins and big campgrounds along its shore, plus the famous Linesville spillway, where carp crowd so thickly they seem to pave the water.
Cold mountain springs feed Halfway Lake behind a stone dam laid by the Civilian Conservation Corps, making a bracing swimming hole in the forest, with trails up the surrounding ridges.
Elk graze the meadows and bald eagles nest along the First Fork of Sinnemahoning Creek, which widens into a reservoir framed by steep, wooded mountains.
Wetlands and scrub forest of the Pocono Plateau surround a lake with a sandy beach, a campground and a level trail around its shore, linked by trail to Gouldsboro State Park.
A broad lake known among birders for migrating ducks, loons and shorebirds, with a swimming beach, boating and trails near the route of the old Kittanning Path.
The Nature Inn, a green-built lodge, looks out over a long reservoir beneath Bald Eagle Mountain, where boaters, anglers and birders spread out across the water and wetlands.
Pennsylvania's second-highest mountain rises above remote woods with long views and cool summer air, with a swimming pool and campground below and a ski resort on its upper slopes.
Nearly 60 miles of towpath along a 19th-century canal that still runs unbroken from Easton to Bristol, passing locks, river islands and old canal towns such as New Hope.
Named for a girl seized by Lenape raiders in 1778 who chose to live out her life among the Miami, this park curls around a horseshoe-shaped lake with camping, boating and a pool.
A sandy beach and a broad lake surrounded by the scrubby woods and wetlands of the Pocono Plateau, with a trail through the forest to neighboring Tobyhanna State Park.
Its famous Boulder Field, a vast, flat expanse of rocks left by Ice Age frost, is the big draw, but the park also has Hawk Falls, a sandy swimming lake and cold trout streams.
In a remote, mountain-walled valley, Kettle Creek widens into a lake behind a flood-control dam, with trout fishing, creekside camping and bridle trails into the surrounding forest.
Crops still grow on land farmed since the 1700s, and paved paths loop past fields, old stone farmhouses and barns, woodlots and a trout nursery along Stony Creek.
The valley where the oil industry was born, with a paved bike trail past the sites of vanished boomtowns, a heritage railroad, a 36-mile hiking loop and hollows full of small waterfalls.
Norwegian violinist Ole Bull tried to found a colony in this wild Kettle Creek valley in 1852; a trail climbs to the ruins of his hilltop castle above a creekside beach and campground.
Off the beaten path in the Seven Mountains, a little swimming lake with a beach and campground, and nothing but forest on the slopes around it.
Between two ridges, Swatara Creek winds through fields and woods, followed by a flat rail trail past old canal remnants and crossed by the Appalachian Trail on a relocated 1890 iron truss bridge.
Loyalsock Creek snakes through a deep, twisting gorge here, with a creek swimming area beside CCC cabins, the rugged Loyalsock Trail and overlooks that draw crowds when the leaves turn.
Waterskiers and sailboats share a big reservoir in the Pocono foothills, with a long sandy beach, trout in Pohopoco Creek and a short trail to Wild Creek Falls.
![Kettle Creek State Park: Northeast-facing vista (elevation approximately 2080 feet [634 meters]), Clinton County, within Kettle Creek State Park](/assets/photos/kettle-creek-state-park-leidy/1-commons-4795055-960.webp)
