Public Parks in Great Lakes Region 7
State parks and forests, national recreation areas, wildlife refuges and city parks.
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Presque Isle State Park
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.
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Pymatuning State Park
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.
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Oil Creek State Park
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.
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Maurice K. Goddard State Park
The official who vowed to put a state park within 25 miles of every Pennsylvanian lent his name to this one, wrapped around slender Lake Wilhelm, where anglers and ospreys work the coves.
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Erie Bluffs State Park
Tall bluffs above wild Lake Erie shoreline, left free of development, with steelhead runs in Elk Creek, rare oak savanna on sandy soil and sunsets over the water.
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Tom Ridge Environmental Center
The gateway to Presque Isle, with exhibits on the peninsula's dunes, wetlands and Lake Erie ecology, and an observation tower with views over the bay and lake.
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Erie National Wildlife Refuge
Marshes, beaver ponds and wooded creek valleys managed for migrating ducks and geese, with quiet walking trails where birders look for waterfowl, eagles and wading birds.
