Public Parks 173
State parks and forests, national recreation areas, wildlife refuges and city parks.
-
Colonel Denning State Park
Set in Doubling Gap, where Blue Mountain folds back on itself in an S-curve, with a small swimming lake and a steep trail up to Flat Rock's broad view over the Cumberland Valley.
-
Kooser State Park
High in the Laurel Highlands, rustic cabins built by the Civilian Conservation Corps sit beside a trout stream in cool forest, a short hop from the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail.
-
Lyman Run State Park
A small lake in remote mountain forest, with a beach, campground and trout fishing, and the famously dark skies of Cherry Springs just a short drive up the road.
-
Marsh Creek State Park
Sailboats and kayaks share a big reservoir that covers the old village of Milford Mills, while trails wind through the surrounding hills and a swimming pool cools summer crowds.
-
Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center
A hosiery magnate's stone mansion and the pines and spruces he planted in the early 1900s anchor these woods, threaded with trails and streams and kept as a center for nature education.
-
Penn Roosevelt State Park
Remote and rustic, this tiny park sits in a mountain bowl of the Seven Mountains, with a small pond, the remains of a Depression-era CCC camp and backcountry trails heading into Rothrock State Forest.
-
Shikellamy State Park
From a high clifftop overlook, the Susquehanna's West and North branches can be seen joining below, with a marina section on the island at the confluence where boaters launch onto the river.
-
Caledonia State Park
The rebuilt stack of Thaddeus Stevens' iron furnace, burned by Confederate troops on the road to Gettysburg, anchors this South Mountain park, with the Appalachian Trail, a big pool and summer theater.
-
Lehigh Gorge State Park
Rafters ride the Lehigh River's rapids and cyclists cruise the level rail trail beside it through a deep, rugged gorge between White Haven and Jim Thorpe, past waterfalls spilling off the cliffs.
-
Locust Lake State Park
Campers fill sites on both sides of this forest-fringed mountain lake, with a beach, fishing and paddling close at hand and trails winding through the woods.
-
McConnells Mill State Park
A gorge carved by glacial meltwater, its creek churning past giant boulders, with an 1800s gristmill, a covered bridge, the short trail to Hell's Hollow Falls and whitewater for experts only.
-
Neshaminy State Park
Where Neshaminy Creek meets the tidal Delaware River, with a big swimming pool, a marina and a riverside walk looking out across the water.
-
Point State Park
At the tip of downtown, where the Allegheny and Monongahela meet to form the Ohio, with the great fountain, the Fort Pitt Museum and the 1764 Blockhouse from the frontier fort.
-
Susquehannock State Park
From clifftop overlooks such as Hawk Point, the Susquehanna spreads wide below, dotted with wooded islands where bald eagles are often seen, and trails drop through steep ravines toward the river.
-
Tuscarora State Park
Locust Mountain rises steeply from the far shore of the lake here, a summer favorite for its sandy beach, lakeside picnic area and good fishing.
-
Vosburg Neck State Park
The North Branch of the Susquehanna makes a great looping bend around this quiet peninsula, where trails follow an old canal and rail line past buildings and graves from the 1700s.
-
Fort Washington State Park
Hawk watchers crowd the observation deck each fall as raptors stream south over hills where Washington's army dug in during the autumn of 1777, weeks before Valley Forge.
-
Fowlers Hollow State Park
Rustic campsites line a mountain run in this narrow hollow, a trail hub where hikers, riders and mountain bikers head off into the Tuscarora State Forest.
-
Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center
For more than a century the Henry family made rifles here; their homestead and gun-making story are preserved at the Boulton site, surrounded by woods, meadows and trails for hiking, riding and biking.
-
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.
-
Memorial Lake State Park
At the foot of Blue Mountain, a small, quiet lake circled by a woodland footpath, with electric-motor boating, good fishing and the National Guard's Fort Indiantown Gap as its neighbor.
-
Milton State Park
Half picnic grounds and boat launch, half wild woods for birders and walkers, this river island sits in the middle of the West Branch of the Susquehanna.
-
Mount Pisgah State Park
Songwriter Stephen Foster, who spent part of his youth in the area, gave his name to the lake here, set beneath Mount Pisgah in Endless Mountains farm country, with a pool, paddling and trails.
-
Ralph Stover State Park
Rock climbers scale the cliffs of High Rocks above a horseshoe bend of Tohickon Creek, whitewater paddlers run it on release weekends, and picnickers spread out along its banks below.
-
Ridley Creek State Park
Wooded hills and meadows along a trout stream, with a paved multi-use loop, bridle paths and the old mill village of Sycamore Mills; the Tyler Arboretum is right next door.
-
Ryerson Station State Park
A frontier fort of the 1790s gave its name to this park in steep, wooded hills near the West Virginia line, with a swimming pool, cabins, a campground and quiet woodland trails.
-
Washington Crossing Historic Park
The Pennsylvania shore where Washington's army set out across the icy Delaware on Christmas night 1776, with historic buildings and a yearly reenactment.
-
Big Pocono State Park
A road winds to the top of Camelback Mountain, where rocky trails and lookouts take in the Poconos and stretch on clear days into two neighboring states.
-
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
Forty miles of the free-flowing Delaware River between forested ridges, with canoe and tubing runs, river beaches, waterfalls such as Dingmans and Raymondskill, and the Appalachian Trail at the gap itself.
-
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.
-
Evansburg State Park
A meandering creek has carved wooded ridges and ravines into this green island in the suburbs, with a 1792 stone-arch bridge at its edge and trails for hikers, riders and mountain bikers.
-
Laurel Ridge State Park
A long, slender park that exists mainly to carry the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail, 70 miles along the ridge from the Youghiogheny River to the Conemaugh Gorge, with shelters for backpackers.
-
Leonard Harrison State Park
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.
-
Linn Run State Park
A mountain stream tumbles over Adams Falls in this wooded hollow, with rustic rental cabins, trout fishing and trails climbing into the surrounding state forest.
-
Prompton State Park
Mountain bikers and hikers have a long web of wooded trails around this quiet flood-control lake on the West Branch Lackawaxen River, where anglers and paddlers launch small boats.
-
Raystown Lake
The largest lake entirely within Pennsylvania, a long reservoir winding between forested ridges, with houseboating, beaches and the Allegrippis Trails, a nationally known mountain-bike network.
-
Whipple Dam State Park
Cool water and a sandy beach make this small, forest-ringed lake a low-key summer swimming spot, with shaded picnic groves and short trails in the surrounding ridges.
-
White Clay Creek Preserve
A quiet valley along a federally designated Wild and Scenic River, with trails that continue across the state line into Delaware and an 18th-century Baptist meetinghouse.
-
Bendigo State Park
Picnic tables in the shade line the East Branch of the Clarion River, a trout stream that has bounced back from old mine pollution, with a swimming pool for hot summer days.
-
Big Elk Creek State Park
Rolling old farm fields and woods along a clean, high-quality creek near the Maryland line, crossed by trails for hikers, cyclists and riders and alive with birds.
-
Elk State Park
Big enough for waterskiing and powerboats of any size, this deep reservoir in rugged northern mountains also draws anglers after trout and other fish.
-
Kings Gap Environmental Education Center
A stone mansion from the early 1900s crowns South Mountain and looks out across the Cumberland Valley, while miles of year-round trails wind down through the oak forest around it.
-
Ravensburg State Park
Boulder-strewn slopes close in tight around a trout stream in this little mountain gorge, with a small campground beside the water and trails climbing through laurel thickets.
-
Salt Springs State Park
Fall Brook tumbles over a series of three waterfalls in a narrow gorge shaded by ancient hemlocks, with a 19th-century farmhouse and a small campground close by.
-
Simon B. Elliott State Park
A wooded hideaway honoring an early champion of Pennsylvania's forests, with rustic cabins and campsites amid quiet hardwood forest and quick access to the Quehanna backcountry.
-
Sizerville State Park
Tucked in a valley of the Pennsylvania Wilds, a small campground and swimming pool at one end of the Bucktail Path, with mile upon mile of state forest beyond.
-
Benjamin Rush State Park
A sprawling community garden, a radio-control flying field and trails through meadows and woods fill the only state park inside city limits.
-
Cherry Springs State Park
An International Dark Sky Park on a remote mountaintop, where astronomers set up telescopes under some of the darkest skies in the East and the Milky Way blazes overhead on clear, moonless nights.
