State forest · Menallen Township, Adams County
Michaux State Forest
South Mountain's big working forest, where Pennsylvania's first forestry school took root, crossed by the Appalachian Trail and dotted with rocky overlooks and charcoal hearths from the old iron-furnace days.
What you will find
- Hiking trails
- Camping
- Fishing
Hunting is permitted here in season. Check the state hunting calendar and wear blaze orange in fall and winter.
Make a day of it
Nearby
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Appalachian Trail Museum
Set in an old stone mill at Pine Grove Furnace, close to the trail's halfway point, this small museum honors hikers such as Earl Shaffer, who made the first recorded thru-hike in 1948.
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Appalachian Trail
The Maine-to-Georgia footpath crosses about 230 rocky miles of Pennsylvania; at Pine Grove Furnace, near its halfway point, an old gristmill houses the Appalachian Trail Museum.
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Pine Grove Furnace State Park
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.
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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.
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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.
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Seminary Ridge Museum
This seminary building served as a Union lookout and field hospital on the battle's first day; today it's a museum of that fighting and its wounded, with guided climbs into the historic cupola.
