State park · Jackson Township, Huntingdon County
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.
What you will find
- Hiking trails
- Cross-country skiing
- Swimming
- Beach
- Boat launch
- Canoe and kayak launch
- Fishing
- Picnic areas
- Wildlife and bird watching
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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Rothrock State Forest
Deep hollows and long ridges of the Seven Mountains, with the Mid State Trail, the old-growth hemlocks and rhododendron of the Alan Seeger Natural Area and the boggy Bear Meadows Natural Area.
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Greenwood Furnace State Park
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.
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Standing Stone Trail
Linking the Mid State and Tuscarora trails, about 84 miles of rocky ridge walking, known for its vistas, the Throne Room rock formation and the Thousand Steps stone stairway.
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Pennsylvania Military Museum
Exhibits on the state's soldiers from colonial times onward center on the 28th Infantry Division Shrine, with a walk-through World War I trench scene.
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The Arboretum at Penn State
The university's public garden, with the formal H.O. Smith Botanic Gardens, a children's garden and pollinator plantings, and the Palmer Museum of Art next door.
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Palmer Museum of Art
Penn State's art museum, which moved in 2024 into a striking new building in the arboretum, with galleries spanning American, European, Asian and contemporary art.
