In less than a year’s time, Denton Hill State Park has gone from a vacant and crumbling ski resort of days gone by to a vibrant venue for weddings, a site for campers and an escape for outdoor enthusiasts.
It’s Denton Hill 4 Season State Park, a partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Denton Go, a group of local men determined to bring Denton back even better than it had been before.
“We’ve had a great summer,” said Denton Go’s Todd Brown, one of three partners who have entered into the 35-year contract with the state to operate the park. “We’ve been working with the (Department of Conservation and Natural Resources) parks and forestry.”
There are so many ideas, and so much enthusiasm with the partners and with the state.
Brown said Denton Go is new, and is experiencing all the park has to offer for the first time, while the DCNR is rediscovering assets that maybe weren’t on anyone’s radar for quite some time.
“DCNR highly encouraged us to have things open and ready to go for this summer,” he said, “even though we were still going through contracts and agreements in May and June.”
The lodge is open, RV camping is open with electricity now available, and Denton Go even has Polaris UTV rentals. “On Labor Day weekend, we had 500 visitors on ATVs and side-by-sides.”
The visitors brought in picnic baskets, used the restrooms, walked around to see the improvements and encouraged the staff that they are going in the right direction.
“I anticipate getting the cabins up will spur another round of excitement,” Brown said. Five cabins are being updated and upgraded, and should be available this fall to rent.
“At the same time, we continue to reclaim some of the hiking trails that have been there,” he continued. “We’re working with various biking groups, biking clubs. I never realized how big biking was until I started talking to these clubs. I don’t know that we’ll have that up and running this year.”
The staff with DCNR and the state’s Department of General Services have been wonderful to work with, Brown said. As work progresses, they continue to meet with the state and make sure they are sticking to the master plan for the state park.
“We’ve been working with the state on the lift,” he said. “At one time, we were looking at ‘Can the lift be saved?’ Since then, we’ve crunched the numbers and realized it would not be money well spent to rebuild that rather than replace it.”
It’s a big project, changing what was an abandoned ski facility into a four-season park.
“With that comes multiple projects from multiple phases that lead to multiple millions in expenditures that’s going to take multiple years,” Brown said.
Skiing will not be reopened this year, but maybe in the 2025-26 season. The park will be open, and activities will come as Denton Go gets things operational.
“Obviously the cabins are going to be open year round,” he said. “The RV sites will close after hunting season. The lodge, we’re already getting reservations for post-holiday parties. Like most of north central Pennsylvania, there’s excitement up through Jan. 3, then everyone kind of shelters in place for the winter.”
Brown added, “I’m sure we’ll be busy getting things going for next year.”
In 2025, with a whole year to work on the park, he anticipates making a lot of progress, but it’s not the type of work where a strict timeline can be in place.
“We’ll have more guests that will require more” amenities and things to do. Denton Go is already learning there’s a lot of traffic in the area, with visitors to the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum across U.S. Route 6, the Potter County Family Campground and the state’s Northcentral Regional ATV Trail.
“We attract a lot of New Yorkers who vacation in Potter County for the ability to ride their ATVs,” Brown said. Folks buy the DCNR’s trail connector permit and have access to more than 600 miles of trails, and can use Denton Hill as a base camp.
The restaurant at the lodge isn’t open, but the staff is eager to share names of and directions to local fare.
“We’re working with the PA Wilds program,” Brown said. “We look to further strengthen and make that a relationship, allow that to grow. We’re excited. Perhaps we’re going to be the northern gateway to the PA Wilds.”
