The 2.2 million acres of state forest across Pennsylvania – in 50 of the state’s 67 counties – are home to nearly all habitats and outdoor recreation that the state has to offer. Some of those habitats and recreations are more unique and hard-to-find than others.
We asked the state forest staff working for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources across the state to help us find the best of the best from all that opportunity. The result is the following insider’s guide to the must-see and must-do in our state forests.
The 41.8-mile Allegheny Front Trail in Moshannon State Forest, Centre County, includes about three miles on the edge of the Allegheny Front, where a half-dozen vistas provide commanding views of the Ridge and Valley topography to the southeast. It was built in the late 1990s to complement the Rock Run Trails System for cross-country skiers.
Anders Run Natural Area in Cornplanter State Forest, Warren County, is a 96-acre remnant of Pennsylvania’s white pine and hemlock forests of hundreds of years ago. It’s also home to a biodiversity of wildflowers, including trilliums, violets and trout lilies. “The Little Stone House in the Hollow,” dating to 1841, stands in a clearing near the southern boundary of the property.
A National Natural Landmark, 890-acre Bear Meadows Natural Area in Rothrock State Forest, Centre County, encompasses an entire fen wetland ecosystem, which is a rare habitat in Pennsylvania. Large areas of highbush blueberry are bordered by black and red spruce, and balsam fir. A trail system, with an observation platform, offers great access to the fen and abundant wildlife-viewing opportunities.
Beartown Rocks are a series of house-sized boulders created by glaciers thousands of years ago in what today in Clear Creek State Forest, Jefferson County. In addition to the scenic overlook, the rocks are part of a hiking trail system.
One of the largest white birch stands in Pennsylvania, 975 acres in Moshannon State Forest’s Quehanna Wild Area, is named for Marion E. Brooks, a pioneering environmentalist from Elk County.
The Keystone Trails Association describes the Donut Hole Trail in Sproul State Forest as “one of the most remote and challenging of the state’s backpacking trails … for seasoned hikers only, with numerous steep climbs and unbridged stream crossings.” The 90-mile trail parallels the West Branch of the Susquehanna River through the state forest.
Goat Hill Serpentine Barrens in William Penn State Forest, Chester County, is a unique terrain underlain by serpentine rock, which is composed largely of magnesia and silica with traces of toxic nickel and chromium. That unusual base layer produces a thin and infertile soil that stunts the growth of most plant species and clears the way for sparse, grassy vegetation with scattered small trees. It’s home to many species that are rare in Pennsylvania, including the serpentine aster, prairie grasses and long-hairy field chickweed.
The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pine Creek Gorge, at its grandest if 800 feet deep and 4,000 feet across, with commanding vistas at many points. The Tioga State Forest feature in Potter and Tioga counties also is home to the
Hammersley Wild Area is a 30,253-acre tract in Susquehannock State Forest, Clinton and Potter counties, comprised of wooded valleys and plateaus. Traces of several logging camps and a logging railroad also are found there. It is Pennsylvania’s largest roadless area.
Located off the Loyalsock Trail in Loyalsock State Forest, Sullivan County, the Haystack Rapids are a series of rock formations that look like haystacks with water coursing around them in the Loyalsock Creek.
The mountaintops in seven counties can be seen from High Knob Overlook in Loyalsock State Forest, Sullivan County.
The 5,119-acre Hook Natural Area in Bald Eagle State Forest, Centre and Union counties, is Pennsylvania’s largest natural area. It’s covered by an upland oak-heath community and a lower riparian zone of rhododendron and hemlock and transected by scenic Buffalo Run.
Along the 2.5 miles of easy-hiking trails in the Ingraham Tracts in Cornplanter State Forest, Crawford County, run by an area of lush hobblebush protected from deer-browsing by a fenced exclosure and a large, forested wetland.
The 3,243-acre Kennerdell Tract of Clear Creek State Forest, Venango County, includes seven miles of shoreline along the Allegheny River, which is part of the National Wild and Scenic River System; a designated wild plant sanctuary; small streams with naturally reproducing, native brook trout; an old iron furnace and oil pumping station; and the scenic Dennison Point Overlook.
Kettle Creek is a freestone stream flowing 43 miles largely through Susquehannock State Forest in Cameron, Clinton, Potter and Tioga counties. More than 90 percent of the land it flows through is forested and publicly owned.
The 384-acre Charles F. Lewis Natural Area in Gallitzin State Forest, Cambria and Indiana counties, is a very rocky landscape with a mixed oak forest that provides habitat for the state-threatened Allegheny woodrat. It’s home to the scenic Clark Run, which cascades over numerous small waterfalls and supports a population of native brook trout.
Long Pine Run Reservoir is a 150-acre lake isolated amid the trees of Michaux State Forest, Adams County. While there is a 20-vehicle parking area at the lake, it often sees only limited use. The L-shaped lake empties over a 60-foot waterfall.
Mount Davis in Forbes State Forest, Somerset County, is the highest point in Pennsylvania. It stands 3,213 feet above sea level and is topped by a 50-foot-tall observation tower at the end of a flat, 100-yard trail from a parking lot.
Penns Creek Path is a 2.7-mile, relatively flat portion of the 328-mile Mid State Trail in Bald Eagle State Forest, Centre and Mifflin counties, that leads hikers across a former railroad bridge, through the Poe Paddy Tunnel – a former railroad tunnel – and along a section of the world-famous Penns Creek.
Spruce Flats Bog is a rare high-elevation, 28-acre bog in a mountaintop depression 2,720 feet above sea level in Forbes State Forest near Somerset. Insect-eating plants are among the species found in the bog, which is an uncommon wetland habitat of sphagnum moss that receives most of its water from rain and snow rather than runoff, groundwater or streams.
Weiser State Forest, which includes tracts in Carbon, Columbia, Dauphin, Lebanon, Montour, Northumberland and Schuylkill counties, manages more than 1,300 acres of river islands in the Susquehanna River for the public to use. More than 20 river island campsites are found along the 51-mile Susquehanna River Trail. The 70-acre Sheets Island Archipelago Natural Area on the Susquehanna River provides important habitat for waterfowl.
The Susquehannock Trail is an 85-mile loop that meanders through the remote and unspoiled woodlands of Susquehannock State Forest in Clinton and Potter counties. It links old Civilian Conservation Corps fire trails, abandoned railroad grades and logging roads.
