Recreation in Central Pennsylvania

I have lived within 50 miles of York PA most of my life and love this area.  It doesn’t have 500 foot waterfalls, volcanoes, sand dunes and 10,000 foot snow covered rocky peaks.  But it does have some awesomely beautiful countryside.  

This area is part of the mountains and foothills that run from western North Carolina to New England.  I know the section in Pennsylvania is the most beautiful but I could move to any portion of this and feel at home.  Over the years I have enjoyed some of this and would like to share.  I had originally planned to put the pictures in this document but as I worked on it I realized the document would become too large for the triond processor.  I will instead link to documents which describe all of the places.

If you bring up Google Earth and put in coordinates 39°57′45.07″N  76°48′4.93″W the cross hairs will point to my living room.  If I draw a circle with a driving time a half hour from that point I find lots of things to do.  If I expand it to a little over an hour there are even more things to do.  I’m going to share some of my favorites.  I will be giving either Latitude/Longitude and/or street addresses for most points I reference.  They will work in most GPS units, Yahoo Maps or Google Earth.   All of these places have good road access and adequate parking.

If you go into any of these parks make sure someone knows where you are going and when you will be back.  File a ‘trip plan’ with someone who will call for timely help if you don’t come home.  Make sure they understand that they must make sure that the police know you are lost, not a runaway.  All too often a search is not mounted till the person has been out too long because the police believe you just went somewhere to get away and will come back when you are ready. 

Take a cell phone but remember that in some of these areas they do not work.  Text messages – which I hate – will sometimes get out even if you can’t make a call so if you see ‘no signal’ try messaging and move the phone around slowly as high as you can reach.  Only let the phone on when you are actively searching for signals. I suggest no matter what you carry a couple bottles of water, a couple of food bars, etc.  Even if the weather is good I carry a jacket and a disposable rain poncho.  Walmart sells them for $.88, they are small to put in a pack and they can be a life saver if the weather turns bad or if you fall and have to wait for rescue.  A couple of large garbage bags will do as an alternative.  If you are hiking a good rule is to carry what you would need if you had to stay out all night. A couple bottles of water and a food bars could literally be a lifesaver. A whistle is great too.  So are a map and compass but you have to know how to use them.  GPS units are great, but use one that is made for hiking, not the one that you use in your car.  And carry at least one set of spare batteries!  I have a very old Explorist 200 that I paid little for used on E-bay and it is great.  I bought it to use as a locator for pictures but I carry it when I am out.  It allows you to put in a start point and you can see where that is from you if you want to get back.