Easy Hike with a Spectacular Payoff at Chittenango Falls State Park

Chittenango Falls is a small state park, just shy of 200 acres. But despite its small size, this park is well worth a visit. As its name implies, the park’s centerpiece is a picturesque, 167-foot staircase waterfall, which sends the waters of Chittenango Creek into a gorge.  You can’t help but notice the amount of […]

Minnewaska State Park’s Must See Falls: Awosting Falls Hike

Awosting Falls are a spectacular water fall within the Minnewaska State Park, itself a very popular day-use park. The short and sweet Awosting Falls Hike is simply a must-do hike if you visit this park. The state park features a couple of “sky lakes,” as well as as about 50 miles of trails. With the […]

Four Stops You Should Make Along the Highland Scenic Highway

The Highland Scenic Highway — WV 150 / WV 39-WV 55 — runs 43 miles through the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, meandering along the mountain ridges and reaching an elevation of more than 4500 feet.  If you plan on spending a day exploring the Highland Scenic Highway (easily doable, since it’s only 43 […]

Exploring a Lake in the Sky: Lake Minnewaska

Although originally we’d come to Minnewaska State Park, located in the Shawangunk Mountains in Ulster County, NY, for its water falls — Awosting Falls, Stoney Kill Falls, and another waterfalls that we ended up not going to — we came back simply to hike around Lake Minnewaska itself.  Minnewaska State Park Preserve is nestled within […]

The Best Kept Secrets of Laurel Hill State Park

Like its sister park, Linn Run State Park, one county to the west, Laurel Hill State Park area was a desolate mess a hundred years ago. The lumber boom that swept through the hills and forests of Pennsylvania missed Laurel Hill Valley until 1886. But the lumber industry came for the old-growth forests of hemlock and […]