Destinations in PA

H

hikingff77

Adventurist
Founding Member
I've been to a lot of camping areas in PA, both car and backpacking, but not much in terms of forest road car camping. I'm looking to rent a tear drop trailer and hit of some places I've never been. Nothing crazy, just somewhere nice with the usual decent views, etc.

If you know a car camping area that has electric hook up and is up in the Northern Central PA area, that'd be great.

I'd consider going to Michaux SF again, but I've been there several times already and would like to try something different.

TIA!
 
@Dave Hey, what am I, chopped liver? o_O

Anyway... :p

Tuscarora SF (opposite side of the Cumberland Valley from Michcuax) has some remote/primitive campsites as well as some cool historic things like the old train tunnel that was never finished and a C119 crash site. Southwest of Tuscarora is Buchanan and that has the abandoned PA Turnpike tunnels that you can hike/bike through. Not much primative camping down that way, but the state parks are nice and sparsely used. Further north you get into Bald Eagle which has a lot of good stuff to explore trail/road wise and that leads to the stuff around the PA Grand Canyon which is mega-cool.

That in mind, I'm working on a "Trans-PA Adventure Trail" which will be a 300-400 mile trip from the PA/MD line to the PA/NY line on as much dirt as possible. It will start in Michaux and head up through Tuscarora, Bald Eagle, and then north into Potter County. I found a few versions of a base "Trans-PA" routes on AdvRider but they weren't on as much dirt as it could be and lacked some of the cool sites along the way. I've been meaning to get back on fleshing out the route.


If you have any other questions our "PA expert @Haggis" can't answer feel free to ask the other, appartently-not-so-expert, 30+ year PA resident ;)
 
Dean said:
@Dave Hey, what am I, chopped liver? o_O


If you have any other questions our "PA expert @Haggis" can't answer feel free to ask the other, appartently-not-so-expert, 30+ year PA resident ;)
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Oh, we hadn’t seen you in a while. Figured you’d wandered off and got yourself lost. Besides, I always thought you were from New Jersey.

:map
 
Dave said:
Oh, we hadn’t seen you in a while. Figured you’d wandered off and got yourself lost.

:map
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Just laying low. Had a major iron in the fire the last few weeks that finally came to fruition today. I do check the site almost daily though. Quietly lurking in the shadows :spy

Besides, I always thought you were from New Jersey.
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:facepalm
 
Sorry for the delay, but I've been running the woods the last week and just got done butchering deer right at this moment.

Anyways @hikingff77 give me a few days to get a chance to think about stuff other than slaying forest animals and I'll get some info your way. While I don't claim to be an expert (experience shows that self proclaimed experts usually aren't) I do have a fair knowledge base for western and central PA.
 
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Sorry for the delay. I don't know about any campgrounds, but there are a couple of places that I found interesting:

-Centralia, PA. There is/was an underground coal fire that eventually decimated a small mining town. Last time I was there, the town still had a couple of buildings, but the fire was still burning. You can't see the fire--just smoke wisping out of cracks in the ground. Various highways/roads were caved in and/or blocked off, so some off-road driving may be necessary to get to all parts. But last time I got to some of it in a Honda Accord.

-Half-finished interstate/parkway/turnpike. There's a place where parts of The Road were filmed. Not sure if that's the same tunnel that @Dean was talking about above.

Enjoy your trip!
 
fredmyboy said:
Sorry for the delay. I don't know about any campgrounds, but there are a couple of places that I found interesting:

-Centralia, PA. There is/was an underground coal fire that eventually decimated a small mining town. Last time I was there, the town still had a couple of buildings, but the fire was still burning. You can't see the fire--just smoke wisping out of cracks in the ground. Various highways/roads were caved in and/or blocked off, so some off-road driving may be necessary to get to all parts. But last time I got to some of it in a Honda Accord.
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Last I heard Centralia was on lock-down due to them filming at TV show up there. It's always been "off limits" (technically) but now they are super serious about enforcing it. Or so I was told.

-Half-finished interstate/parkway/turnpike. There's a place where parts of The Road were filmed. Not sure if that's the same tunnel that @Dean was talking about above.
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Yup. Same place. It was actually a fully functional road until the PA Turnpike was rerouted up over Sidling Hill mountain. It was cheaper to reroute than to dig a pair of parallel tunnels.
 
Ok @hikingff77, as I'm just sitting here st the end of gun season and not much is going on here's some places off the top of my head for you to research....

Elk State Forest...Draws: Wild Elk, forest roads to run, sone beautiful hiking trails, trout fishing in the numerous stream. Camping: Current Administration is antagonistical against dispersed camping, it's allowed but there are too many strictures to make it viable. Camping is available at the State Hickory Creek Site (semi forested, pit toilet, undeveloped)

Ohiopyle State Park...Draws: waterfalls, hiking, guided whitewater rafting down the Yo. Camping: State Park site with numerous wooded sites, fairly nice campground with developed and undeveloped sites.

Sproul State Forest...Draws: Jeep trails, beautiful rhododendrons blossoms early June, hiking, waterfalls. Camping: as of the last time I was there dispersed camping was allowed but the Marcellus Shale Boom has brought a lot of development into the forest and sites are hard to find.

Quehanna Wild Area...Draws: backcountry camping, hiking and forest road touring. Camping: hike in only but there are a couple of State Parks nearby that offer sites.

Allegheny National Forest...Draws: one of the largest tracts of forest in the East, hiking is the main draw but hundreds of mikes of forest road to bumble down. Dispersed camping is allowed, no permit needed to groups under 10 people, anywhere there is an established fire ring is open to camping. Beautiful forests, the nicest Hardwoods and pines in the world come from this region.

Oops, my son in law just blazed away gots to go...
 
Hey @Haggis, i'll be spending some time exploring central PA over the next year (lock haven area.) I have tried researching "jeep" or as i like to add "Tacoma trails" in that area but i haven't had much luck. i am going to pick up a Delorme map tonight, i always prefer a paper map to the online stuff. Do you have any specific trail/ road names that might jump start the exploration? Sproul, Susquehannock and bald eagle State Forest along with the surrounding Forests and game lands have to be ripe with some 4wd tracks.
 
@JohnT6, any info I have of those areas is 4 of 5 years out of date. And with the tendency for this state to propagate gates I can't tell you for sure as to what's is open. Also I'm not much for giving out exact details on places as half the fun is going for an explore and finding out for yourself what's out there. Sure you'll spend some time just wandering about but it also leads to discoveries that a lot of others have overlooked as they are following everyone else's tracks.
 
Look at purplelizard.com for maps with places you won’t find on the standard maps. They have maps for many of the state forests in Pennsylvania.

-Andy
 
Purple Lizard never heard of them, interesting the maps look very specific to Pennsylvania. I hear Pennsylvania loves locked gates hopefully i can still find some good tracks.
 
Love the Purple Lizard maps. Just got their Michaux one hot off the press a little while ago. Very detailed with lots of great info. Used the PA Grand Canyon one a while back. Need to get my hands on the Bald Eagle one though.
 
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