Outdoor Activities

[mac5155]

I stayed at Raystown Lake Resort in 2021. I thought it was very nice and had everything we needed. Boat rentals, a half decent beach area, lakefront, and a water park (that was closed for maintenance the week we went). The only downside was no sewer hookups at the RV sites, but doesn't sound like that'll bother you.

[Kane]

If you like to fish, Raystown is a big Striper destination. At least it was the last time I looked into it.

[robbiestoupe]

Not big into fishing. Not enough to bother getting a license anyway.

[shafnutz05]

As a Juniata alumni, they have a cottage for rent that is not far from the Raystown field station, it is buried deep in the woods with nothing around because there are no other private homes nearby. We've stayed there with friends a few times and you can't hear a single manmade sound outside of passing planes

Recommend Diner 22 for breakfast, Trough Creek, and 1000 Steps outside of Mount Union. The 1000 Steps is part of the Standing Stone Trail I believe but is worth the climb

[Ad@m]

[mac5155]

Kinzua Viaduct is definitely cool but not abandoned lol

[mac5155]

Coming home with 28 walleye today between me and 3 buddies. Gonna be a nice fish fry for labor day weekend. Recommend playin hooky charters out of Ashtabula Ohio to anyone looking for a fun trip!

[dodint]

I was going to do some camping in Tennessee over Memorial Day but my uncle has a Minnesota boundary waters excursion that weekend (poor guy).

We're going to stay local and camp at a state park instead. I might do hyper-local and just go to Keystone, or maybe Ohiopyle. I haven't explored much of 'north' western PA though and don't know what I don't know. Is there anything north of Indiana up to the NY state line worth taking a look at?

If not, any other gems within 2-3 hours of Westmoreland county that I haven't looked at? We might invite some friends from Cleveland so we're leaning towards NW PA but I'm open to anything. We're behind the curve on booking something for a holiday weekend so I'm somewhat limited by the diminished availability.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Just to confirm this is tent camping correct

[dodint]

Yeah. Sorta. Tent camping to us hiking to a remote site a few miles in the woods and camping there. But we'll have the dog and friends that don't camp much, so we're going to just rent a stall in a state park and 'camp' near flush toilets, showers, and maybe electricity. It's going to be a trailer park in the woods, basically.

So I'm looking for parks that have nice trails, a maybe a swim area, water with a kayak ramp would be great. Stuff like that.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Reeds gap is too far east for your criteria but its a really cool park in the sense that there is about 14 sites but it is tent camping only. Flush toilets. There is a crick to wade in but no pool or lake. Plenty of hiking around. The sites are nice and private.

Chapman state park is near Warren and meets a lot of your criteria. I stayed in a yurt there but the campsites themselves seemed decent.


I hear hearts content is amazing but they don’t have flush toilets.

[dodint]

Very good input sir, thanks!

[eddy]

Hearts content was very nice, we enjoyed that area

[Kane]

Tionesta is beautiful. Last I checked the Army Corp of Engineers campground still had a "primitive" campsite area.

[dodint]

"Alcoholic beverages are prohibited in all Pennsylvania state parks" Well, ****. How can that be?

[mac5155]

Use a koozie and dont get wild. You'll be fine. Extra protection would be to put a layer of bottled water and ice on the top deck of the cooler.

Ive stayed at laurel hill state park (aka Trent) and it is a pretty commercialized state park but does check all the boxes you ask for.

I want to try Ricketts Glenn state park sometime. And into WV - Canaan Valley and Blackwater Falls. Full disclosure we use a camper though we have young kids so our needs aren't exactly the same.

[dodint]

Reeds Gap looks charming and is fully available, but that's a bit of a haul for my Ohio friends. I'll file that away for the wife and I to enjoy.
Tionesta is booked. I should've thought of that myself, I work for USACE. I tried a bunch of our other rec areas but they're booked as well.
Hearts Content does have availability but no electricity so it moves to the bottom of the list for now.

Chapman showed as unavailable on the website but when I searched for it specifically it does have availability. Strong contender right now.

Laurel Hill sounds neat, probably similar to Forbes Forest where we do a lot of day hiking.

Mixed reviews for Raccoon Creek in this thread (thorny trails) but they have availability.

[dodint]

Check out this review of Chapman:

Memorial Day Weekend. Pros: Nice small campground in the middle of the forest. Friendly staff. Cleanest campground bathrooms we have come across. Cons: It's LOUD. The unsupervised kids treat the campground as their backyard. We heard kids yelling from 9am until about 6pm every day. The playground is in the middle of the bottom loop so the sound carries. The kids are allowed to run around and bike the entire campground and woods by themselves. The child biker gangs ride at high speeds up and down the rail trail which is extremely dangerous. 3 little monsters were even jumping up and down on the swinging bridge while we were trying to cross. Stay on the upper loop if you don't want to be in the middle of the ruckus. I am not sure if we would stay at Chapman again because of the kids. Maybe the spring and fall aren't so bad.

Amazing.

[Ad@m]

Check out this review of Chapman:

Memorial Day Weekend. Pros: Nice small campground in the middle of the forest. Friendly staff. Cleanest campground bathrooms we have come across. Cons: It's LOUD. The unsupervised kids treat the campground as their backyard. We heard kids yelling from 9am until about 6pm every day. The playground is in the middle of the bottom loop so the sound carries. The kids are allowed to run around and bike the entire campground and woods by themselves. The child biker gangs ride at high speeds up and down the rail trail which is extremely dangerous. 3 little monsters were even jumping up and down on the swinging bridge while we were trying to cross. Stay on the upper loop if you don't want to be in the middle of the ruckus. I am not sure if we would stay at Chapman again because of the kids. Maybe the spring and fall aren't so bad.

Amazing.

Someone commenting about mac’s kids.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I am very disturbed at the idea of kids having fun outside from 9 am to 6 pm on a holiday weekend marking the end of a school year. Shouldn’t they be playing Fortnite or watching Tik tok

[dodint]

I read it and thought "The kids were quiet in the morning and after sunset, sounds amazing."

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

I'll add Moraine as an option.

https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/Find ... fault.aspx

They have both rustic campsites and modern cabins.

https://pennsylvaniastateparks.reservea ... kId=880210

You can also take Pontoon boat tours

[Kane]

Pontoon boat. What the hell are you gonna do with a pontoon boat? Retake Omaha beach?

[dodint]

As a kayaker I've always wanted to get up to Moraine, but it's fully booked.

We're going with Chapman. Thanks for the recommendations, it was very helpful. And now the wife wants to stop in Punxatawney on the way up.

[Kane]

I wouldn't. I was there once for work. There's nothing to see.