Bradford Pennsylvania is located just below the border with New York. I’d been camping two nights at Willow Bay Campground in Allegheny National Forest, fifteen miles west of Bradford, but I felt the need to move on. Due to my location A Taste For The Woods is too Keystone-centric, and I felt the need to give some variety to you, the reader. Also I have no objection to new experiences, so I headed north to Allegheny State Park.
Allegheny State Park is New York’s largest park, and is next to the Allegheny National Forest at the border with Pennsylvania. It has access to the Allegheny Reservoir, its own lakes, 700 campsites, and 65 thousand acres of forest. My visit couldn’t possibly do justice to the park, so I didn’t even try. Instead I took a driving tour looking for vistas.
I found one pull off vista, near the northern end of the park on Allegheny State Park road 1. The photo doesn’t do the view justice.
Better photography and more tranquility were on offer at a couple of the lakes. This one, for instance, at the intersection of ASP 1 and ASP 2.
I managed to get in a short hike on one of the ASP’s many hiking trails. The Sweetwater Trail taunted me with ads for a vista, but a five mile hike so late in the day wasn’t happening. So I hiked a couple of miles, and made notes I need to get back and spend a few days here. I’d have loved to climb up this firetower, but its closed to the public.
I had a fun few hours in the park. However, the Allegheny State Park was indirectly responsible for my closest ever bear encounter. That story is for another post.