Rothrock State Forest
Cold Creek State Forest, NY to Rothrock State Forest, PA | Sime Mahoning State Park | Hiking & Camping in Rothrock State Forest, PA | August 2024
This morning, we continued our drive South, leaving New York for now and heading into Pennsylvania. We decided that our main objective for this drive from NY-NC and our eventual return was to finish visiting every county in Pennsylvania. We had only 3 left: Cameron, Sullivan, and Wyoming. Sullivan and Wyoming were right next to each other, so we planned to hit them together on our way North. Cameron is on its own a little further West, which was more convenient for this trip since we had driven West to avoid Tropical Storm Debby.
It can be difficult and slow going to drive across Pennsylvania’s endless ridges, especially when you’re not following main interstates or highways in pursuit of counties like we were. As we drove through towns in the valleys, we noticed how swollen rivers were because of all the rain. We did enjoy the views we got from driving up and over different ridges. Right before entering Cameron county, we stopping at a state park along our way: Sinnemahoning State Park. This area is best known for bird watching, and if you’re really lucky you can see a herd of elk here. We didn’t see much this morning, but still enjoyed our short walk, and had a picnic lunch.
After that, we entered our new county for the day (or maybe we entered it while on our walk — not sure where the exact line was!) and continued driving South. We made a stop in State College to run a couple errands, then drove to our reserved campsite for tonight in Rothrock State Forest.
A few years ago, camping in state forests in Pennsylvania used to be free, and all you had to do was reserve a site beforehand. However, they changed that in recent years and now it can cost $20-$30 a night if you’re coming in from out of state. Obviously Pennsylvania is a beautiful state with plenty of nature to enjoy, but this kind of keeps us from staying more than one night. Luckily, we happened to find a really nice spot available, and it felt well worth the money tonight! We drove a couple miles up the well maintained forest road until we found our spot. It was a pull-through site with a picnic table and fire pit, and a short trail into the woods took us to a great overlook to the West — perfect for sunset viewing! There were also some trails in the area, so Curtis took the opportunity to go for a hike while Charlotte and I enjoyed our site.
Curtis: Unfortunately, there weren’t many peaks with enough prominence near our campground, so instead I decided to make up a loop hike to an overlook of the neighboring valley. I started by walking with Jess and Charlotte down the road as far as Charlie was willing to go, and then by myself to the trailhead. I first followed a trail downhill to a lookout – which honestly was worse than the one next to our camp. I then went back across the road and took a trail straight up the mountain. And it was straight up. If it weren’t for the blazes and my knowing there was an established trail, I would have guessed it to have been just a rock fall or something similar. Fortunately, it wasn’t too long, and I soon reached the crest and the Mid-State Trail.
The Mid-State Trail is yet another in the long and growing list of Appalachian Long Distance Trails. This one, as intuition might inform, crosses the middle of the state of Pennsylvania connecting with other long distance trails in Maryland and New York. I followed the trail South along the ridge. Compared to the trail coming up, it was nice and flat – which is also why there is almost no prominence along the ridge except at the ‘highest’ point, wherever that is. Because of the flatness, I made good time, but it was a lot of miles and surprisingly rocky. At the end of the ridge I reached a large open clearing looking out over the Juniata River Gap and the adjacent valley.
Part of the reason that I chose this trail was for a letterbox, but I soon realized that it was a few more miles down the trail, and a few hundred feet lower. It was getting late and I had already put in 3 miles. Rather than retrace the 3 miles, I decided to ‘dead reckon’ and bushwhack down straight towards camp. The slopes were pretty open, though there were some brushy patches, especially as the grade leveled out. But I also came across a Forest Service cabin just as the brush got thicker and was able to follow the access road back to the main road and camp. By no means am I suggesting this as a normal route, but it worked for me this one time. You can see my AllTrails recording here.
Jess: That evening, we decided to give Charlotte a little more exercise by walking down the forest road to the nearest switchback, which would provide an even wider sunset view than what we had at our site. The colors were vibrant and we loved seeing all the different shades of blue on each of the mountain ridges. If there was anyone else camping in the forest that night, we wouldn’t have known, because the spots were so spread out and it was so quiet here.
