Loyalsock State Forest

Driving from Shenandoah National Park to Loyalsock State Forest, PA | High Knob Overlook | Hiking & Camping in Loyalsock State Forest | Finishing Pennsylvania’s Counties | August 2024

This morning, we had contemplated getting up early to see the sunrise, but after yesterday’s long driving day we just didn’t have the motivation to set our alarms that early. However, after we left our campground in Shenandoah National Park, we were met with an incredible sight: low-hanging clouds filled the valleys and piedmont, and the sun was casting pastel hues across the skies. We made several short stops at a couple different pull offs to soak up the views before leaving the park to continue our drive North.

Today, we had to leave behind the slower paced drive we had enjoyed on the Blue Ridge Parkway & Skyline Drive, and return to the busyness of interstates and highways. But thankfully, we had an exciting goal for the next 2 days to keep us going: we were finally going to visit our last 2 counties in Pennsylvania! We had reserved a campsite in Loyalsock State Forest that would get us one, then a short drive the next morning would score us our last county. We just had to get through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Southern Pennsylvania first!

We took I-81 North all the way to Harrisburg, then took US-15 North all the way up to I-180. We made one stop on the way for lunch and a short walk at a rest area right on the Susquehanna River. We took US-220 East into the forest, and found our way to Loyalsock State Forest. There are quite a few state parks and hikes in this area, but by this point all we wanted to do was relax and decompress after all that driving, so we drove up to the High Knob overlook for a picnic and to rest in the shade on the mossy ground. It was much busier here than we were expecting, with big family groups continuously coming up to see the view, but most didn’t stay long and we stayed out of the way in our little picnic area.

When we were ready to call it a day, we drove down the hill and to our reserved spot for the night. It was just a little dispersed site in the forest that cost around $20 to reserve, but it was quiet and Charlotte enjoyed walking up and down the forest road. We took it easy that evening and planned for our last 2 days on the road.

We started the next morning with a short visit to Dry Run Falls — which didn’t live up to their name as they were not at all dry. That’s ok, we enjoyed them anyway. 😉 They are right next to the road, so we wandered around to get up close and take it in from all the different viewpoints, then walked Charlotte up and down the forest road until we were ready to hit the road again. We made our way West on county roads, until we finally crossed the border into Wyoming county, our final county for the state of Pennsylvania!

This one feels like an especially big accomplishment, as there are 67 counties in the state and they are not easy to get to efficiently, thanks to the constant ridges and valleys throughout the state. Our first visit to Pennsylvania together was on our honeymoon in 2013, when we just cut off the Northwest corner while driving along Lake Erie. Since then, we’ve driven across the state many times, but really started spending more time here once Curtis started his new job. And it is thanks to this job that we have had the chance to drive across the state more and spend time in different areas during his 3 assignments here. Because of all the time we’ve spent in King of Prussia, I think we can safely say that Valley Forge is our most visited national park administered site!

Besides all our memories from traveling throughout the state, we have a few other significant life events that are tied to the state. Curtis received his Masters from Penn State in August of 2022, and we bought our van here and had our first night of camping with it in the spring of 2023! There’s still so much that we haven’t seen here though, so we certainly won’t mind coming back to spend more time in nature. However, I will say I’m thankful we’ve now accomplished our goal of visiting every county so that we can take more direct routes from now on! 🙂