Evansburg State Park

Hiking in Evansburg State Park | Collegeville, PA | April 2025

Curtis’ last assignment of the spring season brought us back to Southeastern Pennsylvania for the third year in a row. Except this year, we decided to switch things up. For the past two years, we stayed in a hotel in King of Prussia. It was a nice place, and we really liked the proximity to Valley Forge, but there were several things about it that bothered us and both years we had discussed going somewhere else next time. For a lot of the places we travel to for work, the power plants are located near small towns and there really aren’t a lot of options for places to stay, unless Curtis wants to double his commute time. However, this plant is located about 45 minutes from Philadelphia, so there are plenty of suburbs to choose from when picking a hotel. We picked out a new hotel this year, and it turned out to be a great idea — not only did we like the new location better, but being just 10 minutes away from where we normally stay somehow made this feel like a whole different job (at least for me — obviously Curtis was still working at the same plant).

This year, we chose to stay at the Residence Inn in Collegeville. It was a little less flashy in appearance than the Element in King of Prussia, but it felt much more friendly to long-term stay and was located in a quieter neighborhood area rather than a busier urban environment (though some of that might have been the odd number of pseudo empty business parks). The downside to both of them is that neither are walkable to restaurants, but at least there are plenty within a short driving distance. The main thing we were giving up here was that we were no longer 5 minutes from Valley Forge, but we still managed to visit the park several times this year, and also ventured out and found some different places to hike.

The first new spot that we tried was Evansburg State Park, a park that features several trails along Skippack Creek. On our first day in Collegeville, after picking up a rental car and moving in to the hotel, we ventured out for a little afternoon walk in the park. We drove over to the Overlook Trailhead and started walking up a short incline on a wide gravel trail. At the first intersection we turned left, going clockwise around the loop. The trail followed a ridge overlooking Skippack Creek, and we did have some good views of the creek, but I imagine the views wouldn’t be as good if the trees had leaves. Soon the trail went steeply down to the side of the creek, where Charlotte enjoyed wading and drinking from the stream. The trail then went up the next valley over until it reached the gravel path again, and we returned back to the car. Altogether this hike was 1.3 miles long.

The real highlight along this trail — and most of the hikes that we would do during our time in Pennsylvania — was the wildflowers and signs of spring which became more abundant every week. Today, it was bright yellow forsythia bushes, and lesser celandine and greater periwinkle blossoms along the path. The trees were mostly bare, which made for better views of the creek but still felt like stick season.

Eleven days later, we returned to Evansburg State Park to hike another trail, and found the area to be much more green and lush than before. This time, we chose a trail further North in the park closer to the pavilion and visitor center. From here, we hiked 3/4 of a mile South to the bridge on the Skippack Creek Trail. We didn’t really have views of the creek until we reached the bridge, but we did enjoy the gorgeous Virginia bluebells along the way. Besides looking a lot more like spring, it also was humid and we got rained on a little throughout the walk — but at least we came prepared with our umbrellas. Google Maps showed that across the bridge was a mill and we were hoping to find a picturesque scene with a historic mill next to the water, but it turned out that the mill is on private property and not right next to the water. Oh well, it was still worth the walk, just to spend a morning in nature. There were a few others on the trail, and even more people out fishing that morning.

Overall, this was a great little park tucked in the middle of the cities that made for an easy way to get out and be surrounded by nature. Unfortunately it may also be where we got our first exposure to poison ivy for the year…but now that we made it through that trial, we only have happy memories from being here.