Pennsylvania has much to offer the visitor looking for healthy pursuits. It has 20 state forests, one national forest, 116 state parks, one Great Lake, Erie, 50 other natural lakes and thousands of miles of rivers and streams. Pennsylvania's north is the great outdoors, offering hiking, fishing, hunting, swimming, camping, sledding, skiing and winter tubing.
Golfing in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has over 811 golf courses. America's oldest course, Foxburg Golf Course, is in the northwest. On the edge of the Laurel Highlands area is the first golf course designed by Arnold Palmer, Indian Lake. Among the public golf courses are Water Gap Country Club, Pocono Inn and Golf Resort and Iron Valley in Lebanon.
The Laurel Highlands
Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands, southeast of Pittsburgh, runs along the Western ridges of the Appalachian Mountains. The area's rivers overflow with fish, and opportunities for white-water rafting, hiking and rock climbing abound. The great Allegheny Passage, and its 150 miles, make great trails for cyclists, hikers and equestrians. Ohiopyle State Park has the Youghiogheny River Gorge passing through its heart, delivering some of the best white-water rafting in the Eastern U.S.
The 68-mile Laurel Highlands Scenic Highway offers lush green hillsides, rushing waterfalls and the Historic National Road. This 90-mile road runs through Southwest Pennsylvania, and is one of America's oldest. On it, is the Fort Necessity National Battlefield, the location of the first battle of the French-Indian War.
The Poconos Beyond the Honeymoon Suites
The Pennsylvania Poconos are full of athletic pursuits and breathtaking scenery--not at all connected to the resorts in the area. There are two spectacular waterfalls within the Delaware Water and National Recreation Area, Dingman's Falls and Silver Thread Falls.
For hikers and horseback riders, there's the Appalachian Trail. It enters the Poconos at the Delaware Water Gap and exits below Jim Thorpe.
White-water rafting enthusiasts will love the Lehigh and the Lackawaxen Rivers, both tributaries of the Delaware. On the Lackawaxen, a stretch of 30 rapids unfolds as the river reaches the Delaware; on the Lehigh there is a 30-mile run of rapids through the Lehigh Gorge.
For fishing fans, there are more than 100 Pocono lakes. Trout season begins in mid-April in the mountain streams and the Delaware. You can also catch bass, pickerel, muskies, pike and crappies.
Experience Tubing in the Poconos
Who needs to be a great skier? Why not try a tube instead? Half a dozen Pocono ski areas offer inner-tube sledding. Tubers get their own slopes, away from the skiers. For tubing, you need less skill than skiing. All that's required is a slick, snowy hill, divided with what are called snow berms to stop tubers from sliding into each other. Tubers just climb aboard, get a push and away they go, down the hill, sometimes reaching 40 or 50 miles an hour. Spinning on a tube is great fun, sliding, or hanging onto another tube and sliding together.
Lancaster County
Lancaster County, the Pennsylvania Dutch country famous for its Amish ways, is the perfect place for bicycle riding. This is a community with country roads, where horses are more common than cars--there are no serious hills and the scenery is beautiful. In town, there is the Landis Valley Museum of German Heritage, displaying old houses, schools and barns of the area from 1740 to 1940.
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