Cook Forest State Park, PA

 

Here sits Jim on the front porch of the Cook Homestead built in 1870 where we are using the Cook Forest State Park open wifi as we have no other connection here in the park.

We arrived yesterday and set up camp with a lovely forest behind our site.  Our first hike started with a drive down Fire Tower Road.  We were glad to be in the truck as the road was a little rough.  First stop on the trail was Seneca Point where you could see a glimpse of the Clarion river below and a lot of tree tops.

The 87.5 foot fire tower was built in 1929.  We were going to save it until the end of our hike, but truth be told, we were too tired to climb all the stairs after our hike down the Baker/River Trail 3.6 miles roundtrip, for those keep track.

The closest they have to a waterfall here is this Bracket Dam built to make the Clarion river higher so it would be better suited for sending logs down it.  Logs no longer go down the Clarion here but the bracket dam remains.

Here we are at the Clarion River,  a beautiful place with a nice bench to rest on and spy a water snake swimming across the river.  (Sorry, no photo of the snake)

With no service at our campground, time to turn off the electronics and sit by the fire.  Of course we made campfire pizzas with sausage, onion and green peppers - delicious as ever.

Today it was time to hike 4.4 miles in the Forest Cathedral Trails.  All trails here are linear and one way so follow along carefully.  We started at the Log Cabin Learning Classroom (built in 1934 by the CCC) on the Longfellow Trail to the Indian Trail to the Rhododendron Trail then right on an Old Logging Road which led us to the Joyce Kilmer Trail then left back on the Rhododendron Trail to the Swinging Bridge ( we stopped to eat our lunch)

After lunch it was on the Tom's Run Trail to reconnect with the Longfellow Trail to the Ancient Forest Trail and then back to the start on the Longfellow Trail again. Phew, got all that.  Here are some photos of that hike.

Note the open shady area on the forest floor

Open forest floor makes room for young trees to grow, as you see here in this area.

Now isn't this an inviting path

The old growth trees are tall, many of these magnificent pine and hemlock trees exceed three feet in diameter with the tallest pines approaching 200 feet.

Scientist believe these old growth areas began growing following a large forest fire in 1644.  Some trees survived the fire and date back to the early 1500s.

Do you see what we saw?  A white tail deer who  did not seem to worry about us one bit.  He stared directly at us a couple of times but just kept on grazing.

The sound of Toms Run at this point was alluring, but I am a sucker for a good water spot. 

We are having a great time.

Here is a visual representation of our hike today.