We finally left the park ~11:00am….like I said…we got a really late start. There was a really cool and old general store just past an old covered bridge right outside the park that has been there for years and years. We stopped there to get some ice and we split an early lunch before continuing west (generally on scenic Route 6 but mostly on tiny country roads) on our scenic drive to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania in the Tioga State Forest. It was a beautiful drive and it was amazing to see how different the northwest part of the state looks. In the Philly area, the trees have all bloomed and leaves are back on all of the trees and everything looks green and lush right now. The northern part of PA seems like it is at least 2 weeks behind the southeast part of the state in terms of the spring season. It still looks like early spring up here with the trees just starting put put our buds and leaves, brown grass, and not many flowers blooming. We also noticed there are aspen trees up here.
Sarah and Jackson on the east rim of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania in Leonard Harrison State Park.
There are 2 state parks on the "Grand Canyon of PA". Leonard Harrison is on the east rim, and Colton Point is down in the canyon bottom on the west side. We only had time for Leonard Harrison, unfortunately, because it is a long drive to the other from this one.
We arrived at the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania and parked the car to walk around some of the trails and overlooks. I had heard from many people that this was a beautiful park and the views were spectacular. I actually was not that impressed, in fact, I think this was my least favorite park so far. It was ok and the view was pretty, but nothing that I would call spectacular. The Little River Canyon in Alabama was much more impressive than this. I agree completely. We saw a few turkey vultures flying around the canyon which was pretty neat. Jason tried to take some pictures of them but they always seemed to fly out of range once he got his camera out…..I think they knew he was trying to get them…teasing him.
Jason, Jackson, and Sarah. Ok, just kidding. I'm really much better built than this dude. This is a statue dedicated to the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps, who helped to make the trails and facilities in this park in the 30's.
There was a neat log cabin near the visitor center where we took a few family pictures. We stood in front of two cool trees that joined at the same root. These types of trees are my favorite and I always tell Jason these are “our” trees. Him and I….2 different people but joined together with love….blah blah blah…he’s going to be so embarrassed that I wrote this in here…ha ha ha! I wish she were lyeing, but she's not. She really is that gay. Every time.
Just before we arrived at the Grand Canyon of PA, we heard on the radio that they were projecting fairly bad storms coming with lots of rain and 40 mi/hr winds. We knew that would not be much fun camping in that, especially with Jackson and Lincoln, so we decided to look for a cool rustic cabin to try to stay in. Unfortunately we couldn't’t find any cabins and the ones that were available had a 2-night minimum. So, we decided to head further west on the scenic drive and hope that we would see some motels or hotels to stay in for the night. We drove several miles on route 6 and the only places we could find were in a town called Coudersport where found a non-chain hotel that also served a continental breakfast….which was a plus! Unfortunately there was not any good place for us to cook our own food for dinner so we went to a family style restaurant within walking distance to the hotel. The food was not great but we didn’t have many other cheap options. We did drive around the downtown area which had great architectural features and just looked like a typical old industrial town. There was an old fashion theater that charged $3 admission. We did see a few nice restaurants downtown but they all looked pretty fancy and we were not exactly dressed appropriately nor did we want to spend a lot of money. Our hotel was on the side of a creek where we saw some boys fishing. After dinner we went back to the hotel and I gave Jackson a bath and got him ready for bed. While I was getting Jackson ready for bed, Jason and Lincoln drove to the local grocery store to get more food for Jackson since we were running low. Jason had to sneak Lincoln into our room that night. We weren’t sure if they allowed pets or not (there were no signs indicating no pets allowed) but we didn’t want to ask just in case they said no. We had free wireless Internet so we worked on this blog a little bit and checked our emails. I watched American Idol…of course, because I’m not ashamed to say I love that show!!! (Still can’t believe Danny got the boot….WOW!!!). I may be even more embarrassed now than with the stupid trees. Anyway, that was pretty much the rest of our evening.
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