The Grand Canyon (of Pennsylvania)

 

We've all heard of the Grand Canyon. But have you heard of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania? Right, well neither had I until Sam suggested we go there for a holiday weekend. It's sometimes referred to as the Grand Canyon, but it's officially the Pine Creek Gorge. We did some quick research and decided to go for it. Our two days of exploration involved a decent amount of driving, some pretty neat hikes, and a lot restaurant searches. The below may save you some Googling and help you plan your next Grand Canyon (of PA) adventure.

Where to Hike

The gorge, of course?! There were two main hikes we did in and through the gorge. Two state parks make up the majority of the best places to hike - Leonard Harrison State Park and Colton Point State Park. They border each other and you can walk from one to the other via the trails. We parked at the Leonard Harrison Visitor Center, which hosts an entrance to the most popular hike, Turkey Path.

Turkey Path Trail: This trail was excellent and brought us right down into the bottom of the gorge. Along the way we saw waterfalls and trees aplenty. As you can imagine, it was a lot of downhill walking. That only means one thing...coming back it was all uphill. Once we got to the gorge we noticed a bike trail that paralleled the water. That would have been a lot of fun if we had our bikes!

Overlook Trail: This one was shorter and offered some views of the gorge from above. It was mostly trees and a good first-hike to warm our legs up for the aforementioned Turkey Path.

Sand Run Fall Trail: Now this one wasn't in either of the state parks, but it was about an hour into our route home. The trail was originally built by an Eagle Scout for their "final project". Wow, what an undertaking that must've been. It just keeps going! However, I will say the length was worth it because it goes to a spectacular waterfall. If our legs weren't so tired we would've repelled down to the base of the falls using the available rope.

Where to Eat

It's slim pickings, but we did manage to find one good spot in each of the towns, Mansfield and Wellsboro. If you're looking for health food then maybe choose a different trip.

The Roost: This restaurant is in Wellsboro and was our favorite of the two. It had a lot of different options and beer selections in a cool and hipstery environment. I would highly recommend heading here before or after a hike.

Yorkholo Brewing Co: One of very few options in Mansfield (the pizza spot across the street is decent, all things considered). Also a cool vibe, but with fewer beer options. Some of the items on the menu were out of stock, understandable given that it's in a low-traffic area.

Where to Stay

The two towns people typically stay in are Mansfield, PA and Wellsboro, PA. Unfortunately, there aren't a ton of options and we ended up going with the Microtel in Mansfield. It was fine but certainly nothing very exciting. In hindsight, we wish we stayed in Wellsboro because it had slightly more going on and was closer to the gorge.

Overall

We're glad we went. However, it took close to five hours of driving for us to get there. If we lived closer then I'd certainly go back again - especially to go for a bike ride along the gorge. But I don't see us heading back to north-central PA anytime soon. But who knows, our paths may cross the Grand Canyon of PA once again. Until then, I'll stick with Utah.