Ever wanted to disappear into the woods for a week Grab a pack. You can hike seventy miles straight here. The Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail cuts right through this massive park, stretching all the way from Ohiopyle to the Conemaugh Gorge. It is not some lazy Sunday stroll, either. You will sweat over rocky ridges and scramble up steep, muddy slopes. Along the way, you can crash at one of the eight overnight shelter areas. These aren't flimsy plastic tents. We are talking rustic wooden shelters with actual stone chimneys where you can build a fire to dry your soggy socks. You have to reserve them ahead of time, though.

The fun doesn't stop when the snow flies. Actually, that is when the park gets really wild. If you own cross-country skis, you will love the thirty miles of groomed trails near Route 30. No skis Grab a snowmobile. You can rip through the woods on designated paths when the snowpack gets thick enough. In June, the mountain laurel blooms. You get these massive bursts of pink and white all over the hillsides. It is the state flower, which is a neat bonus. Pretty cool. So, whether you want to freeze your nose off in January or sweat through your shirt in July, this park has a trail with your name on it.

Loggers once ruled these rugged ridges. In the late 1800s, timber companies stripped the mountainsides bare of hemlock and oak, dragging massive logs down steep slopes to buzzing steam-powered sawmills. They left scarred earth. Soon after, coal companies bought up huge chunks of land, digging deep pits to feed the insatiable steel mills nearby. Local families tried farming the rocky soil, too. It was a brutal life. By the mid-1960s, though, conservationists stepped in. A regional conservancy bought over 11,000 acres of this bruised land from private owners and timber firms, handing it over to the public in 1967. They wanted a wilderness escape.

History runs deep here. If you hike the seventy-mile trail along the mountain spine, you will actually cross paths with eighteenth-century soldiers. Look closely at the ground. In 1758, General John Forbes carved a military road right through this dense forest to attack Fort Duquesne. You can still see traces of this historic corridor cutting through the woods. Old stone quarries also dot the area. Workers blasted out sandstone here for regional construction. Today, backpackers sleep in rustic chimney-equipped shelters built decades ago, surrounded by thick woods that slowly erased the scars of the old industrial era. Nature reclaimed its territory.

There are no entrance fees or day use fees for any state park in Pennsylvania.