Review of Ohiopyle State Park, PA (Pennsylvania)

 

Ohiopyle Falls, near the visitor center 

My wife and I (and our Pomeranian) spent the month of July in the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania.  It was during this time that we decided to finally explore one of Pennsylvania’s best state parks, Ohiopyle State Park.  

Ohiopyle State Park is located in the town of Ohiopyle in the southern parts of the Laurel Ridge.  The park encompasses over 20,500 acres of natural beauty and is the gateway to the Laurel Highlands.  Park is perhaps most famous for number of beautiful falls, for the Youghiogheny River, and for whitewater rafting.

We woke up on a Monday morning to get ready to leave for Ohiopyle State Park.  It was a muggy and humid morning, and we wanted to get there as early as possible.  The driving distance would be about an hour and a half, cutting through some of the most beautiful mountainous terrain in the state of Pennsylvania.

We prepared our usual lunches, snacks, water/drinks, and food/water for Toby.  We left around 8:30 a.m. hoping to arrive there by 10 a.m.  We heard the park is very popular this time of the year, and we didn’t want to struggle for parking.

We took a southerly direction from Indiana towards the Laurel Highlands.  The local roads would take us on undulating roads, past small towns, and over big and small mountains.  Driving there got me all perked up!  

I felt giddy driving through some of the most beautiful roads in Pennsylvania.  I felt our SUV was nicely planted going around some of these curvy roads.  It felt great to be out on a road trip to somewhere new and far…

The roads got even more spectacular the closer we got to the Laurel Highlands.  The small mountains would become big mountains.  The ascending drive followed by descending drive would reveal magnificent views of farmlands, animals, and plants.

There were clouds so close to the ridges, I can almost touch them.  It was a great precursor to what’s to come…

We arrived at the town of Ohiopyle on schedule.  We noticed how clean and cute the town was.  There were plenty of shops, restaurants, and outdoor adventure shops to idle away.

We stopped by at the visitor center first to check out the famous Ohiopyle Falls, make a pit stop, and to eat our lunch.  We all got out of the car and already felt like the park deserved its title as one of the best state parks in all of Pennsylvania.

The visitor center is one of the cleanest and well maintained place we’ve seen anywhere.  The walking paths leading up to the visitor center are incredibly clean, with beautiful landscaping, and sit right next to the beautiful Ohiopyle Falls.

We stretched our legs and headed for the restroom at the visitor center.  On our way there, we couldn’t help but stop several times to get a closer look at the magnificent Ohiopyle Falls.  We weren’t disappointed!

Paved walkway to the visitor center 
Toby enjoying the views of the falls area
Ohiopyle Falls

We saw plenty of visitors already making their way to the visitor center by 10 a.m.  We saw whitewater rafters riding down the River below us, and we also saw plenty of people hiking the entire length of the river/falls on the other side of the bank.  The park was alive with activity on a Monday morning!

We made our way inside the visitor center to use the restroom.  When we headed outside, we saw bunch of young rangers getting ready to head out on their adventures for the day.  We wondered what that would be like, as neither of us got a chance to participate in activities like this when we were growing up.

We wondered what natural wonders they would see and experience.  We wondered how long their adventure was for the day…

Whitewater rafters at the river!
Another view of the River

We set aside our meandering thoughts and got back to our task on hand, which was to explore the park. We went back to our car to eat our lunch, then headed out to the town first to take a look at the old steel bridge used by railroads once upon a time.

We found out there was actually a train station at one time, which has since been converted into a visitor information center.  We parked our car under the Great Allegheny Passage Bridge, then walked up to the old train station/visitor information center.  

We saw employees cleaning the train station with help from young adults who were helping out for the day.  We saw the employee explaining how to work a power washer to clean the benches, chairs, and the roof of the station.  To our surprise, the young ones were all seemingly enjoying the task.

We walked up to the bridge area to check out the views of the river and the surroundings.  Wow, what a view!

Toby on the bridge!
Near where we parked 
 View of the River
Bridge view

There were plenty of people walking, hiking and biking across the bridge.   Many were taking selfies at the middle of the bridge, having a great time.  We stopped by at the middle of the bridge ourselves to take in the views for several minutes.

We headed back to our car to get to our next destination, the Cucumber Falls.

We left the parking spot near the bridge but as we were getting near the falls, we took a wrong turn!  We should’ve continued towards the Cucumber Falls, but instead we turned left instead to go to the Cucumber Falls picnic area.  We drove further on the dirt/gravel road until we realized an attraction as popular as the Cucumber Falls couldn’t possibly be this hard to find.  

We reversed our car as there weren’t any place to turn our car around to get back to where we had come from.  We slowly went back down the hill while carefully checking for cars coming up the road (there weren’t any luckily), and for trees lining the road.  

After harrowing few minutes, we were able to do a T-turn from the picnic parking area to head back down.  We had finally figured out how to get to the actual Cucumber Falls parking lot.

We arrived at the Cucumber Falls parking lot after few minutes, but found the lot was packed.  There was one car waiting for a spot to become available.  We watched that car pull into the available spot after a minute or so.  

Realizing it might take quite some time for another parking spot to become available, we headed back down the road and decided to park on the shoulder like several others were already doing.

We had found a spot on the shoulder then headed back to the falls.  By this time, our Pomeranian was already feeling the heat and humidity, and he didn’t want to walk anymore.  I lifted him up to give him a free ride.

When we made it to the falls trail, we already saw many were already making their way back to the parking lot.  Darn!  We should’ve waited few more minutes!

We took the falls trail down to get closer to the falls.  It was exactly what we saw online.  It was just beautiful…

Wrong road to the Cucumber Falls 
Cucumber Falls finally!

Several people were enjoying the cool waters of the falls while some were swimming nearby.  We took some time to enjoy the views and to etch the beautiful views in our minds…

Satisfied we had finally found the falls, we headed to our final destination for the day, the Natural Waterslides.

We parked at the lot at the intersection of Route 381 (Main St) and Ohiopyle Road.  Already there were plenty of cars parked at the lot.  We found a spot, then made our way to check out the waterslides.

It was like watching a water park water slide but in a natural setting.  One lady was giddily sliding down the narrow channel cut into the bedrock and having the time of her life.  She would slide down to the far end of the ‘chute’ where a pool of water would be.

Others followed suit shortly thereafter.  I stopped for awhile to take all that in…

The Natural Waterslide
Another view of the water slide
End of the water slide, the ‘pool’ area

We reluctantly parted ways with the Ohiopyle State Park afterwards, knowing natural beauty like the ones we witnessed that day wasn’t commonplace…

We felt refreshed and rejuvenated by our trip.  We wondered how long it might take us to be back there…We promised we will be heading back there in the near future.

Thank you all for reading!


Jake

Wandering Money Pig 


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