Worlds End State Park Camping Trip - Day 1

 Saturday, June 17, 2023

Worlds End State Park is located along the Loyalsock Creek, near Forksville, Pennsylvania in north-central Pennsylvania. The 780-acre park is surrounded by Loyalsock State Forest and is part of the Endless Mountains region of the state. The area is a nature-lover’s paradise with countless hiking trails, several mountain vistas, a multitude of waterfalls, and the scenic Loyalsock Creek to fish and swim in.

Before continuing, one word of advice: If you go to Worlds End State Park, do NOT take Worlds End Road into the park if you are coming from the south and pulling a trailer, as we were. The climb up the mountain wasn’t a problem at all. It was the descent into the valley that nearly did us in. The road is very windy with a constant downhill grade, plus a steep drop off and sharp right turn at the end, just above the creek. We made it down safely, but barely. Our truck brakes overheated and were smoking as we pulled to the side of the road to let them cool down. If you’ve never smelled the odor of overheated brakes, I can tell you, it’s not pleasant. When we spoke with a park ranger the next day, she said she doesn’t understand why the road isn’t posted with warnings about the steep grade and the danger for those towing trailers. We will never navigate that road while towing again.

The campground at Worlds End State Park is very popular, especially on weekends. When we arrived, it was full and our site was one of the very few that were open. It’s not a large campground, with only 70 sites in two loops, 32 of which have electric hookups. None of the sites have water or sewer hookups. Loop A is primarily for RVs and campers with pets. It has a large bathhouse with nice showers and it was regularly cleaned. Loop B is mostly for people camping with tents and has a much smaller bathhouse. There is a dump station up a hill past the playground and second vehicle parking area.

One thing to note is the campground is located immediately adjacent to Route 154 and as a result, the campsites located on that side of the loop will have noise from the road. The road is the only route to the campground, but there didn’t seem to be many cars traveling on it in the evening hours. Fortunately, our campsite was on the side of the loop furthest from the road, so we didn't have any road noise.

Our campsite

The park has a beach area at a roped off area along the Loyalsock Creek, about a mile from the campground where the park office is also located. There’s also a snack stand there where hard ice cream was available. Very convenient for the two of us, being lovers of ice cream!

After setting up our campsite we attempted to go to the park office to pick up some maps and get the weather report for the week. There is precious little cell-phone service in the park – we were only able to send and receive texts, but heard from other campers that they had no service at all. Unfortunately, it had already closed for the day so we would have to return in the morning.

While there, we were approached by a young woman who asked us where the campground was located. She had been dropped off at the park office along with her 3 children and their camping equipment by a friend, not realizing the campground was located another mile up a long and winding road without safe shoulders for them to walk on. We loaded their belongings up in our truck bed, squeezed them into the back seat of our truck, and took them back with us to the campground. We just didn’t feel good about leaving them back at the park office to fend for themselves, even though the woman said they were used to walking everywhere since she didn’t have a car of her own.

After getting them settled we returned to our site, made our dinner, and then walked across the road to the creek. We were hoping to spot the state amphibian, the Hellbender, since we knew they could be found in the area, but we had no luck. So, we returned to our camper and settled in for the night. It was getting cool and because there wasn’t enough room between our camper and the fire ring, we couldn’t have a campfire, so we turned in for the night.

Loyalsock Creek

Loyalsock Creek

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