Jennings Environmental Center, Moraine State Park, & Cascade Park - Pennsylvania

 To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles.

- Marie Davis

July 20, 2025

During a 16-day camping trip in July 2025 with our daughter and her family, we spent a week in northwestern Pennsylvania so we could explore some state parks in the area. This blog entry features three parks we visited on one day during our stay in the area.

Jennings Environmental Center

The Jennings Environmental Education Center, located in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, is one of several state parks dedicated to providing environmental education and recreational programs to the public. The park has over 5 miles of hiking trails. It has areas for picnicking and wildlife watching and has many events and workshops open to the public throughout the year.

Jennings has a unique combination of prairie and forest environments. Most of the park is covered by forest that includes streams and wetlands. One of the park’s main features is the 20-acre prairie ecosystem, a home to prairie plants. It features the beautiful blazing star prairie flower. We were happy to see that they were in full bloom during our visit. There were also signs letting us know that the endangered massasauga rattlesnake could be found there. Thankfully, we didn’t see any snakes while we were there!

We wandered along the Prairie Loop Trail, stopping to take photos of the many wildflowers that were in bloom. We saw quite a few we hadn't seen before and one we couldn't identify. It was a really nice park to explore. It would be nice to come back again in spring to see what's blooming then.

  

Moraine State Park

Moraine State Park is located near Portersville in western Pennsylvania, about an hour north of Pittsburgh. It’s a huge park, covering 16,725 acres and featuring the 3,225-acre Lake Arthur. It’s a very popular park. Each year over a million people visit it for fishing, boating, wildlife watching, picnicking, disc golfing, hiking, biking, horseback riding and swimming. Although camping in the park is limited to organized groups, there are 11 modern cabins available for rent to visitors year round.

Moraine State Park gets its name from the hilly deposits of gravel, sand and clay that were deposited there about 12,500 years ago. Today, in addition to the man-made Lake Arthur, the gently rolling hills and lush forests leave visitors with plenty of room to explore.

Lake Arthur features 42 miles of shoreline and nine public boat launches for boats with up to 20 horsepower motors. In addition, there’s a privately owned/operated boat rental facility on the south shore with everything from kayaks to motorized pontoon boats. The lake was used to portray New York’s Hudson River in the movie “The Pale Blue Eye”, starring Christian Bale.

Lake Arthur

Lake Arthur

In addition to the numerous boat launches and fishing jetties, the lake has two “swim at your own risk” beaches; one on the north shore and one on the south shore. The lake is stocked with muskellunge, walleye, channel catfish, bass, northern pike, bluegills and crappies, making it a popular spot for fishermen.

Lake Arthur

State Park Marina

Our main reason for visiting the park was so that we could ride our bicycles on a paved, 7.1-mile long multi-use trail. The trail winds along the north shore of Lake Arthur between the Bike Rental Building in the northwest corner of the park and the Davis Hollow Marina, where it dead ends. The trail was mostly shaded with a few small hills here and there, making for a very pleasant ride. After returning to our start we enjoyed our lunch at a shaded picnic table before heading to our last stop of the day.

Cascade Park

Although it's not a state park, Cascade Park, located near downtown New Castle, Pennsylvania, was next on our list. It's a former amusement park that operated from 1897 until the early 1980s. The park was home to roller coasters, many amusement rides, and what at one time was the largest dance hall in Pennsylvania.

Big Run Falls is a 20 to 25-foot-tall waterfall located in the center of the park along the edge of a very large hollow. This circular area makes it hard to get close to the falls, but it also offers a great overlook from which to view it. The viewing area is located next to the roadway through Cascade Park and close to a parking area, making it a very easy waterfall to visit.

Big Run Falls

Just downstream from the waterfall, we could see some of the rails that used to be part of the Comet, a roller coaster that was built in 1955 and used to dive into the valley near the waterfall. We also saw the remains of a swimming pool and several buildings that used to house amusement park rides and concession stands. The 1898 dance pavilion still stands near the entrance to the park.

Cascade Park was a nice way to end our day. Seeing the old buildings brought back happy memories of amusement parks we had visited in our youth.

If you'd like to see the 9-minute YouTube video of our day visiting these parks, click here.

* All photos and videos are the property of the blog owners unless otherwise noted. *

Mercer/Grove City Pennsylvania KOA - Campground Review

Life's better when you add fresh air and a warm campfire.

- Anonymous

July 19 to July 26, 2025

During a 16-day camping trip in the summer of 2025, we planned to visit a bunch of state parks in western New York & Pennsylvania with our daughter and her family. For this leg of the trip we needed a campground with full amenities that would put us somewhere in the middle of the areas we planned to go, as well as providing us with the opportunity to do our laundry. We don't usually choose to stay at a KOA, simply because they have a lot of amenities we don't use and we don't wish to pay the higher fees that go with them. However, this KOA was our only choice for a campground in the area we wanted, and it turned out to be a good one.

The Mercer/Grove City KOA is located just outside of Mercer, PA. The campground has 155 sites including full hookup sites, water/electric sites, tent sites, 5 cabins and 4 lodges. Each site had a fire ring and picnic table. There was also on-site garbage collection if you left your bags at the road edge of your site. We had a full hookup site with a good amount of room between our camper and the next site where our daughter and her family were camped. The site on the other side of us was a seasonal site and it was a little closer to us, but we had plenty of room behind our site as well as at the road end for parking. Plus, our neighbor had a bunch of birdfeeders at the back of the site that were fun to watch and provided some great photo opportunities. The campground was busy when we arrived on the weekend, but emptied out quite a bit during the week. We had our loop almost entirely to ourselves for a couple of days before it started filling up again.

As far as the amenities go, there were 2 bath houses that were very clean and the free WIFI was among the best we've ever had at a campground. The Office/Camp Store was well-stocked with the usual supplies and some souvenirs. The staff were very helpful and friendly. A spacious laundry room with washers and dryers was located at the back of the office/store complex and had a separate door leading to the outside, providing access when the office/store was closed. Behind the office/store complex in a separate building was an event hall that was used for different activities on the weekends, and was also where you could buy fresh baked Amish goods on a Saturday morning. A dump station was located near the park entrance.

There was a dog park, but even though we walked around most of the park during our stay, we never did see it. There was also a nice pond located across the road from the campground. We followed a path from directly across the main entrance that wound all the way around the pond to a nice grassy area with a dock for fishing. We didn't do any fishing there, but we did see others with lines dropped in.

The swimming pool was located next to the office/store. It was a little small for the size of the campground, but was nice and very busy during most of our stay due to the warm weather. Other activities included a gem mine, playground, basketball court, gaga ball pit, an RC race course, volleyball net, sand play area, and a variety of outdoor games such as a giant Connect Four game.

We enjoyed our stay at this campground very much. It was right in the middle of the areas we planned to visit, the price wasn't terribly high, and we really couldn't find anything to complain about the campground itself. Even though we don't usually camp at KOAs, we would consider staying at this one again if we return to the area.

If you'd like to view our YouTube video campground review, please click here.

* All photos and videos are the property of the blog owners unless otherwise noted. *