Pennsylvania Overlooks - Day 1

Though I didn't realize how it how come to pass until driving home, the last weekend in July, I took a tour of Pennsylvania overlooks. A few years back I picked up a book listing about fifty such overlooks. Since then I've visited handful in my travels. I didn't intend to structure my recent weekend trip by that book. Rather I sought to use it to fill in my preconceived itinerary: a detour to checkout Raystown Lake overlook (discovered while surfing the web), a hike in Blue Knob State Park (to follow on the heels of my trip to Mount Davis, the state's highest point), an exploration of downtown Pittsburgh (having blown through on the expressway recently), and a stop in Cook Forest State Park (identified in a National Geographic book as one of the state's best). All had mention in the overlooks books.

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I left from Philadelphia early Saturday morning and drove straight to Raystown Lake. I tried not to rely on the GPS for navigation and ended up on the wrong road, but found my way soon enough to the overlook at the dam that forms the lake, and two others nearby. The third overlook, Hatches, offered the best view of the lake and the many people recreating on it.

Raystown Lake

On my way to Blue Know State Park, I drove through Saxton, Pennsylvania. Our family is good friends with a family of the same name. I took some pictures to include with their Christmas card. At Blue Knob, I got out the car for and hiked 5.5 miles through the woods to the summit. Along the way, I saw bobcat, though it could have been Nittany Lion based on the way it dashed off and hid when it saw my Michigan hat. Pavia Lookout along the Mountain View trail had the best view, though by this point the sky was rather hazy. A ski area occupied the summit itself. It was interesting to see the equipment lazing for the summer.

Blue Knob

From Blue Knob I drove straight to Mount Washington, which overlooks downtown Pittsburgh. I wanted to ride one of the two historic inclines; howiver time didn't permit such an adventure, but the great views up, across, and down the Monongahela were more than enough to make the stop worthwhile. Getting down Mount Washington was a bit challenging, but I found my way and arrived at Terry Kennedy's house shortly after 7:00 PM, just in time for a scrumptious dinner cooked on the grill. Terry is a colleague at work. The Kennedy's let me stay the night in their house for the night. It's not the first time I stayed with them, and as before they provided a most welcome atmosphere. They even let me win Mexican Train.

Mount Washington, Pittsburgh