Vacation Spot

[Bethzur]

The whole Tioga county area is nice especially in the fall, just depends what you want to do. I'd stick near-ish to Wellsboro honestly unless you know you want to be hiking, fishing, etc. the whole time. Plenty of cabins on AirBNB and such, motels outside of town on rt 6, and a few hotels in town. Also enough state parks, some with camping. If you want to be really out of the way, look for AirBNB/VRBOs and motels out by "Gaines"...theres a bunch of cabins out there (personal and commercial), dirt roads for walking, deer spotting.

Wellsboro takes all of 2 hours to walk honestly, but it's a nice area with a small town feel. The movie theater is quaint if you have a rainy day. Hills Creek state park is 20 min outside Wellsboro, has a lake and camping (cabins, RV, etc). PA Grand Canyon is a must if you've never been there...I prefer the western rim personally (eastern side is the more commercial side). Grand canyon also has the rail trail for biking and hiking, and the Pine Creek. Theres a train ride outside Wellsboro as well, and a horse drawn wagon that goes through the canyon. Pine creek for fishing and kayaking, when there's enough water. Used to be able to get Cessna tours of the canyon as well, but that was years ago...not sure if they still do that or not (Tioga airport offered them on certain days/had to schedule). Cowanesque, Hammond, etc. lakes are farther north but still close if you want "bigger water" for boating.

West of there you have Galeton (30 min) and Coudersport (1hr or so). Lumber museum, ice mine, Eliot Ness of Untouchable fame, are the attractions out that way. And the Case/Zippo plant if you keep going west a bit more.

Mansfield is about 25 min due East of Wellsboro, also a nice little town but has the college, Walmart, etc.

Thanks, that's great information. I'll resume searching tomorrow.

[ray h]

I recall some threads here discussing some good PA vacation spots, but I can't find the one longer one.

We want to get away for a weekend (with a 10yo child) away from cities and people. A nice cabin would be great. We don't really want to be busy, maybe see some nature, etc.

I'm around Tioga and Wellsboro. Anywhere else I should focus?

Funny, we are renting a house near Wellsboro for vacation in a couple of weeks.
Gonna see the elk.

[esh21167]

Funny, we are renting a house near Wellsboro for vacation in a couple of weeks.
Gonna see the elk.

Are there specific/recommended viewing spots in that area? I know you almost always see them out around Benezette.

[bigandy1966]

Ricketts Glen State park was awesome.
I also highly reccomend Codorus State park out by Hanover

[wanneroo]

In common with the rest of the country, Wellsboro is seeing some growth on the availability of vacation cabin rentals but it's nothing like areas such as Vermont.

September is a good month as long as it's dry and actually Tioga County is the driest, sunniest part of PA.

We have some leaves turning a little right now but 1st and 2nd week of October are usually peak.

Right now all the summer tourists have mostly gone, which is good. I don't mind people visiting but if you have ever lived in a tourist town there reaches a point where it's time for all these city folk to go home, especially the obnoxious people from Jersey. However the leaf peepers will start coming in and then that will last until about October 20 and then it will be quiet and getting colder until the first week of December when the tourists come back in for the Dickens festival, which is fun.

With water sports, Pine Creek is usually at it's lowest this time of year and impossible to kayak. However if we get big rain as we did Labor Day weekend, there was about a two day window afterwards where it was floatable. However Hills Creek State Park has a nice lake for kayaking.

The rail trail for bike riding is really good in Sept and Oct, it's one of my favorite times to ride.

Pine Creek Outfitters does the horse carriage rides for tourists into the canyon. It's popular with the leaf peeper crowd. The Outfitters also rents bikes and other stuff. They can service a lot of the outdoor recreational needs people have.

Wellsboro is one of the best small town streets around. It has a little of something, restaurants, candy shop, the last family owned department store around, theater, clothing stores, some outdoor equipment shops and then some shops that sell the decorative crap that women buy and fill their house with.

[wanneroo]

This one lady who is realtor has started up doing vacation rentals in the area, she has a quite a few:

https://mvr-vr.com/wellsboro/

Chamber of Commerce also keeps a list of cabin rentals:

https://www.wellsboropa.com/lodging/vacation-rentals

[Ronin]

Last time we went to the PA Grand Canyon, we stayed at the Frosty Hollow Bed and Breakfast near Coudersport. It's about 20-30 min from the Grand Canyon, IIRC. Nice place. Good breakfast. And it's only about 15 min from Cherry Springs State Park. We went there to sky watch, as it's one of the best places to look at the stars without light pollution. You don't need a telescope to see, it's so clear and bright. You could also watch right from the driveway at the B&B if you didn't want to drive to the park in the dark.

This was back in the fall of 2020 during the pandemic, so not a lot of restaurants were open. We did stop at the Burnin Barrel Bar and Grill after visiting the Grand Canyon. The place doesn't look like much from the road, but hot damn was the food excellent. Damn good burgers and wings. We did the wagon ride through the Canyon another day. The place that runs it is not far from the Burnin Barrel. The Grand Canyon is gorgeous from above or bellow. If you want to catch the colors and and look up at the stars, go during the middle of October, right after a new moon.

[ar15jules]

I'm in Delaware County, so I expect to drive 4 hours or so. Wellsboro is basically in that range. I'll check out that area, thanks!

We don't have to be in the places I noted, those were just to get the ball rolling. I don't really want to drive to the western side since that's a bit far.

I misread your OP. The entire area up there is awesome. The PA Grand Canyon is worth the drive. Hit it from both the east and west rim. Leonard Harrison State Park on the east and Colton Point on the west. Straight drop offs on the west. If you have bikes, the Pine Creek trail which runs in the gorge for 62 miles is crushed limestone and fantastic.

[Delkal]

I misread your OP. The entire area up there is awesome. The PA Grand Canyon is worth the drive. Hit it from both the east and west rim. Leonard Harrison State Park on the east and Colton Point on the west. Straight drop offs on the west. If you have bikes, the Pine Creek trail which runs in the gorge for 62 miles is crushed limestone and fantastic.

Can you see the straight drop offs from the road or do you have to hike it? There are roads going around it but I don't remember seeing much. On a map the west side road looks great but driving it you rarely see the canyon. It was just driving thru the woods and areas being logged.

I did notice Tiadaghton Campground that looks like a nice site to backpack to but the access road I see is only a 1/4 mile away. Where else can you access the pine creek trail for hiking?

[Walleye Hunter]

You guys do too much work for the reward, it all looks pretty damn good from 3000' in a small plane.