Western Pennsylvania Vacation ....

Day 7. 

We had a nice leisurely morning today as we don’t have a lot planned for the day.  And just like yesterday, before we left I had to feed the squirrels (extra #1) and chippies!  After all it is Squirrel Blip Friday!!
 
We are heading northwest today to Clear Creek and Cook Forest State Parks.  We first visited Clear Creek State Park and walked one of the many trails that they have to offer.  The trail we walked was the Ox Shoe self-guided Historical Trail, which offers plaques along the way detailing the logging history of the Black Forest of Pennsylvania.  It was along this trail that we saw some red squirrels!  And where I took this picture of what I assume to be Clear Creek.
 
From Clear Creek it was a short drive to Cook Forest State Park.  This was another beautiful deep forest.  We wanted to walk to the Forest Cathedral Natural Area which is home to the finest eastern white pine in the northeastern US. We started out for this area but not knowing how far it was we only went a little ways.  Just far enough for me to attract three ticks!!! Ick!! Lucky I felt them in time to pull them off without them biting me.
 
We then drove out (on a one way dirt road!) to see the Cook Forest Fire Tower and Seneca Point observation deck.  There was a short trail to get to both of these points. At the Fire Tower R went up the many stairs to get to the top. Unfortunately, the weather was bad by this time and the view was not great.
 
Speaking of the weather ….. as we made our way back to the car from the Fire Tower it started to HAIL!!! WHAT!!
 
This vacation has seen almost the whole gamut of weather.  We started the week in shorts and are finishing wearing heavy coats and getting hailed on!  But it has been fantastic.
 
On the way back to our condo after stopping at the DuBois Diner for supper we also stopped at a small lake on the vacation property called Little Flipper Lake (as seen in my extra #2).  The lake is used for fishing for children under 12 and for those 65 or older! The rest of us are out of luck!
 
Once we got back to our condo we started the pack up process.  We will be leaving first thing in the morning to head back home.
 
Day 7 complete.
 

Total miles driven today: 116