Recreation
Hiking and picnicing are popular activities at the park. Kings Gap has many picnic table throughout the park to enjoy a lunch packed from home. There are 3 permanent orienteering courses at Kings Gap State Park of different difficulties. Orienteering is a sport that involves using a map and compass to negotiate a designated course. Additional information on orienteering and copies of the course map are available at the center office. The center offers programs on orienteering for beginners in the fall and spring.
Hunting is permitted on several hundred acres of Kings Gap State Park. Hunters are expected to follow the rules and regulations of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The common game species are gray squirrels, turkey, and white-tailed deer.
Hiking: 16 miles of trails Trailheads for the 16 miles of hiking trails are located at the three day use areas.
Boundary Trail: This trail skirts the western boundary of Kings Gap as it travels through an oak/pitch pine forest and blueberry/huckleberry understory. (1.5 miles, easy to moderate)
Buck Ridge Trail: This trail travels from Kings Gap through Michaux State Forest to Pine Grove Furnace State Park. (6.0 miles, most difficult)
Forest Heritage Trail: This loop trail connects several prominent charcoal hearths. Although the hearths have been inactive for over 100 years, most of them remain fairly free of vegetation due to changes in soil caused by the charcoaling process. (1.6 miles, easy to moderate)
Kings Gap Hollow Trail: A cool, inviting trail filled with a lush understory of ferns, this trail winds along the stream and follows the gap in the mountain. The terrain changes to a dry, higher elevation that brings the hiker to the mountaintop. (1.7 miles, easy)
Locust Point Trail: This side loop from Boundary Trail travels through a ridge top forest of chestnut and pitch pine trees. A clearing created by fallen, dead locust trees affords a view of the Cumberland Valley and Kings Gap Hollow. (1 mile, easy to moderate)
Maple Hollow Trail: This trail takes the hiker through a maple hollow with its deeper, richer soils, plentiful water supply and the resulting maple forest. In contrast, the trail loops back to the parking lot through the drier, less fertile chestnut oak forest which comprises much of Kings Gap. (1.3 miles, easy to moderate)
Pine Plantation Trail: A short loop, this trail allows the visitor to view the management techniques used in the thinning of the 42-acre plantation. (0.6 miles, easy)
Ridge Overlook: A ridge-top trail with boulder outcrops, turkey vultures and view of the valley below await the individual who is looking for a more challenging hike. (0.8 miles, moderate to difficult)
Rock Scree Trail: Beginning in the pine plantation, this trail leads hikers past the rocky ridge where stone cutters quarried the rock used to construct the mansion. The trail takes the hiker up the mountain to the mansion and a magnificent view of the valley. (1.9 mile, easy to moderate)
Scenic Vista Trail: As the name suggests, this trail offers an inspiring view. Benches are strategically placed for you to relax and enjoy the view of Michaux State Forest. (2.5 miles, easy to moderate)
Watershed Trail: This loop trail encompasses the headwaters for Kings Gap Hollow Run. Hikers also can view the circular colonies of Allegheny mound building ants which usually dot the trail. (1.8 miles, easy to moderate)
Whispering Pines Trail: This trail loops through the interior of the pine plantation and uses both Braille and script signs to interpret the coniferous forest. (0.3 miles, paved)
White Oaks Trail: Traveling through a white oak forest, this loop trail uses both Braille and script signs to interpret the ecology of a deciduous forest. (0.3 miles, paved)
Woodland Ecology Trail: Informational signs help hikers identify forest plants and interpret the ecology of a chestnut oak forest. (0.6 miles, easy)
Read more about this topic: Kings Gap Environmental Education And Training Center
Famous quotes containing the word recreation:
“Playing snooker gives you firm hands and helps to build up character. It is the ideal recreation for dedicated nuns.”
—Archbishop Luigi Barito (b. 1922)
“Media mystifications should not obfuscate a simple, perceivable fact; Black teenage girls do not create poverty by having babies. Quite the contrary, they have babies at such a young age precisely because they are poor—because they do not have the opportunity to acquire an education, because meaningful, well-paying jobs and creative forms of recreation are not accessible to them ... because safe, effective forms of contraception are not available to them.”
—Angela Davis (b. 1944)