Nescopeck State Park, PA - Creek Side Loop

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Nescopeck State Park - Pennsylvania DCNR

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 41.09049, -75.88084

Visitors Center Parking Lot

TRAIL MAP: 

Nescopeck State Park Trail Map - Pennsylvania DCNR

HIKE DISTANCE:  5 miles

THE HIKE: 

I had been driving through rain and storms for 350 miles from Toledo, OH to literally the exit I needed to take for my last hike of the trip.  Obviously, that hike had to be scrapped as the storm was right there.  So I continued on, out of that storm at last. Thinking there would be no hike on day two of the drive home, I checked the weather app when I stopped to get gas in White Haven, PA just 100 miles from home.  To my surprise that storm was not due to hit for 4 hours and Nescopeck State Park was only 6 miles away so what the heck, I could knock off a few miles in 4 hours.  It was not a planned hike so I had to wing it but I had hiked here previously in 2016 and sort of remembered the trails.

Heading away from the visitors center the Lake Trail starts to the left off of the parking lot.

A right along Lake Frances.

Lake Frances

Taking the Creek Side Trail...

... along Nescopeck Creek.

There was a brand new bridge over a side creek then ...

... no signs, probably down from the construction.

Looking back at the bridge, I saw a faint trail so we took that.

I had been wondering if there was a way to the other side of Nescopeck Creek because it looked like there might be a path on that side.

And look here, a bridge over Nescopeck Creek!

We ended up on the other side where there was a path/old woods road that we followed as long as we could.  I had not been here before.

Eventually I lost the path in a mass of downed trees and headed back.

Back at the bridge over Nescopeck Creek, we continued straight passing by where we had come in from on the right.

Back at the Nescopeck Trail almost at the point where we started the Creek Side Loop, we turned left to retrace.

Instead of heading back to Lake Frances, where it was pretty busy, we kept straight on the Nescopeck Trail.

This comes out at a parking area on Honey Hole Road ...

... where there is a historical marker.

Looking to the left, that storm's a comin'.

Turning right and road walking for a bit which was a good choice because the wind had kicked up and I could hear trees crashing down in the woods.

A somewhat overgrown path on the right ...

... led back to the parking lot.

A tree had crashed down across the entrance to the lot right at the visitors center but fortunately there was another way out.

Back on I-80 the storm had arrived and there was a pretty rainbow up ahead.

Fortunately the storm had just made it to this point so I was able to outrun it fairly quickly after the Delaware Water Gap.  However, it arrived at my house hours later so I basically went through the same storm three times.