Paradise Price Preserve, PA

ABOUT THE PARK:
Paradise Price Preserve - Brodhead Watershed

DIRECTIONS:
Parking Area 1 - GPS Coordinates 41.13244, -75.26350

Parking Area 1 as indicated on map.

Parking Area 2 - GPS Coordinates 41.12750, 75.23099
Forgot to take a picture but it is off of Route 447 with a small parking lot at a picnic pavillion.

TRAIL MAP:
Paradise Price Preserve Trail Map Pamphlet - Brodhead Watershed
Paradise-Price Preserve, PA at EveryTrail

HIKE DISTANCE:  4.9 miles
Hiked together with Mt. Wismer and Gravel Family Nature Preserves (15 minutes away) - 2.7 miles

THE HIKE:
Parking Area 2 was a straight shot south from the Mt. Wismer hike so that is where I stopped first.  I had hoped, since this is shown as a parking area on the trail map, that there would be a connection to the trails on the other side of Brodhead Creek but there is not.  Unless you want to ford over, and I did not on a 30 degree day, the trail, although quite scenic, is only .1 mile long.

Brodhead Creek

Brodhead Falls

The .1 mile long trail.

So then, off to Parking Area 1 to see if I could reach the other side of the creek coming in that way since I had intended to hike those trails had I been able to get across.

We started on the woods road beyond the yellow gate.

This is one of those chunky rock woods road and it runs parallel to railroad tracks, separated by trees.

I intended to do this loop going by the falls (far right on the map at Parking Area 2) from the other side so I turned right.

That plan soon failed when the trail became overgrown and fizzled out.  Back the other way.

So far so good.

Ugh.  Have I mentioned lately how much I despise helium balloons?  I find them on almost every hike and pack them out when I can reach them.  This one was packed out.

After this fire pit ...

The trail becomes less defined again.  We managed to follow and get through for a while.

But at this point and after pulling 6 ticks off of Shawnee, decided to turn back.

Heading back.

Back at the parking lot, turned right after the gate then right again at a trail with a large boulder...

... and followed that grassy woods road ...

... to the glacial boulder.

Retracing back.

Mt. Wismer and Gravel Family Nature Preserves, PA

ABOUT THE PARK:
Hiking the Brodhead Watershed - Pocono Record

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.22678, -75.26395

Looking back towards Gravel Road so parking is on the left after pulling in.

TRAIL MAP:
Mt. Wismer and Gravel Family Nature Preserves - Brodhead Watershed Association.
Mt. Wismer and Gravel Family Nature Preserves, PA at EveryTrail

HIKE DISTANCE:  2.7 miles
Hiked together with Paradise Price Preserve (15 minutes away) - 4.9 miles

THE HIKE:

The weekend before I hiked in shorts.  Long undies for this hike!

The hike starts straight ahead at the gate.

There are no blazes or trail markers here, just follow the woods road along the field,  (Yes, that is frost on the field, BRRR)

Watch for red blazes leaving the woods road to the right.  The red trail is the more difficult trail up.  For the easier way up, keep straight and it will become the yellow trail.  For us that was the return route.

It starts off innocent looking.

But then the climb begins.  It's not really that the climb itself is that hard - no scrambles - but there is no defined trail.  You need to make your way from trail marker to trail marker over very loose rocks and it goes down steeply to the left. 

At the top, everything levels out on the blue trail.

A preview of what is to come.

That is the Delaware Water Gap on the horizon.  Mt. Wismer is a bald mountain so once you get up, it's views all around.

Gravel Pond down below.

The trail across the bald keeps going beyond the view back into the woods but we did not investigate further not knowing where the trail went so we backtracked on blue.

We passed yellow continuing on blue for a bit along some pretty rock outcrops.

Back to yellow for the descent.

Passing red back to...

... the parking lot.