Academia Covered Bridge, Longest in the State, Juniata County, PA

Daylight had waned by the time I reached the Academia/Pomeroy Covered Bridge in Juniata County. At 278 feet, this is the longest covered bridge in the state, and one of the longest in the country. The bridge was recently refurbished. It crosses the large Tuscarora Creek, a creek that is basically the size of a small river. The bridge is owned by the Juniata County Historical Society.

Coordinates: 40.493611, -77.4725

Academia/Pomeroy Covered Bridge - Built in 1902 and located near Academia, PA, Juniata County

The Academia/Pomeroy Covered Bridge utilizes the Burr Arch and Truss design. The immensity of this bridge is stunning.

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Hershey's Chocolate World, Hershey, PA, Dauphin County

Today we take a look at Hershey's Chocolate World Visitors Center. It is located at the entrance to Hersheypark and it is free of charge and offers free parking. 

Some of the things that Chocolate World has to offer include a ride demonstrating the chocolate making process, a candy and souvenirs store, some Eateries, a 4-D movie theater experience, and other novelty things such as making your own chocolate bar. This tourist attraction is a great place to stop as a road stop when traveling in the area and it also is a great place to visit to cap off a day at Hersheypark. Today we will take a look at some of the renovations going on at Chocolate World. In the spring there will be a relaunch of the chocolate ride with new scenes and new ride vehicles.

Chocolate World was founded in 1973 due to the popularity of the original factory tours outgrowing the capacity of the old factory. Chocolate World was built in the vision of an old World's Fair Pavilion and included much of what it includes today, the Chocolate Ride, a foods area, and retai area.

The Hershey product characters. 

As a kid, my family took us to Chocolate World to ride the Chocolate Ride multiple times a year. As an adult now, visiting Chocolate World brings back fond family memories. Also looking back, I can think of many generations of decorations at the center. The ride is in the currently being overhauled.  Seeing Chocolate World, and the rest of Hershey, continually bloom and boom into a major tourist center has truly been exciting to see.

The most recent renovation project has greatly opened up space within the visitor center to maximize the retail space in the store areas, and add additional queue line room for the Chocolate Tour. On the left in this picture, you can see the entrance for the Hershey's Chocolate Tour. If you visited Chocolate World prior to the spring of 2014, you will notice how much further back the entrance is compared to before. 

While I miss some of the older elements of the queue line that showed more information about the history of the Hershey's vision for his creation, I do like how they added some of the architectural elements of the old chocolate factory. The murals depicting retro advertisements for the Hershey products are pretty neat as well.

One of my favorite aspects of the Chocolate Ride is that it has always been reminiscent of the informative dark rides at Disney's EPCOT Park in Orlando. 

Chocolate Ride time! These ride vehicles are in the midst of replacement in a rehabilitation project.  The refurbishment should be completed by May

Now I will not give away what happens in the ride, you have to go see it for yourselves! I will just say that this ride is very informative about Hershey's production processes and that it is very fun. 

The original setup for the center included a tropical jungle area, to demonstrate the type of environment that the cocoa beans come from. This has always been one of my favorite parts of the tour.

Hershey's famous Hershey Kiss streetlights

The rides of Hersheypark sitting dormant in the fog, awaiting spring riders.

Hershey, PA is a fun town to spend some time in. Hershey's Chocolate World is also a place that you should definitely check out. The nearby Troegs Brewery is a cool place that you should check out as well. 

For more information about the attraction, visit their website.

Oil Creek State Park Waterfalls and Bridges, Venango County

Nearby Titusville is where the start of the oil industry began, with Edwin Drake drilling the first oil well. Oil Creek State Park encompasses the oil industry's first boomtown and bust. Oil Creek State Park is a vast state park that sprawls out over 6,250 acres along the Oil Creek. This is a giant state park that is strewn with industrial ruins, natural beauty that reclaimed this once decimated area, and more. I started at Miller Falls within the park. This is a park that you could spend a few days at and barely scratch the surface. I love investigating the history of places, especially industrial remnants. These are over a century old, so the remnants are mostly reclaimed by nature and difficult to find, making this even more fun and challenging. This is also a place for solemn remembrance. Many lives were lost due to carelessness on the part of the drilling businesses. The parts that do remain, such as the infrastructure of bridges and rail, now complement the recreation area, with the Oil Creek and Titusville Scenic Railroad. Our first stop at this fascinating and historic state park is at Miller Falls

Here is a map from the DCNR that outlines some of the attractions within the park.

Miller Falls

Coordinates: 41.5756, -79.6517

There is a nicely marked trailhead that leads towards Miller Falls. It is a very short trail that leads into an extremely steep gorge. The gorge also serves as a grove of Hemlock Trees. Very beautiful. Thanks to the efforts of the Depression era  New Deal Program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), this state park is a lush second growth forest after it was decimated between the oil drilling and logging.

Notice the industrial remnants that have sat in abandonment for a century. It is amazing that anything remains intact. Small remnants like this are scattered throughout this entire area that was the world's first oil boomtown and bust. 

Extremely awesome remains.

Now to Miller Falls. There is a nice observation area at the top. Miller Falls is one of at least five waterfalls within this state park. Sometimes the hikes to certain things outshine the destination you are headed to. While this is a short hike, it is full of scenery. What we see in the pictures above this were all part of the small trail to the falls. This is a stunningly beautiful state park that has a little bit of everything.

I think that my favorite part of the entire state park are the amazing old bridges. This is the Miller Farm Bridge. It dates back to 1888, the height of the boomtown days, and was fabricated by the Massillon Bridge Company. This historic bridge is slated for replacement, which I really hope does not happen. This style of bridge is dwindling, and it is a true beauty. It deserves preservation.

This Pratt through truss bridge also has a wooden deck. Very cool bridge that is roughly 154 feet long. 

This bridge is very similar to the Drake Well bridge that is downstream from here. That bridge has NRHP protections. This one should also have those. Additionally, there are a bunch of other awesome historic bridges here, including rail bridges for the cool Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad, and even a suspension bridge. Very cool place that is also a great destination for trout and bass fishing. Another point of interest is that the state park has 54 miles of hiking.

Pioneer Falls

Coordinates: 41.5416, -79.6667

Now we head to Pioneer Falls. This is one of at least 5 small waterfalls throughout the park. It is no taller than 20 feet. 

This is what the area around Pioneer looked like in 1865. Look at how incredibly this area has come back from the decimation during the oil boom. - Photo from the Drake Well Museum Archives

Some remnants from the boom times. When compared with how this area looked before, it is incredible how only a little bit is left, and the land has returned back into a mature forest.

One of the cool railroad bridges of the Titusville and Oil Creek Railroad

The Drake Well Bridge. This was built in 1882 by the Morse Bridge Company. This is another beautiful Pratt Through Truss bridge and it is on the NRHP.

The daylight was dimming on this day, close to the Winter Solstice. I headed to Freedom Falls, Furnace, Kennerdell Overlook, and all of the old tunnel, but it was way too dark. I have since visited them and will fill you in on them at a later tNaturally I took the country roads back home and I stumbled upon this beautiful Pony Truss bridge that dates back to 1885. It was built by the Smith Bridge Company of Toledo, OH and it is the only remaining bridge of theirs within Pennsylvania. 

This is the Dotter Road Bridge. It is located on a back country road with some beautiful surroundings in rural Venango County. This area was gorgeous, though it reminded me of one of those "Wrong Turn" movies, set in the middle of the woods. I always opt to take the country roads when I can, but this one was really remote. This Pony Truss bridge really piqued my interest. I knew this bridge was special,

I highly recommend spending some time in this region. There are so many things to check out in the area that you could easily spend a weekend in the area and not hit everything. I think the narrative that we need to take from Oil Creek is that with a lot of hard work and time, we can reclaim areas hurt by industry. Oil Creek State Park is a story of success in this aspect, for while remnants exist from the times when the area was heavily damaged by industry, it has since grown back into second and third growth forest and turned into an excellent recreation area. 

Rachel Carson Home, Trail, and Harrison Hills Park, Springdale and Natrona Heights, PA, Allegheny County

Today we look at one of the most important environmentalists of all time, a woman whose vision has made the world a healthier place, Rachel Carson. She was a marine biologist and conservationist that is most famous for writing Silent Spring, a book that helped us to move away from the usage of DDT, a toxic carcinogen that not only causes major health problems in people, but also causes major problems and death in many different species. She took on irresponsible agricultural methods, chemical companies, and governmental policies head-on and made a huge difference in the world. The reduction in the use of DDT has often been credited with the rebound of the Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon species. Her writings and work are credited with opening the public eye to environmental atrocities.

She was born in 1907 and raised on her family's farm in Springdale, PA, northeast of Pittsburgh on the Allegheny River. She once found a fossilized shell in the hillside around her family's home in Springdale. This is credited with sparking her interest in science. The environmental degradation of the region also motivated her to take action. A local glue factory was near her home, and by the time she left for graduate school in 1929, two coal plants were erected on the edges of town. Her lifetime of work led to a worldwide outcry and even a post-humous Presidential Medal of Freedom after her untimely death to cancer. 

The Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, PA is on the National Register of Historic Places

In Rachel Carson's memory as one of the most influential people to ever come from the Pittsburgh region, she is memorialized with Andy Warhol and Roberto Clemente on the Three Sisters Bridges in downtown Pittsburgh. Additionally, a 35.7 mile hiking trail runs through Allegheny County, starting in the county park of North Park, and ending in Harrison Hills Park in Natrona Heights, PA, where it meets with a small waterfall named in her honor.

A beehive in Harrison Hills Park in Natrona Heights, PA

The park has an environmental learning center that continues her legacy of environmental education.

Additionally, Harrison Hills Park has a nice playground area and picnic groves, making for a nice place to have an afternoon picnic.

The Michael Watts Memorial Overlook at Harrison Hills Park provides a pretty view over the Allegheny River.

Harrison Hills Park is also a bird sanctuary, home to many different species of birds. The dedication to preservation of bird species would certainly make Rachel Carson proud.

The terminus of the Rachel Carson Trail as it goes into a small ravine where Rachel Carson Run, a small tributary to the Allegheny River, flows. Rachel Carson Falls is a small waterfall in the middle of the ravine.

Ice forming on the creek

Rachel Carson Falls

The small ravine of Rachel Carson Run

A bird's nest

Be sure to check out the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, the Rachel Carson Trail, and Harrison Hills Park to get some nice insights into the world that convinced Rachel to take action with the environment.

Rachel Carson Homestead Location:

Coordinates 40.5464° N, 79.7834° W

Harrison Hills Park and Rachel Carson Trailhead and Falls Location

40.6492° N, 79.6989° W