Colonel Denning State Park

Colonel Denning State Park is a great Pennsylvania State Park. This Park offers ample opportunities for Families as well as Outdoor enthusiasts. The park has a beautiful lake with a spillway as it’s center piece as well as number of different Picnic area’s. They also offer a 50 site plus camping area that’s really uniquely laid out, and very well kept. For kids Colonel Denning offers 2 different state of the art play grounds as well as a beautiful nature center with walking paths, and a fish pond.
Overall this is another great Pennsylvania State Park to check out while exploring the Blue Mountains region of the State.

We had a wonderful weekend camping here on one of the walk-​in tent sites. The park is gorgeous and mountainous, with well-​blazed hiking trails to enjoy the views. We saw some amazing foliage on our mid-​October trip. Easily accessible from Philadelphia (but beware, a bridge to the north is out as of 10−12−10, so make sure you approach the park from the south/​Newville rather than from the north or you will end up making a 40 minute detour when you thought you were like five miles away). Friendly folks and nice amenities — the campground host sells firewood and ice, and the bathrooms, though lacking hot water, were perfectly adequate. I’d recommend Colonel Denning to others, but don’t know if I’ll return because there are so many other PA state parks to try!

My husband and I stayed at colonel denning a few years back, it was a very nice trip. We tent camp and it was a very nice spot by a little stream. Nice small grounds and nice sized sites. We stayed in site 3 I believe. There really isn’t much to do here, but relax. The fishing isn’t really worth it, and I wouldn’t swim, I seen too many snakes in the water, hiking is very nice here and the views are nice. I was one of the most relaxing weekends I ever had, and if you can go on an off weekend it’s almost like having a private camp ground. If you don’t hike and you can’t relax in the woods, I wouldn’t recommend this place, but if you just need to get away and unwind, or want to take a nice hike, this is a great place.

This park is literally surrounded by mountains on three sides. it has a wonderful lake that has a little area to swim in, there is a small food stall that’s open mostly in the summer and spring. it’s closed on mondays. You just get off the i-​81 exit for rt 233, Newville and Kings Gap. turn right and it’s about 10 miles up the road. It has some really cool trails, you can walk to the top of the mountain in about 15 minutes and take some great pictures. has over 270 acres of woodland and a 2 acre lake.