The park encompasses the land on both sides of Oil Creek from Rouseville to Titusville. For about a dozen years, from 1859 to 1871, this was the site of a huge oil boom with towns springing up overnight and thousands of derricks dotting the hillsides. Today it’s a peaceful valley, so quiet and remote that the only sounds are from bird song and trickling streams.
A train station visitor center is located at the town site of Petroleum Center. It’s only opened on the weekends. Petroleum Center had a short life and, since it was built almost entirely of wood, nothing exists today however there’s a walking tour along the main road with good interpretive signs that tell the story of the town. The tour is along raised boardwalk which isn’t very accessible but it’s possible to roll along the side of the road and read the signs.
Just across the creek from Petroleum Center is the southern trailhead for the bike trail. The trail is almost ten miles long. It’s wide and smooth, surfaced with asphalt. We spotted quite a bit of wildlife including this little black bear!
The parking lots at both the train station and the trailhead are large enough for all RVs. Trail and Town site
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Great that you saw the bear. We've ridden bikes on that trail many times but didn't see anything but chipmunks!
ReplyDeleteIt was a surprise because we're pretty noisy plus a family with small kids was close by. We were on the southern end though which doesn't seem to get as many visitors. We also saw a doe and a great blue heron plus numerous small animals.
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