Cumberland Valley Rail Trail

  The trail goes from Shippensburg to Newville, a distance of 13 miles. We parked at Shippensburg Township Park and headed south. From the park it’s a mile until the trail ends in the downtown Shippensburg. We soon realized that we'd rather be in the countryside so we turned around and walked/rolled about a mile in the opposite direction.

The trail is finely crushed and hard packed stone, except for a one mile paved section that goes from Shippensburg to the park. Both surfaces are easy to rolling along.

  The park has long RV/bus spaces.  Trail  40.06634, -77.51624

Seven Points Campground

  The six loops of Seven Points Campground are spread out along Seven Points Road. Most are close to the water but since this was a quick overnight stop for us we chose the first loop, Ridge Camp, which is on the hill and not within walking distance of Raystown Lake.

  Ridge Camp has 43 sites that are fairly close together without very much vegetation for privacy. All have electric hookups, tables, and fire pits. There’s a dump station with potable water.

  We camped in Site 30. There are two accessible sites but they were in use.The accessible sites are larger and leveler than the regular sites but other than that they are the same. About half of the sites are two level with the table on a different level than the parking pad. The others are usable by a visitor with a wheelchair. Campground  40.38603, -78.0812

Railroaders Memorial Museum

  For over a hundred years locomotives and train cars were built and serviced in the Altoona and Juniata shops in Altoona Pennsylvania. The complex covered 218 acres and grew to 125 buildings which included a foundry, blacksmith shops, boiler shops, paint shops, a testing laboratory, and machine shops. For a while it was the largest railroad shop complex in the world where   150 locomotives were built every year and four were repaired each day. The Altoona shops closed in the 1970s but locomotives are still repaired at the Juniata shops.

   The only building left at the Altoona shop is the Master Mechanics Building which houses an excellent museum that covers railroad history and the lives of the people who worked in the shops and on the trains. The roundhouse has been partly reconstructed. It’s open to visitors and houses train cars that are being refurbished.

  The museum is accessible. The model train display is too high to be easily seen. A paved path leads to the roundhouse which is accessible.

   The parking lot has long bus/RV spaces. Museum  40.51333, -78.40008

Horseshoe Curve Historic Landmark

  Progress can’t be stopped. Just a few decades after the ingenious portage railroad was constructed across the Allegheny Mountains, engineers planned a rail route that climbed the mountain by curving back on itself and heading west through a newly constructed tunnel. By 1852 most freight crossed the mountain on the rail lines of the horseshoe curve.

  The museum is located in the center of the loop but since the tracks are perched on the hills it’s only possible to see the loop by walking up many flights of steps or by riding the funicular to the observation area. The funicular was down for maintenance so we didn’t get to see the curve in person. The museum has exhibits on the construction of the curve plus several short films.

   The museum and the funicular are accessible.

   The parking lot has long bus/RV spaces. Horseshoe Curve      40.49799, -78.48364

Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS

  In the early 1800s transporting manufactured goods from port city  factories to remote towns then shipping raw materials back was done with Conestoga wagons- a time consuming and costly process. New York solved the problem by building a canal in the 1820s from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. Ohio soon followed with a canal that connected the Ohio River to Lake Erie. Pennsylvania was being bypassed! Something had to be done but the Allegheny Mountains were a monumental barrier.

  In 1826, the Canal Commissioners of Pennsylvania hired a group civil engineers to solve the problem. They came up with a plan to  build a series of incline plane railroads to climb the mountains and go down the other side. Canals boats would carry cargo to the base of the first incline where the cargo would be loaded on train cars to cross the mountains. On the other side the cargo would be transferred to canal boats to finish the journey. Eventually sectional canal boats that could be loaded onto the rail cars were developed. Travel time from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was reduced from three weeks to four days. It was also a much more comfortable journey for passengers. 

This is a very interesting place with a lot to explore. Start at the visitor center to watch the movie and see the exhibits. Then take the boardwalk trail to Engine House No. 6 Exhibit Shelter to view a partial reconstruction of the engine house and exhibits that explain how everything worked. A short trail leads to the Lemon House, a tavern that served travelers on the railroad. It has been restored to the way it may have looked in the 1840s.

 

  The visitor center is accessible. The boardwalk has switchbacks to make a gentle slope down the hill to the engine house. Some of the interpretive signs are too high to be easily read. The engine house exhibit are accessible. A paved trail goes to the Lemon House which is all accessible.

  The parking lot has long bus/RV spaces. Railroad  40.45838, -78.5488

Eliza Furnace -Ghost Town Trail

  Nine towns were located along the 46 mile Ghost Town Trail, all part of the coalmining region of Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Mountains. The trail utilizes the path of the railroad that joined the towns and carried coal to steel mills in the valleys. Very few signs of the towns remain. The most enduring structures are from a earlier era when iron ore couldn’t be transported across the mountains and was smelted in large stone furnaces.

  There are numerous parking lots along the trail. We parked in a large gravel lot on Wehrum Road, north of Vintondale, and walked/rolled three miles east before turning around. This is a pretty, well shaded trail that follows Blacklick Creek.  Unfortunately the legacy of coal mining is on full display in the red mine drainage that colors the creek water. It will take years to restore the purity of the water, if that is even possible.

  

 Take a short detour to Vintondale to see Eliza Furnace that was in use in the 1840s. A large strip mine towers over the town. There are trucks and equipment on the slopes but as far as I know there isn’t any mining now.

   The Ghost Town Trail is surfaced with finely crushed rock which makes rolling easy.

  The parking lot on Wehrum Road is large enough for any RV. Furnace and Trail  40.48509, -78.92415

Pittsburgh Botanic Garden

  The garden has five main areas – display gardens, meadows, woodlands, a Japanese garden, and a pioneer homestead. Trail of varying surfaces– paved, grass, wood chip and gravel - wind through the different environments. Whimsical creations appear around curves of the trails.

  

 This is not an accessible garden. The display gardens have paved paths but they’re on a hill. The grassy meadow paths are hard to push along even with assistance. The woodland paths are very steep or have steps. Some of the Japanese garden paths are very narrow. The paths in pioneer homestead, which is located on the other east side of Pinkerton Run Road, are rough gravel.

  RVs will fit in the garden and pioneer homestead lots if parked lengthwise across the spaces. Garden   40.4169, -80.17012

Hollywood Casino at the Meadows

Follow the sign to the parking lot on the hill above the casino. Since this lot is up a steep hill and far away from the casino we asked security and got permission to park in the lot near the parking garage during the day.

  Most of the machines have easy to reach ticket and card slots. The chairs are fairly easy to move. Casino   40.22364, -80.20185

Bethel Park Farmer's Market

  Two long rows of tables piled high with fresh fruits, vegetables, and homemade goodies draw a crowd every Tuesday to this traditional farmer’s market. There’s also a row of food carts offering a choice of snacks and meals including some Pittsburgh favorites - perogies and Italian sausage hoagies.

   Surprisingly none of the offerings when we visited were organic but we did buy some pork chops from pigs raised without antibiotics and a couple of jars of honey.

  The farmer’s market is held in a large, paved parking lot and is accessible.

  Parking is located in the same lot as the farmer’s market and is large enough for any RV. Farmer's Market  40.32445, -80.01589