Pine Creek Gorge at Leonard Harrison State Park
4869 PA-660, Wellsboro, PA
Wellsboro, PA
A thousand-foot river gorge cut through the northern forest, wide and green and quiet, that Pennsylvanians have long called their own Grand Canyon.
Pine Creek Gorge is a canyon roughly 47 miles long carved into the plateau of north-central Pennsylvania, dropping close to a thousand feet at its deepest to the creek winding along the bottom. Pennsylvanians have long called it the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, and the best-known window on it is Leonard Harrison State Park, whose overlooks perch on the eastern rim.
Where a Western canyon is bare rock, this one is deep green, a forested gorge where the walls fall away in trees rather than cliffs. Pine Creek itself, once a busy logging river, now carries paddlers and runs beside one of the finest rail trails in the East, so the canyon can be seen from the rim above or from the water and trail below.
What Guests Love
- The main overlook, where the gorge opens out nearly a thousand feet deep below the rim
- Biking or walking the level rail trail that runs right along Pine Creek at the bottom
- Watching for bald eagles, ospreys, and hawks riding the thermals over the gorge
- The quiet Victorian charm of nearby Wellsboro with its gas-lit main street
Worth Knowing
- The trail from the rim down to the creek is steep and strenuous, so pace yourself and carry water
- Fall foliage is spectacular here and draws its biggest crowds, so weekdays are calmer
- The rim overlooks are the easiest way to see the gorge if you would rather not descend
- Weather and trail conditions change quickly in the highlands, so check before you go
Details
Wellsboro, PA
Learn about Pine Creek Gorge at Leonard Harrison State Park
How the gorge was carved
The canyon is a story of ice and water. During the last ice age a glacier blocked Pine Creek's older northward path and forced its meltwater to spill south instead, reversing the direction of the stream. That reversed, swollen flow began cutting down through the flat-lying rock of the plateau, and over many thousands of years it carved the deep, twisting gorge you see today.
The rock the creek cut through is layered sandstone, shale, and conglomerate, laid down long before by ancient rivers and seas. Because the layers are relatively soft and the region is heavily forested, the walls weathered into steep, tree-covered slopes rather than the sheer stone faces of drier canyons, which gives Pine Creek its distinctive green-walled character.
From logging river to rail trail
In the nineteenth century the gorge rang with the timber industry. Loggers stripped the surrounding forests of white pine and hemlock, and Pine Creek carried millions of logs downstream during spring drives to the mills. A railroad was later run along the creek bottom to move lumber, coal, and passengers through the canyon.
When the trains stopped, the rail bed was converted into the Pine Creek Rail Trail, a long, nearly level path that follows the creek through the heart of the gorge. Today cyclists, walkers, and paddlers use the trail and the water to travel a canyon that once echoed with saws and log drives, and the forests have grown back over the old cutover slopes.
Wildlife of the gorge
The gorge is prime raptor country. Bald eagles and ospreys nest along the creek and hunt its riffles, and hawks and turkey vultures ride the updrafts along the rim, making the overlooks a fine place to watch birds soar below eye level. Songbirds fill the forest in spring, and the creek holds trout in its cold, clear pools.
The surrounding Tioga State Forest is home to black bear, white-tailed deer, bobcat, and porcupine, and river otters have returned to Pine Creek's waters. This is part of the Pennsylvania Wilds, one of the least-developed corners of the state, and its dark skies and deep forest give the wildlife room to roam.
The Wilds and the people of the land
This region is part of the ancestral homeland of the Haudenosaunee, particularly the Seneca, and of the Susquehannock, whose villages once stood in the river valleys of north-central Pennsylvania. Warfare, disease, and displacement in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries emptied these lands of their Native communities, and descendant nations continue elsewhere today, chiefly in New York and beyond.
The land later drew loggers, and after the forests were cut, much of it passed into state ownership and slowly reforested. The Pennsylvania Wilds that visitors love today, the deep woods, the dark night skies, the return of eagles and elk, is in large part a landscape that recovered after being nearly emptied of its trees a century ago.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Wellsboro
Wellsboro
About 10 miles east
A Victorian county-seat town with gas-lit streetlamps, a classic main street, and a fountain statue drawn from a children's story.
Colton Point State Park
About 15 miles by road
Overlooks on the west rim of the gorge, facing Leonard Harrison across the canyon, with a quieter, more rustic feel.
Pine Creek Rail Trail
At the canyon floor
A long, nearly level rail trail running through the gorge along the creek, popular for cycling and walking.
Tioga State Forest
Surrounding the park
A vast forest of trails, streams, and dark skies wrapping the gorge in the heart of the Pennsylvania Wilds.