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At one time a retreating glacier blocked the Pine Creek and forced it to reverse its flow, running the glacial melt off through the allegheny Mountains. Since that time, for tens of thousands of years Pine Creek has been silently gnawing at the rock in northcentral Pennyslvania, carving a scenic gorge that stretches some 50 miles. At its deepest, the Pine Creek Gorge plunges 1,425 feet and, although its famous Grand Canyon counterpart in Arizona is more than 4 times deeper, is known popularly as Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon.
Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon is easily accessible to visitors. At its northern end, south of U.S. Route 6, are a pair of state parks staring at each other across 4000 feet of chasm. For the hiker, Colton Point State Park on the west rim offers the more spectacular trails. Leonard Harrison State Park, named for a Wellsboro banker who developed the area as a public picnic ground and later gave it to the Comonwealth of Pennsylvania, on the eastern side is the more popular with casual visitors.
More than three-quarters of those visitors come to Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon during a two-week stretch in autumn when the gorge is ablaze with shades of yellow, red, orange, and purple from the hardwoods that line the slopes. Other times of the year one can hike for hours virtually alone in the parks.
In Leonard Harrison State Park, views down Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon can be enjoyed on the Overlook Trail, a .6 mile loop across unprotected cliffs. The trail down to the floor of the Pine Creek Gorge is the Turkey Path Trail, which takes more than one mile to descend 800 feet. The user-friendly trail includes steps and handrails and includes several observation decks along the way. After switching back along the slope of the gorge, the lower part of the trail skirts a scenic waterfall of the Little Four-Mile Run on its way to Pine Creek.
The floor of Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon is virtually flat and easy to hike. An abandoned 22-mile stretch of ConRail railroad line has been torn up and replaced with a groomed path suitable for bicycles. At the bottom of the gorge, the majesty of Pennyslvania's Grand Canyon is somewhat obscured but the open spaces permit sightlines for observing some of area's diverse wildlife which frequent the Pine Creek. Among the denizens of Pine Creek are nesting bald eagles which can be seen swooping through the canyon.
To complete a rim-to-rim hike, one must tackle the western Turkey Path Trail, a steeper climb than its eastern twin and employing tighter switchbacks and narrower trails. Once in Colton Point State Park, developed in part by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression of the 1930s, a highlight walk is the Barbour Rock Trail. This one-mile long loop bounces up and down across hillocks and tree-studded slopes. Benches are sprinkled along the trail for those in need of a breather. Eventually the trail joins up with the West Rim Trail, a backcountry adventure that covers 30 miles down the canyon.
To visit Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon, the jumping off town is Wellsboro, graced by gas-lit street lights and Victorian houses. In addition to lodging in Wellsboro there are campsites available in Leonard Harrison State Park.
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