A couple hours into the state, Pennsylvania’s mountain country trades its waterpark reputation for something wilder: Ice Age boulder fields, hand-feedable giraffes, outsized pythons and a Victorian town that seems to belong in the Swiss Alps. Here’s how a family of four experiences a weekend in Pennsylvania’s Poconos.
Zoo in the Woods
My wife, Nataliya, and I decided to begin our first morning in the Poconos at Claws ’N’ Paws Wild Animal Park in Lake Ariel, a family-run “zoo in the woods” that has been introducing kids to the wild kingdom for more than 40 years. The name fits. Thirty acres of shaded forest trails wind past more than a hundred species, so the visit feels less like a zoo loop and more like a hike that keeps getting interrupted by lions.
Our daughter, Nicole, made a beeline for the giraffe-feeding platform, where a long blue-black tongue relieved her of a lettuce leaf with unnerving precision.
Our son, Alex, let a cluster of rainbow lorikeets land on his arms at the parrot feeding, saying, “So this is what it feels like to be an old-school Disney princess.”
The petting area, stocked with goats, sheep and deer, drew the youngest crowds, while a Dino Dig let smaller visitors brush plastic “fossils” out of the sand.
Once a day, keepers bring out an animal ambassador for an up-close talk; we got to see a great horned owl that swiveled its head at the crowd as if taking attendance.
Glass-fronted enclosures put leopards, wolves and cougars at eye level, close enough to feel like a privilege and safe enough to feel like one, too.
A Starter Zoo with Serious Snakes
That afternoon, we drove to East Stroudsburg for something a little bit smaller and a little bit stranger: the Pocono Snake & Animal Farm, a roadside menagerie that has been delighting (and in some cases terrifying) families for more than half a century.
“I’m not sure how I feel about getting intimate with snakes,” Nataliya says.
Most of this animal farm’s residents arrived as donations from owners who could no longer manage their exotic pets, which gives the place the benevolence of an animal halfway house.
You can tour the whole farm in under an hour, but it punches well above its size. We bottle-fed a pot-bellied pig, tossed treats to monkeys and lemurs putting on a show for their supper, and dropped mealworms down a chute to a lizard who appeared to have the patience of a fisherman.
The reptile house is the real draw: a massive king cobra, a hundred-year-old alligator snapping turtle roughly the size of a coffee table and a reticulated python that the farm describes as one of the largest on public display in the country at 24 feet.
“Now that’s a snake!” Nicole says.
“That’s not a snake,” Alex says. “That’s a sequel.”
Much of the mountain forest walkway is covered, making this a fine rainy-day Plan B that feels like a Plan A.
A Field of Giants
The Poconos’ geology turned out to be every bit as memorable as its wildlife. At Hickory Run State Park, which consists of nearly 16,000 acres on the region’s western edge, we hiked out to Boulder Field, which is a National Natural Landmark that stops first-time visitors mid-sentence.
Picture a river of stone the length of six football fields, strewn with sandstone boulders ranging from melon-sized to larger than a car, stretching flat and treeless all the way to the tree line. It has looked essentially this way for 20,000 years, ever since Ice Age freeze-thaw cycles shattered the surrounding sandstone and left this remarkable field of boulders behind.
The kids were boulder-hopping within seconds; Nataliya and I picked our way more cautiously, since the gaps between rocks reward sturdy shoes and punish flip-flops.
You can drive most of the way in on a gravel road or really earn the view by hiking the 3.5-mile Boulder Field Trail. Either way, save some energy for the park’s gentler pleasures: the short walk to Hawk Falls, a 25-foot cascade tucked inside a tunnel of rhododendron, makes a perfect cool-down spot, and the visitor center’s exhibits give the whole strange landscape a little context before you set out.
Pennsylvania’s Pocket Niagara
No Poconos weekend is complete without chasing water, and Bushkill Falls, the self-styled “Niagara of Pennsylvania,” has been drawing families since 1904. Eight waterfalls thread through 300 acres of hemlock forest, connected by a network of log boardwalks and bridges that cling to the gorge walls like something from a fairy tale.
We took the Green Trail, a 15-minute descent of steps and walkways to the Main Falls, where water tumbles more than 100 feet into a misty canyon.
Ambitious hikers can tackle the nearly 2-mile Red Trail past all eight cascades, but with the kids we lingered at the overlooks, feeling the spray and roar of the falls.
Beyond the falls, Bushkill piles on the extras: paddle boats, a flower-shaped hedge maze and a gem-mining sluice where Alex sifted for polished stones with the focus of a forty-niner. The steps can get slick, so it’s another vote for hiking shoes over sandals.
The Switzerland of America
We saved the most surprising stop for last. Tucked into a steep bend of the Lehigh River sits Jim Thorpe, a Victorian town so dramatically framed by mountains that locals call it the “Little Switzerland of America.” It began as a coal-shipping boomtown named Mauch Chunk (“Bear Place” in the Lenape tongue) and took its current name in the 1950s, after the widow of the great Olympic athlete struck a deal to have him memorialized here, in a town he never actually set foot in.
History clings to every cornice. We strolled Broadway past mansard roofs and ornate storefronts, toured the hilltop Asa Packer Mansion (the Italianate showpiece of a railroad baron) and let the kids talk us into the Old Jail Museum, where a mysterious handprint on a cell wall, said to belong to a condemned Molly Maguire labor agitator, supplied the day’s requisite shiver.
The undisputed highlight was the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, whose vintage open-air cars chug along the river beneath towering cliffs. We visited in summer, but were told by locals to return in October, when the surrounding mountains ignite in red and gold and the town throws its weekend-long Fall Foliage Festival.
During any season, we found that the Swiss comparison made perfect sense. Jim Thorpe, this “Little Switzerland of America,” seemed a perfect prequel to our forthcoming visit to the Alps in Switzerland.
If the Kids Want More
When mountain weather turns or energy runs high, the Poconos keep a few aces up their sleeve. Families can pedal a glass-smooth stretch of old rail line on a pedal-powered electric railbike along the Lackawaxen River, scramble the climbing walls and arcade games at Pocono Rocks in Mount Pocono or race high-speed go-karts at S&S Speedways in Stroudsburg. And yes, the region’s famous mega-resorts (Kalahari, Great Wolf Lodge, Camelback) still run their cavernous indoor waterparks year-round, should anyone in your party stage a revolt for a wave pool.
Poconos-Prepared
Most of the Poconos’ outdoor attractions sit within an hour of one another, making a two- or three-day loop easy to manage.
Claws N’ Paws and Bushkill Falls are seasonal (roughly spring through fall) and charge modest admission; the Pocono Snake & Animal Farm is quick, affordable and cash-friendly.
Hickory Run State Park is free and open year-round, sunrise to sunset. Arrive early on weekends, as the trailhead lots fill fast.
Unless you’re set on one of the big resorts, Jim Thorpe makes an ideal home base, with the historic Inn at Jim Thorpe and the Hotel Switzerland steps from the shops and the train station; book well ahead for fall foliage season, when rooms vanish months in advance.
Eric D. Goodman is the author of seven books. One of them, Setting the Family Free, is set partially in Columbus Ohio. It follows the multifaceted story of exotic animals being released into the community. Learn more about Eric and his writing at EricDGoodman.com.
