The Clarion River

The best adventures for me are always happy accidents. I love the thrill of not knowing what I’ll find. Camping with the family is fun and enjoyable but the photographer and adventurer in me always seeks tries to seek out some adventure where I can sneak away into the middle of the forest and be quiet with my thoughts. The goal was to hike into Cook Forest but that’s not what happened. Little did we know we were so close to Clear Creek State Park, that when we found the ranger station, we decided to go for a hike there. I’ve never been there, though it was on my list of parks to check out. With that in mind a quick scan of the trail maps and we were off. We drove through the park to find what had to be the most remote section of trail. Our route was Tadler Run Trail to Truby Trail and back to the car, it was a good 4 mile loop. The trailhead was next to the Clarion River and that had me excited right from the start. The trail starts with an uphill that follows the ridge-line of the Clarion Valley. Once it flattens out you’ll follow the river for sometime. You’re not right on the shoreline but close enough for a little off trail hike down to the shores of the Clarion. You’ll then go through thickets of mountain laurel, which I absolutely love. We ended up taking a wrong turn and hiking a little way off trail once we realized that we hadn’t seen a trail marker. We doubled back and found our wrong turn. From there we past the first of two overlooks. We didn’t stop at the first one and the second one was grown over from the summer bush. So we continued on our way down a small grade hill until we hit Truby Trail. This trail was short as it was our last leg. We enjoyed the forest lit up in golds and oranges and some reds. Fall is my favorite time of year and my favorite time to be in the forest. Clear Creek was a gem! It was absolutely breath-taking.