“State parks are definitely great places for everybody. We want everyone to feel included and that it's a welcoming, safe place.”

Our host, Marci Mowery, sits down with Chelsea DePoe, Park Manager at Colonel Denning State Park, nestled in north-central Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Chelsea came to Colonel Denning by way of Ricketts Glen and Delaware Canal State Parks before pursuing the management path, landing the position when it opened last fall.

Colonel Denning is a park that rewards those willing to seek it out.

Surrounded by the 96,000-acre Tuscarora State Forest, it serves as a quiet gateway to seemingly endless outdoor adventure. The park's Civilian Conservation Corps heritage, dating to the 1930s, remains visible today in its original spillway, dam, pavilions, and campground bridge.

All these are living reminders that Depression-era labor shaped landscapes still cherished by generations.

The signature draw is the Flat Rock Trail, a challenging 2.5-mile one-way climb that delivers sweeping views of the Cumberland Valley. For families or casual visitors, the gentler nature trail winds around the lake and up a stream, offering diverse ecosystems and rewarding mushroom hunting in fall. Swimming, kayaking, fishing from an ADA-accessible pier, and camping round out a full roster of seasonal activities.

The park also carries a piece of Revolutionary War history: it is named for William Denning, a local blacksmith who forged wrought iron cannons for the Continental Army, though records show he was never actually a colonel. It’s just one of history's small, endearing mysteries!

"If you're a person that doesn't want the crowds," Chelsea says, "you can come here and find that reclusive feeling."

Just 50 minutes from Harrisburg, Colonel Denning is, for now, still a best-kept secret, with mountain-shielded night skies that make pitching a tent and stargazing well worth the trip.

Key Topics:

1. What Makes Colonel Denning Unique (01:50)
2. Popular Features and Activities (03:39)
3. Family-Friendly Activities and Swimming (05:41)
4. Leave No Trace and Wildlife (11:46)
5. The Name "Colonel Denning" and America250 (12:30)
6. Campground Opening and Trout Season (14:23)
7. Chelsea's Must-Do Recommendation (16:33)

Resources:

1. Colonel Denning State Park
2. Friends of Colonel Denning
3. Visit Cumberland Valley

🎧 Listen to the Think Outside Podcast on Spotify, Apple, or your favorite app while on the go! New episodes drop bi-weekly on Mondays, and you may occasionally find a bonus episode, as well!

The Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation inspires stewardship of YOUR state parks and forests through volunteerism, education, recreation, and philanthropy.

Learn more, find events, download outdoor resources, and get involved!

👉 Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter

🎥 Watch outdoor tips and stories on our YouTube channel

📸 Follow the podcast on Instagram

🎶 Podcast music provided by Evan Mongeau

📱 Follow PPFF on:

1. Facebook
2. Instagram
3. LinkedIn
4. YouTube
5. MeetUp

(auto-generated)

If you're a person that doesn't want the crowds, I mean, unless all of a sudden we become so popular that all this is a big lie that is no longer a best kept secret. But for now, it's safe to say that you can come here and you can find that reclusive feeling, that you can come out here and kind of escape the city life. We're 50 minutes from Harrisburg. You want to get out somewhere, but you need like a nice, decent trail to hike, and you don't want to be running into crowds. Come here, come here. How are the night skies here? Beautiful, especially with the way the mountains keep a lot of your city lights out.

Imagine a place where stress fades, fresh air fills your lungs, and adventure waits around every corner. Welcome to think outside. The podcast that inspires you to explore, connect and embrace the outdoors. Welcome to think outside with the Pennsylvania parks and Forest Foundation, I'm your host. Marcy Mowry, today we're here at Colonel Denning State Park, which sits on the Cumberland and Perry county lines, and we're going to be talking with Park Manager Chelsea depot, from seeding mountain views and a peaceful lake to miles of hiking trails. Colonel Denning offers year round outdoor recreation, but it also takes thoughtful leadership and stewardship to keep a park like this thriving. So lace up your boots and join us as we think outside. So Chelsea, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me excited to be here at Colonel Denning. This park holds a special place in my heart. It's one of my my go to places not too far from Harrisburg, not too far from Carlisle, but it certainly feels like you're far away. It has that remote feeling. So how did you end up here at Colonel Denning?

Yeah, so kind of a long roundabout way, but I started as a Ranger Rick, it's gone State Park, and then went up to Delaware canal, and then I went the management path. So then I was able to apply for Colonel Denning when it came up last fall, and was lucky enough to get the position here. Are you enjoying your time here at Colonel Denning? I am. Yeah, it's a wonderful park. So for people who have never been here before, what do you think makes Colonel Denning unique? Sure, so, yeah, I would describe Colonel Dunning as a very quiet, unique park. There's mountains surrounding the park. You have a beautiful, little, tiny lake. It's definitely got that rustic feel to it, and you don't have to worry about the giant crowds of some of our other state parks.

It is a civilian conservation corps era Park, correct?

Yes, it is. And that's the other very unique thing, is the CCC aspect of it. And there's a lot of features that you can still come and see, oh, such as the spillway. It has the original CCC era dam built, and there's still pavilions left from it down by the campground So, and then also our campground Bridge, which is going to be getting redone, but we're kind of keeping that CC era feel to it.

Oh, wonderful. You know, I'm always impressed. When I first started working at the Pennsylvania parks and Forest Foundation, I had an opportunity to meet some of the boys as they were called back then, and you know, stories they would tell that they never thought that what they were doing back in the 1930s would be here this long and would touch so many generations of people. So it's neat that you have that here. What are the park's most popular features or activities?

Yeah, so I think our most popular features that we have are surrounded by Tuscarora State Forest. So we're kind of their gateway. That's how we get described a lot. And they have 96,000 acres. And so they have a beautiful flat rock trail, VISTA trail, that you can go up. It's a two month mile hike and see the Cumberland Valley. And the best starting point for that hike is it within our park, and some of it runs through us, and I think that's probably our biggest feature. And then I think camping and having that quiet, mountainous camping is another big popular thing for us.

Nice and flat rock trail for people that haven't visited can be a very steep trail. It can be a very hot trail in the summer. So how would you suggest people prepare for a hike depending on what time of year they're they're going to do that that particular trail? Absolutely?

Yeah, the fly rock trail is definitely not something you want to come unprepared for. Bring water, hiking boots if you want hiking, sticks, Poles, things like that, make sure you got layers, especially during the fall and winter to spring season, because it'll start off cold and then you'll need to take some layers off. But beautiful hike, it is not easy. Two and a half miles, pretty much straight up. There's very little reprieve in between. I. And then once you're there, though, it's all downhill,

which has its pluses and its minuses, and it is an amazing Vista. I also like the nature trail here. I find it, it's nice and level, but it offers a lot of different ecosystems. In the fall, I've also walked it to look for mushrooms, and I've had beautiful array of colors.

Yeah, absolutely. I think mushroom hunting is popular here as well, due to the shade that we get from the mountains. And the Nature Trail is very pretty, like you said, it goes around the lake, it goes up a mountainous stream. You have just a little elevation changes, but nothing crazy and good hike for the family.

What else can families do if they're here, if they're if they're staying for the weekend or the week in the summer? What can they do? Sure?

So we have a swimming lake, so there's a swimming designated area that's open for Memorial Day. It's a little bit after Labor Day. With the campground, of course, you get doing the general day hikes. You can go visit the local town of newville, or go out to Carlisle for a little bit more excitement. And then, like I said, gateway to Tuscarora State Forest. So endless opportunities there as well.

Do you still put out all the Adirondack chairs on the beach in the summer?

Yep, our maintenance crew still does that, they will be out there.

Yep. That, to me, is, like, that image is quintessential Colonel Denning State Park.

Yeah, yeah. I don't think you could really do that at too many of our beaches anymore, but it's you don't have, like I said, you don't worry about giant crowds. You can have a good family experience when you come here. Do you provide environmental education programming we do. We have an environmental education specialist, and right now she's on our second season. So she's getting a lot of programs coming out. She's hoping to do a lot of 250 America things this year. And so she's come out with programs like Junior Ranger program. You can come into the office, pick up a book for your kids. They can fill it out, and then get a Junior Ranger badge when they come back with it completed. And she created some adventure backpacks you can come and pick and rent, like if you're camping, we're just spending the day here, and you can take your kids, and they all have themes, and they can go out and explore more of whatever that theme is for the day.

So by rent, is there a fee to use them, or do you leave something behind?

Sure, nope, yep. You just leave your information and it's free, and just return it at the end

of the day. Sounds like a great experience, if I'm remembering, she was one of our award winners last year for her innovative programming, and her out of the box thinking, yep, that's excellent. While I'm talking about award winners, your friends of Colonel Denning are going to be receiving an award. Can you talk about what the friends group does here at the park and what they mean to you as a group of volunteers?

Sure, we have an awesome friends group. I really can't say enough nice enough things about them. They do a lot of work here at the park. Being smaller, we have, you know, we don't have as much staff or large volunteer groups coming, so every little bit helps, and our friends group primarily works on selling and raising funds for the park. They'll sell firewood in the campground, but they'll help. They maintain the nature trail for us and that they kind of took that project on. They also, we'll do the odds and ends of little tiny projects that we have. They're super helpful, and we definitely are better for it nice.

And they do an annual event that's very family friendly. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about the event?

Sure, yep, they're kind of up to two events now. They got the summer beach party, which is in June 3 Saturday in June this year will be June 20. Starts in the evening, and they will do live they'll do DJ music, and they will have games, and people can come out and set up and like on the beach to do swimming stuff. And then they'll sell some really, really reasonably priced food, like hot dogs and chips and soda, which they've been doing for a few years now with good success. And then they've kind of upgraded to doing a concert in the fall time, like late summer. So that's till to be determined for the date, but they'll do a concert on the lawn sort of situation, and they'll do free ice cream, nice.

And both of those events are free to attend. They're open to the public, yes, nice. I remember one of the projects that the friends did prior to becoming a manager here is there was an issue with the bats up in the old pavilions, and the bats were leaving guano on the on the picnic table. So they helped to fund putting wooden ceilings and bat boxes so that the pavilions were functional. Yeah, and the bats have a place. Had a place to live. Yes, they did. Super helpful. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a lot of little projects that the average visitor doesn't think about, that things that need to be taken care of on a regular basis. So from a conservation perspective, what are some of the conservation challenges that you face here at the park?

Our conservation challenges at the park are nothing major, like comparatively to some places. I mean, you always have the use of of human interaction with wildlife and the ecosystem and our impact on it. I mean, as simple as just having our bathrooms and our roadways wilderness areas, but being that we're not super overcrowded, we're kind of at a happy medium where you're balancing recreation and the environment, but yeah, I think we're at a good medium at this park, as far as that kind of balance that we have to do now, there's always changes with invasive species that we have to deal with, and that's just everywhere that you go these days.

Yeah, yeah. Did you have to remove a lot of ash trees?

Not that I'm aware. Oh, that's good. We don't have as many as many here, partly because this area was logged 100 years ago, due to that CCC area, like the logging camps, what they were here doing. So a lot of our trees are about 100 years old, and we have mostly hemlocks and like oak based trees.

So, and are you treating your hemlocks for hemlock wooly adelgid?

Yep, we do. Yeah. We have a rotation with our resource department, and can't say that they don't all get treated, but they are working on them. Yes.

And hopefully, this was a cold winter, so I'm hoping that it knocked back the the Adelgid a little bit. Yeah, when people visit Colonel Denning. What do you wish they they knew in terms of being a good steward of this place?

I think biggest thing is believe no trace picking up after yourself. Don't be leaving trash out, especially for wildlife. I don't feed the wildlife. That's always a big pet peeve of mine. They don't need it. They can find their own food, and it's healthier for them in the long run.

Yeah, yeah. And keeping a clean campsite is so important too. I remember we were hosting at another park, and we had seen some bear activity, and we went around and we said, hey, you know, put your food away. And the bear came in and ate this one campers everything that they had out on their picnic table. They went back and they restocked, and they left it all out the picnic table again, where it's like stop feeding the bear. So the name Colonel Denning, and you mentioned that it's the 250th anniversary of America. How do those two things connect?

Sure, yeah. So Colonel Denning is a man. It was an It was named after a man from the revolutionary time period. He was a blacksmith. He was attributed to building a cannon as all things with history, that's kind of in question. But he is a local to newville. He's interned in cemetery there, and so the parks kind of took his name, so I feel like we do have a great connection. Now, historically, as far as battles or anything, I don't necessarily think we have anything going on specifically at the park, but yeah,

yeah, we're doing an America 250 bingo for to encourage people to get out and visit places that have some sort of connection, whether it be somebody such as Colonel Denning, or it'd be, you know, Washington Crossing, or Fort Washington, because there's a lot of Pennsylvania was sort of the heart of where things started, as we know, and pursuit of happiness right here in Pennsylvania. And you had mentioned that you're going to be doing some programming that's specific to America's 250

Yep, our environmental education specialist will be doing something, and she's hoping to get a fall education event together, but that's still also in the works.

Awesome. Yeah, awesome. We'll look forward to that. We're talking about the park, and we're, you know, hoping that it attracts new people to visit, the people that may not be familiar with Colonel Denning? How do you create an environment that welcomes all visitors?

Sure, yeah. I mean, state parks are definitely great places for everybody. We want everyone to be feeling included and that it's a welcoming, safe place. Coming to Colonel Denning is probably pretty close to one of the safest places you can get as long as you go out hiking prepared, yeah,

yes, and always wear the proper footwear. I remember being here once, and there was somebody when in the middle of summer to start hiking Flat Rock and flip flops. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that might not be the best idea. Is there anything else coming up at Colonel Denning that you want people to know about? When is your campground open for the season.

Yeah, our camping opens the first weekend in April with the trout opener. That is also one of our biggest kind of events. Actually coming up soon. They will stock trout in our lake. And once eight o'clock starts, you'll see everybody lined up ready to go and it's. Big to do. Our friends group usually gets out there and provides free coffee and hot chocolate, and they're planning on doing that again this year as well.

Nice, yeah, because could be cold, could be warm, yep, hard to know. So I'm hearing hiking, fishing, swimming. Do people paddle in the lake? I know it's not a very large lake, but there are people who kayak in it.

They do, yeah, boating is allowed pretty much all year round, except for once, trout happens, trout opener to Memorial Day weekend, but after that, anyone can go out. There is a little boat ramp. It's paddling only. There's no motorized the lake's small. It's not very deep, so according to the map, the most eight feet. So it's good for small, like a family of with kids and everything to go out there.

Yeah, and you have an accessible fishing pier with accessible

ramp, we do, yep, there is a DA fishing available, and that pier was recently redone with the help of the friends group,

awesome, awesome. And the original pier was actually the original friends group, okay, years ago. Yeah, you have the pavilion. So you mentioned picnicking, volleyball, a playground, and is the area outside of the within the park? Is there areas within the park that are open to hunting, or is it in the surrounding Tuscarora State Forest?

Sure, yeah, we do have a little bit of hunting. It's about 4050, acres, but primarily we are great starting point for Tuscarora State Forest for hunting.

Nice if listeners could only experience one thing in the park. If they're they're new to the area, they come in, they reach into the parking lot, they're like, I only have time for one thing. I one thing. What would you suggest that they do

hike if you have time Flat Rock and you got the the energy for it, but if you just needed, like, a 30 minute walk through the Nature Trail, that's a beautiful, easy going hike, and you get to really feel like how you're in the mountains here. Excellent.

And do you have any other messages you'd like our listeners to hear, things that you want them to know about this? I'd call it a best kept secret, but we're kind of slipping it out there.

Yeah, I would say that if you really, if you're a person that doesn't want the crowds, I mean, unless all of a sudden, we become so popular that all this is a big lie that is no longer a best kept secret. But for now, it's safe to say that you can come here and you can find that reclusive feeling that you can come out here and kind of escape the city life, which I think is the best part of it. Like we're 50 minutes from Harrisburg, you want to get out somewhere, but you need, like, a nice, decent trail to hike, and you don't want to be running into crowds. Come here. Come here. How are the night skies here beautiful, especially with the way the mountains keep a lot of your city lights out? Yeah. I mean, I don't live far away, and I can look up in the night sky, and I'd see the stars shining bright all the time.

So reserve yourself a campsite, bring your telescope and set up. Yep, excellent. Well, thank you, Chelsea, thank you for joining us on think outside. Yep, thank you. Appreciate you. Appreciate all the work that you do too for this amazing place. Absolutely glad to be here. Great. Thank you. Thank you for listening to think outside, where every episode invites you to discover new places, build confidence and find inspiration in nature. Love the show. Subscribe for more inspiration, share with a fellow Explorer, and let's keep thinking outside together. For more resources and inspiration, visit think outside podcast.org.