McConnells Mill State Park

Address: 1761 McConnells Mill Road, Portersville, PA 16051

Telephone: 724-368-8811

Hours: Dawn to dusk, year-round

Website: www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/FindAPark/McConnellsMillStatePark/Pages/default.aspx

Email: morainesp@pa.gov

Founded: 1957

McConnells Mill State Park has 2,546 acres in Perry and Slippery Rock townships in Lawrence County.

Services, activities and attractions: Picnic areas, fishing, hunting, climbing and repelling, hiking and whitewater boating. The gristmill is normally open Memorial Day through late September. Limited hours are available; see the park’s Facebook page.

Jennings Environmental Education Center

Address: 2951 Prospect Road, Slippery Rock, PA 16057-5023

Telephone: 724-794-6011

Office hours: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and summer weekends

Park hours: Picnicking and trails open sunrise to sunset, year-round

Website: www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/FindAPark/JenningsEnvironmentalEducationCenter/Pages/default.aspx

Email: jenningssp@pa.gov

Founded: 1980

Jennings Environmental Education Center is a 300-acre park in Brady Township.

Services, activities and attractions: Picnic areas, restrooms, hiking trails, interpretive exhibits and Foltz School, which was built in 1880 and closed in 1963, one of the last one-room schools to close in the state. Cross-country skiing, snowshoeing.

The prairie, about 20 acres, is a rare ecosystem that is home to the endangered massasauga rattlesnake. The park also has about 250 acres of mixed hardwood forest, a flood plain meadow and an abandoned coal mine area, used for a water treatment program. The 5 miles of hiking trails includes the 0.22-mile Blazing Star Trail, named for the wildflower that turns the prairie purple in late July and early August.

Moraine State Park

Address: 225 Pleasant Valley Road, Portersville, PA 16051

Telephone: 724-368-8811

Office hours: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, year-round, and weekends during the summer

Park hours: Daily from sunrise to sunset, year-round

Website: www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/FindAPark/MoraineStatePark/Pages/default.aspx

Email: morainesp@pa.gov

Founded: 1970

Moraine State Park has 16,725 acres in Brady, Clay, Franklin, Muddy Creek and Worth townships.

Services, activities and attractions: Picnic areas, snack concessions, restrooms, swimming, fishing, boating with up to 20hp motors permitted, hunting, hiking and biking trails, horseback riding trails, 18-hole disc golf course, and cabins. Cross-country skiing, sledding, snowmobiling, ice fishing, ice skating and ice boating

Lake Arthur is a 3,225-acre warm-water fishery.