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Presque Isle State Park

Four million visitors are drawn every year to Presque Isle State Park's beaches, natural beauty and bountiful recreational opportunities. But almost a million visitors per year come to Presque Isle to do other things at all times of the year, and you'll be surprised at how much solitary, open space can be found in the park's extensive wilderness areas and on its 21 miles of recreational and hiking trails.

Since about three-quarters of the people who come to Presque Isle do so to swim and sunbathe, however, the best first stop is naturally the beach. All of the park's beaches are ideally suited to families with small children, but family facilities are perhaps best at Beaches 1, 6, 7 and 11, where the water is fairly shallow and visitors will find plenty of parking, picnic tables, grills and sanitary/changing facilities. Those wanting a more rugged experience may wish to visit Beach 9 or Budny Beach on the park's north shore, where the beaches are wider and the surf is deeper, and where visitors have plenty of room to play volleyball, fly kites, launch windsurfers, scuba dive, have a picnic, take a long walk on the beach and, of course, swim.

If you don't have a boat but still wish to take to the water, a variety of powered and non-powered craft are available from a rental concession on the park's southeast shore. Powered craft are not permitted in the park's numerous ponds and internal lagoons, but you'll find that those delicate ecosystems are best experienced from the ease and quiet of a canoe anyway.

Anglers and tourists alike are drawn to Misery Bay on the park's south shore, where the Perry Monument serves as an important scenic and historic backdrop. Misery Bay is named after the hardships endured by the men of Perry's naval squadron, who wintered here 1813-1814 after the crucial Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. Crew who died during that severe winter were interred through holes in the ice of adjacent Graveyard Pond, which visible to the north from the Misery Bay Bridge.

Misery bay is a great place to drop off any hikers in your party. Look for the head of the Sidewalk Trail and arrange to meet them in 40–50 minutes at Lighthouse Beach. This trail treats hikers to an easy 1.25-mile walk through an environmentally sensitive wetland on a concrete-surfaced trail that skirts Ridge Pond, a beach or sandpit pond created by a former shoreline and which once lay very close to the lake. Visitors to this area will experience one of the best-preserved and most extensive wetlands in Pennsylvania. Rendezvous at the Presque Isle Lighthouse, built in 1872, where you can also get a good close look at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers breakwater project, designed to protect Presque Isle's sensitive environment from erosion.

The more energetic visitor to Presque Isle should consider trekking the paved Multipurpose National Recreational Trail, a 10-mile long paved surface that is popular with bicyclists, in-line skaters, joggers and walkers of all speeds and styles. This trail, which conforms to Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility standards, encompasses the entire park and affords splendid views of Presque Isle Bay, Lake Erie and the park's dazzlingly diverse ecological zones.

Many different species of plants and wildlife inhabit these ecological zones, which range from shoreline to sub-climax forest systems. Presque Isle's location along the Atlantic Flyway and its ecological diversity support over 320 recorded species of migrating and indigenous birds, many of which are listed as species of special concern, making the park a bird watcher's paradise. Informative displays and programs detailing these and other natural wonders can be seen at the Stull Interpretive Center, a facility operated by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (call 814-833-0351 for more information). Also located in this facility is The Nature Shop, which offers books, artwork, field guides and other nature-related items for sale and whose proceeds benefit Presque Isle State Park.

The fun activities at Presque Isle don't stop at summer's end. The park is very popular with winter visitors, who frequent the park for ice fishing, ice boating and ice skating. Part of the Multipurpose Trail is plowed throughout the winter for hikers, and another part is left unplowed for cross-country skiers. The winter months also provide an opportunity to see the lakeshore's impressive ice dunes, formed by lake ice, wave surge and freezing spray.

If you're just passing through or otherwise making a short visit to Erie, Presque Isle is also nicely viewed from your car window. For locals and other frequent visitors, car jaunts to Presque Isle are a way of life, starting in childhood with fishing trips and family picnics on the beach and continuing through life to trips with the grandchildren. Presque Isle enthusiasts have been doing it this way since the first paved road was laid through the park back in 1924.