Plans Evolve at York County’s Susquehanna Riverlands State Park

Rock climbing and camping are in the park’s future, says DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn

• Karen Hendricks/WITF
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  Karen Hendricks hosts WITF’s Morning Edition, heard weekdays from 5-9am. She enjoys navigating the news of the day with listeners, weaving together WITF’s compelling regional coverage with NPR’s unbiased reporting from around the globe—while simultaneously being a reliable, friendly voice as your morning companion.
  
  Karen is an award-winning, lifelong journalist. Her work has garnered more than 20 state and national journalism awards. Her true passion is bringing stories of everyday heroes to light: Her story about a weekend warrior pulling trash out of the Susquehanna River, for the York Daily Record, earned a national first-place award from the Society for Features Journalism.
  
  A Philadelphia-area native and Lock Haven University graduate, Karen has called Central Pennsylvania home for 30+ years. She’s worked for media outlets throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region and Central Pennsylvania, including Harrisburg, Lancaster, York and Gettysburg.
  
  She considers her family and three adult children her brightest, best accomplishments. She and her husband enjoy exploring our national and state parks. She’s writing a memoir about running 50 races to benefit 50 causes when she was 50.

 Karen Hendricks / WITF

Susquehanna Riverlands State Park

Plans are underway at one of Pennsylvania’s newest state parks, Susquehanna Riverlands located in York County, at the confluence of Codorus Creek and Susquehanna River.

The park’s 1,044 acres were acquired more than three years ago from the nonprofit Lancaster Conservancy. It’s an area known as the Hellam Hills.

Speaking on WITF’s newest podcast Susquehanna Scout, Cindy Adams Dunn, secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) said the park’s rocky riverside cliffs will feature prominently in those plans.

“We’ll create climbing opportunities there,” said Dunn. “And that’s not unusual, but it’s not in every state park. Not every state park has a cliff like that, so that’s going to be remarkable. But the views from there are amazing.”

That would make Susquehanna Riverlands only the fourth state park to offer rock climbing as an activity, in addition to Ohiopyle, Ralph Stover, and McConnells Mill state parks.

Visitors can already take in a birds’ eye view of the Susquehanna River atop the cliffs, from the park’s Overlook Trail. The hike, starting at the park’s parking area and traversing the park to the cliffs and back, measures just under 1.5 miles, round-trip.

That view, Dunn notes, includes Lancaster County’s Chickies Rock, across the Susquehanna River. To the south, visitors can take in views of river towns Columbia and Wrightsville, as well as the Conejohela Flats, a series of low-lying islands and mud flats known for attracting birds.

Additional hiking currently available within the park includes a 2.75-mile section of the 200-mile-long Mason-Dixon Trail, connecting the Appalachian Trail at Whiskey Springs in Cumberland County to the Brandywine Trail in Chadds Ford along the Brandywine River.

Two groups have provided extensive volunteer hours to Susquehanna Riverlands’ infrastructure to-date, the South Central Pennsylvania Climbers and the Mason-Dixon Trail Club. That volunteer work includes the rerouting and extension of the park’s two current trails.

Dunn encourages visitors to enjoy Susquehanna Riverlands both now and in the future.

“We’ve got some great staff there running environmental ed programs already, so you can go there and take advantage of one of those, or just take a loop hike. You can take a decent loop hike now from the parking area and down to the Mason- Dixon Trail and up and around and see a lot of it, but it’ll just get better and better as the park continues,” Dunn says.

This Friday, June 26, park staff are offering an evening program, “On the Lookout for Fireflies.” Rods, bait, and instruction are available in a “Summer Wonder: Fishing” program held along the Codorus Creek on two upcoming Sundays, June 28 and July 12.

Dunn says future park plans will also include camping. Approximately 75 campsites will include a variety of site types, from walk-in, standard, and full-service sites. The Susquehanna Riverlands Master Plan contains the conceptual design for the campground and the rest of the park and can be downloaded from the Susquehanna Riverlands State Park website. There is also a unique house that DCNR plans to renovate and make ADA-compliant as an overnight accommodation option.

The park’s master plan is still in the early stages of blueprint design, with no timeline yet established for overnight options and additional activities.

Dunn says Susquehanna Riverlands adds to the collection of state parks located at, along, or with views of the Susquehanna River, which flows 444 miles from Cooperstown, N.Y. through Pennsylvania and empties in the Chesapeake Bay at Perryville and Havre de Grace, Md.

Additional Central Pennsylvania parks along the Susquehanna include Samuel S. Lewis in York County, Susquehannock in Lancaster County, Snyder County’s Shikellamy, and Milton in Northumberland County.

“It’s an amazing asset to our region,” says Dunn of the Susquehanna River, “to have the East Coast’s largest river in your backyard—it’s an amazing asset.”

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