Autumn Weekend Trip to the Poconos
Autumn is the best time of year- it’s a fact. The holidays are the best (Halloween and Thanksgiving!? You can’t beat that!), the food (stews, soups, and hearty breads), the weather, fashion (oversize sweaters, boots that hide my mismatched fuzzy socks, and scarves), and the changing landscape can’t be beat. And there’s not much more time to take the RV out before the freezing weather sets in the Northern-ish Mid-Atlantic Region (or whatever you want to call New Jersey). So my friend Stephanie and I decided to take Big Lou out for a girls’ weekend to enjoy the changing leaves and to hike. I packed up Big Lou with as much pumpkin spice, gigantic blankets, and folk music as I could and we headed out to the Poconos in Pennsylvania.
Since Stu wasn’t with me for this weekend, I did all the filming and nearly all the editing myself- you’ll probably notice I tried to imitate Stu’s technique, but this isn’t our average video. Stu took care of all the technical stuff once I finished the editing- Thanks, Hun!
I hope you enjoy!!!
I don’t know where we heard about the Poconos, it’s just a well-known travel destination and immediately popped in my head when I thought of taking an Autumn weekend trip.
Hiking in Mount Pocono, PA
All the campgrounds in the Pocono area close down a bit earlier than I’ve seen at other campgrounds. The Tobyhanna State Park was our first choice so we could hike and enjoy nature without having to drive a tow car to get there. With only Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning to enjoy the area, we didn’t want to spend it driving around. But the Tobyhanna State Park closes its campground in mid-October (1 week before our vacation). There are a few other private RV parks in the area- we chose Mount Pocono Campground, because it had hiking trails in and directly off of the campground- so no driving necessary!
Mount Pocono Campground was extremely nice. It seems to be primarily seasonal spots, but an entire section of it is for regular RVers. There were also tent spots and a few cabins. We didn’t get to look at the inside the cabins, but from the outside they look nice. They had a nice office, playground, horseshoe pits, corn hole, volleyball, and the nicest clubhouse I’ve ever seen! Inside the clubhouse were three nicely maintained pool tables, a couple ping pong tables, arcade games, TV area with couches, reading rooms with books and tables set up for coloring, and even a fitness area. Seriously, it was the nicest clubhouse I’d ever seen (except maybe the clubhouse at the French Quarter RV Resort in New Orleans- which you can see in our video from this Summer, but that’s kind of in a whole different league, and it’s like 300% more expensive). The office had a small store in it with some camping necessities, food, water, and cups of coffee for sale. Probably the most impressive part of this campground was their amazing free wifi. It reached to all the RVs, was a strong signal, and fast enough to stream videos and movies (didn’t try uploading anything, but the wifi calling on my phone worked perfectly). I’d highly recommend this campground, especially when each night is only $45 in the off season. If you’d never been to the Poconos, it’s a high tourist area. Other RV spots we looked into cost around $90-$100 a night during vacation season, but about half that price in the off season.
Hike in Mount Pocono, PA
The drive to Mount Pocono took so much longer than expected on Friday evening- we ran into traffic, it was raining and dark, and there were a few construction zones. We pulled in after dark, set up, and I fell asleep on the couch watching a movie. Saturday’s weather did not improved. It was freezing cold, drizzling, and so windy! Stephanie and I still made it outside for a short walk around the campground, but ultimately we decided to take an Uber into town to try the local cheesecake at the Pocono Cheesecake Factory and to do a little shopping at the outlet mall. I usually don’t like shopping on vacation, but it’s a great way to spend a rainy day out of the RV. For dinner we ate at the Log Cabin Bar and Grill in The Crossings Outlet Mall. We ended the night with indoor s’mores (it was too windy to try to start a fire) made over the stove and a movie.
Fieldstone Farm ruins, Mount Pocono, PA
Even though we had to leave Sunday morning, we were able to hike for a couple hours. And I’m so glad we did! We hiked through the game lands connected to the campground, and ended up just wandering around instead of sticking to the path. This may not be the best idea if you were going to hike very far, but we didn’t go far from the campground. Not far into the hike, we found an old burnt out house. According to the campground map, it was the farmhouse for the “Fieldstone Farm,” and it burned down in the 1960s. We came across all sorts of outbuildings, a water retention pond, two fishing ponds, and a tiny stream that was full of rocks. We had a great time wandering around, looking at the leaves, listening to the windy, and climbing on the rocks. We also stacked some rocks next to the spring, so 100 points to anyone who finds it! LOL!
Steph and me with our stack of rocks, Mount Pocono, PA
I had a great time in the Poconos, and I’d highly recommend it as a weekend getaway- especially in Autumn. I can’t wait to take Stuart and the boys up there for some Spring time hiking and possibly fishing.
Have you made it out to the Poconos? What would you recommend to do in the area? Are the State Parks nice or RVing or hiking?
