Since I moved here, I’ve done a lot of exploring around this beautiful area. Some highlights:
The Delaware and Lehigh Rail Trail, which goes from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol through the Lehigh Valley. I’ve biked sections in Bethlehem/Easton, Northampton, and Jim Thorpe.
Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center, a park to the northeast with lots of multi-use trails.
French Creek State Park, a big forested area next to Hopewell Furnace, a preserved old timey mill village.
Ricketts Glen State Park, a park with 21 waterfalls where I went on a waterfall photography trip. I learned some new tricks for getting silky smooth shots of the water.
Centralia, an abandoned town where an underground coal fire has been burning since 1962. It’s since been reclaimed by shrubs and graffiti artists. Nearby are some excellent gravel roads and mountain bike trails running between Routes 54 and 42.
The Ironton Rail Trail which runs past several train cars on display and the old Coplay Cement Company kilns.
Huge mushrooms
Caboose
On IRT
Coplay Kilns
On the Ironton Rail Trail
Graffiti Highway
Some clear patches of highway remain.
Graffiti Highway
This abandoned stretch of route 61, once covered with graffiti, was recently filled in with mounds of dirt by locals.
Ventilation pipe
Installed to allow underground gases to escape.
Unknown street
Centralia
View to the church
Centralia
Front steps leading nowhere
Centralia
Lonely house
One of five houses left in the town.
Railroad Ave.
Centralia
Centralia overlook
This town, abandoned in the 1900s because of an underground coal fire, has been taken over by vegetation and graffiti.
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church
