PA Bucket List

Buttermilk Falls in Armstrong County is short in stature but long on beauty, located along a rail trail that parallels Cowanshannock Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River. The falls are located along the Cowanshannock Trail, a recently-renovated rail trail and spur of the much longer Armstrong Trail. Don't confuse this waterfall with Buttermilk Falls in Beaver County. Or Buttermilk Falls in...

If you're looking for information about visiting Springfield Falls in Mercer County, you're in the right place! Standing 20 feet tall and close to 40 feet wide, Springfield Falls spans the entire width of Hunters Run on State Game Lands 284. Also known locally as Leesburg Falls, this waterfall is unique in that it borders a brewery taphouse on its west...

Ticklish Rock is a gravity-defying sandstone pillar on a forested plateau in Sullivan County. Resembling an upright hammer, this natural anomaly is an example of differential weathering. Over thousands of years, rain and frost have caused lower layers of the sandstone to breakdown more rapidly than the top layers, leading to the "head" of the hammer being perched on the narrow,...

The Swigart Auto Museum in Huntingdon County is the oldest automobile museum in the United States! The museum is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and celebration of the American automobile, and does so in admirable fashion. Touring the Swigart Auto Museum The Swigart Museum is open daily from Memorial Day weekend through the end of October. While the museum is closed over the...

The Layton Bridge and Tunnel are a pair of historic structures in Fayette County, originally constructed for the Washington Run Railroad in the late 1890s. Both the tunnel and bridge were constructed by the A.P. Roberts Construction Company, as part of a 4 mile branch of the B&O Railroad. The Washington Run Railway (and now Layton Road) ran between Layton...

Did you know you can spend the night in the house made famous by the 1991 psychological thriller "The Silence of the Lambs"?! Made famous, of course, as the lair of fictional serial killer Buffalo Bill in the Academy Award-winning film. Thanks to Chris Rowan, an film industry Art Director & Prop Stylist who purchased the Fayette County house in 2020,...

Dean's Diner is a 24-hour beacon for hungry motorists traveling along Route 22 near Blairsville, Indiana County. It's a classic American diner with all the stick-to-your-ribs good food you'd expect.  Dean's Diner is an original dining car from the 1950's. For more than 70 years, it's been a perfect pit stop between Pittsburgh and State College for hungry Penn Staters. Delicious food, great...

Brantview Farms Maple Camp in Somerset County is an excellent place to experience the entire process of maple syrup being made, from tree to table! This maple camp doubles as a "maple syrup museum" of sorts, housing many unique tools and artifacts used in maple syrup production over the past 100 years. And the Brant family has been involved in maple...

The Isett Heritage Museum in Huntingdon County houses and displays over 40,000 items from everyday life in the 19th and 20th centuries. Comprised of 3 large buildings (one of which is a repurposed barn), the Isett Heritage Museum may be the most floor-to-ceiling packed with artifacts museum I've ever set foot in! And if you're over 40, odds are you're going...

The Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh is the largest history museum in Pennsylvania! The museum includes six floors of permanent and changing exhibitions that tell the story of western Pennsylvania. The museum is named after the late U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III, great-grandson of the founder of the H. J. Heinz Company. Exhibits at the Heinz History Center With six floors and...