Adventures in Penn’s Woods
Joseph F. Brosky
Trailheads and Byways Publishing (2025)
ISBN: 979-8992689105
Reviewed by Paul Knobloch for Reader Views (12/2025)
New from Trailheads and Byways Publishing, Joseph F. Brosky’s Adventures in Penn’s Woods is a very complete look at the state’s 124 parks. Brosky’s fantastic resource book has an entry for each, with advice on everything from hiking, camping, kayaking, and planning your vacation, to finding the right resource materials. This book comes hot on the heels of the quest undertaken by Brosky and his wife after their retirement; they planned to visit every park, and they managed to do exactly that by May of 2023.
This book is a compilation of all the knowledge they acquired, and it was motivated by a sincere desire to share with others information about not only the big attractions, but also about the little, forgotten gems.
The book begins with a bit of background as the author explains how he and his wife became interested in traveling to all the parks. Brosky was in primary school in the late 1950s and 1960s, and during this time, he developed a passion for nature and the outdoors, roaming the woods, on the lookout for muskrats and salamanders. He speaks of his first bike and his love of hiking and Nordic skiing. He was, it would seem, bitten by the nature bug early on in life.
Brosky meets his wife Donna in a biology practicum in college, and even their first date takes place at a historic site: McConnell’s Mill. By 2018, they are both retired – “Free” as they put it – to set off on their quest to visit every state park in Pennsylvania.
The author dedicates the second chapter to the importance of companionship, and on this point, I strongly concur. Having someone around us whom we like and trust can make any trip infinitely more interesting. Also, as Brosky points out, it is safer to be in the woods with another person than to be all alone out there. Others are a good source of motivation, which the author points out is key. Buying the guides and the passport also helps with motivation, as one is challenged to fill out all the books with the tags and stamps from park officials.
There is also a chapter called “Planning for Success,” which focuses on some essential preparatory work. The author recommends getting a checkup and having all prescriptions and proper records on hand. He also suggests consulting the Pennsylvania Parks & Forests Foundation, an excellent source of information. They supply the passport book for the state parks, and they also publish a newsletter.
The final part of the book is the biggest, containing an entry for each of the 124 state parks in Pennsylvania. I especially liked the third entry, Bald Eagle, which opened in 1971 after the US Army Corps of Engineers finished the Foster Joseph Sayers Dam, which I once visited. I had a friend who hiked there regularly, and he sent me a picture of the lake under the moonlight, exactly like Brosky described it.
Beltzville State Park was another spot I was drawn to after reading the author’s commentary. It’s nice to glimpse at the bottom of the page, where Brosky includes a short mention with almost every entry, a subtle aside called “Hearing.” In these little footnotes, he describes the sensory experience of each place. About Beltzville, he writes
hearing—very quiet spring morning; sight—the sparkling lake water from the overlook on this sunny morning was inspiring, the wide expanse of dry grasses in the emergency spillway, reading the historical and Army Corps of Engineers placards; touch— picking up a piece of slate and holding it for a moment in the colonial quarry filled me with a sense of awe.
Adventures in Penn’s Woods does what any good resource tool should do: it gives you a thorough and up-to-date study of the Pennsylvania State Park system. Plus, it is chock full of practical advice, ideas for camping trips, and clever ways to get yourself motivated, amped, and up and running. If you’d like to visit Pennsylvania and you want to hit the state parks, I could not imagine a better place to start than Joseph F. Brosky’s very thorough and accessible tome.