🥾 Take a hike | Outdoorsy Newsletter

We already scoped out the best places to see fall foliage in the Philly region. How about the rest of the nation?

Well, USA Today readers selected Pennsylvania’s Keystone State Park as the top spot in the country for the ultimate leaf peeping experience!

Another survey of nature enthusiasts ranked three parks in New Jersey and Pa. among the 150 of the leading destinations in America to enjoy the finest of autumn’s colorful displays.

Pro-tip: Follow the status of foliage across the state on the Pa. Department of Conservation & Natural Resources (DCNR) website to see when leaves hit their peak. The Poconos Fall Foliage Forecast is also updated every Thursday through the end of October to help you discover where, when, and how to witness the brilliant foliage in the four-county region.

Suffice it to say, we’ve got unbeatable fall views here. So today we’re taking a hike, stopping by a rural utopia, and going birdwatching.

📮 What’s your favorite fall destination to see the colors of the season? Tell me about your experience by emailing me back.

☀️ Your weekend weather outlook: Friday’s forecast calls for showers. The rain continues through Saturday, but it’ll be worth it — expect a gloriously sunny Sunday, perfect for outdoorsy adventures.

— Paola Pérez

If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

Pennsylvania and New Jersey boast some of the best places in the U.S. to witness the brightest seasonal displays. And going for a hike is one solid way to score a spectacular view of Mother Nature in its prime.

So where should we go? Enter Jason Nark to the rescue: he narrowed down some of the top spots you need to check out, without a doubt.

Many of these hikes have elevation changes. Make sure you pay attention to the trail ratings, bring lots of water, and be realistic about your abilities.

From Hawk Rock Overlook to Loyalsock Trail, see the top five hikes worth doing this season, near and far from Philadelphia.

🎤 Now we’re passing the microphone to Jason Nark. You’ll always find his work here.

Sunlight filtered through the tall oaks and pines, dancing on the hardwood floors in the Hall of Philosophy. A few dozen people sat in wooden rocking chairs, some taking notes, while a college professor waxed about democracy and polarization in modern America.

It wasn’t your typical Tuesday morning in rural Pennsylvania.

This Lebanon County community, a little over 80 miles west of Philadelphia, sits in a valley surrounded by forest and state game lands, and its hilly streets are lined with quaint Victorian homes, large and small, blooming with art and flowers and shaded by towering trees. Mount Gretna isn’t just a town of pretty houses where most people walk, though. It’s the only municipality in Pennsylvania that’s part of the late 19th-century Chautauqua movement dedicated to the “exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life.”

“This is like nirvana,” resident Gretchen Housner said while pruning elephant ear plants and begonias. — Jason Nark

Keep reading Jason’s feature story to go deeper into the place some call “paradise.”

🎤 Jason says: When it seemed like sun had disappeared for a full week, I had to take this video Sunday at a park in Haddon Heights.

☀️ Most mornings this week, I sat on my balcony and soaked up the sun with welcoming gratitude.

I asked Outdoorsy readers to send in your favorite fall activities, and you delivered. Here’s Carol Sibley of Mullica Hill, NJ:

“Fall is one of the best times to go birdwatching. Every year, my husband and I go to Cape May Bird Observatory’s Hawk Watch Platform to watch the migrating hawks, eagles, swallows, and other migrants fly over us. CMBO and NJ Audubon reps count them and tell us what we’re seeing. It’s a huge social gathering and we get to meet people literally from around the world. As an extra bonus, we walk the trails at Cape May Point State Park to try to catch a glimpse of migrating warblers. At the same time, we watch migrating monarch butterflies flying through. A real treat that we look forward to every year.”

Thank you, Carol, this was a real treat. Bird is the word around here.

📮 Give us a review of your outdoors experience for a chance to be featured in this newsletter by emailing me back.

Anyone out there ever thought of getting into birding, but don’t have a clue where, how or when to begin? Consider Audubon Mid-Atlantic’s second annual Philly Birding Weekend (Oct. 13-15). Officials encourage participants to register early online. Get more information here.

I recently ran into a Reel on Instagram that really resonated with me. In the video, a woman named Maia Kinney-Petrucha talked about how she liked nature growing up, but she feared the outdoors because she was scared of ticks, Lyme disease, and poison ivy.

This is a common paradox for many of us, especially here in Pennsylvania. We love touching grass, but fear what may be in it. So how do we get over this psychological hurdle? Here’s Maia’s sage advice:

“I started trying to control the things that I could control: checking myself for deer ticks, knowing what poison ivy looked like. It can be so hard to tell yourself, ‘Okay, you’ve done everything within your power to keep yourself safe. The rest, you just have to let go. Because it comes down to, would you rather avoid nature altogether, or just believe that you know what poison ivy looks like?’”

I’ll take the latter because knowledge is power. And despite what we may fear, nature boasts so many healing properties. This confidence and trust can be built with time and practice. I’ll leave you with these final words from Maia:

“Don’t be so afraid of dying that you forget to live. So we’re living!”

👏🏼 We’re living by these words. Let’s keep hitting the trails safely together.