Kings Gap Environmental Education Center

Sitting astride South Mountain, Kings Gap offers a panaramic view of the Cumberland Valley. Sixteen miles of hiking trails interconnect three main areas and are open year-round. Kings Gap offers environmental education programs from the pre-school environmental awareness program to environmental problem solving programs.

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Directions - Weather  - Environmental Education  - Recreation  - Trails  - Calendar of Events  - Accessibility  - History  - Wildlife Watching  - Nearby Attractions  - Volunteers  - Rules and Regs  - In an Emergency  - Contact Us  - Downloadables and Maps

Park Advisories

Directions

The center's entrance is on Pine Road, one mile east of the Huntsdale Fish Hatchery. From Interstate 81, take Exit 37. At the exit, travel south on Route 233 about 2.5 miles. Turn left onto Pine Road and continue 2.5 miles. The entrance to the center is on the right.

About Kings Gap Environmental Education Center

Kings Gap Environmental Education Center consists of 1,454 acres of forest on South Mountain, in southcentral Pennsylvania, Cumberland County. The center is about 45 minutes south of Harrisburg and is operated by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of State Parks.

The grounds are open to the public year-round from 8:00 a.m. to sunset. Sixteen miles of hiking trails connect with three main day use areas of the center: Pine Plantation Day Use Area, Pond Day Use Area and Mansion Day Use Area. A 32-room stone mansion on the mountaintop houses the center's office and the training center. The office is open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and weekends and evenings when a public program is scheduled. A schedule of programs is available from the center office or at the three day use areas.

The mansion serves as the William C. Forrey Training Center for the Commonwealth, providing meals and overnight lodging for government agencies. The comfortable surroundings make it an ideal location for productive work sessions and meetings. The training center has a maximum day use capacity for 45 people and accommodates 23 people overnight.

Environmental Education and Interpretation

Kings Gap Environmental Education Center seeks to fulfill the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks' unique opportunity to teach about the natural world and critical environmental issues facing society. It also helps provide skills for appreciating and enjoying the outdoors. The center provides a wide variety of educational services to accomplish this goal.

A typical day may bring several classes of students to the center to participate in discovery-based environmental learning. Using various curricula, including activities selected from the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks' Activities for Environmental Learning, teachers and students explore the ecosystems of Kings Gap to further their awareness and knowledge of the natural environment.

Center staff also train high school students, teachers and other interested high-school age groups to participate in the Bureau of State Parks' Watershed Education program. This outreach program develops problem solving skills for dealing with complex issues facing the environment.

Kings Gap conducts teacher workshops based on environmental education curricula including Activities for Environmental Learning, Keystone Aquatic Resources Education, Project Learning Tree and Project Wild. Workshops on environmental issues and resources tailored to meet specific needs are also offered. Each spring, Kings Gap co-sponsors an environmental issues conference with Shippensburg University.

During the summer months, youths ages 4 to 17 are invited to participate in the Bureau of State Parks' Youth Environmental Learning Series which includes: Touch and Grow, Environmental Discovery, Junior Naturalist and the Conservation Leadership Program. This series of four programs gives young people opportunities to explore and learn about the environment with others the same age.

The center offers a variety of interpretive programs for the general public. Programs offered on an annual basis include Discovering Owls, Experiencing a Spring Night, Sights and Sounds of a Summer Evening, and both a Holiday and a Spring Open House. A complete schedule of programs is available from the center office or at the three day use areas.

For additional information on any of the services provided by Kings Gap Environmental Education Center, contact the center office.

Explore the Calendar of Events for a listing of events from today forward.

Explore environmental education and interpretation for more information.

Experiencing the Outdoors

Orienteering: A permanent orienteering course is located at Kings Gap. Orienteering is a sport that involves using a map and compass to negotiate a designated course. Additional information on orienteering and copies of the course map are available at the center office.

The center offers programs on orienteering for beginners in the fall and spring.

Hunting and Firearms: Several hundred acres of Kings Gap Environmental Education Center are open to hunting, trapping and the training of dogs during established seasons. The entire property is open to hunting during antlerless deer season. Common game species are deer, turkey and squirrel. Hunting woodchucks, also known as groundhogs, is prohibited. Dog training is only permitted from the day following Labor Day to March 31 in designated hunting areas. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Pennsylvania Game Commission rules and regulations apply. Contact the center office for accessible hunting information.

Use extreme caution with firearms at all times. The park is used by other visitors during hunting seasons. Firearms and archery equipment may be uncased and ready for use only in authorized hunting areas during hunting seasons. In areas not open to hunting or during non-hunting seasons, firearms and archery equipment must be kept in the owner's car.

Contact the center office for additional information on the hunting areas.

For complete information on hunting rules and regulations in Pennsylvania, visit the Pennsylvania Game Commission Web site.

Hiking: Trailheads for the 16 miles of hiking trails are located at the three day use areas. Explore Trails for complete trail descriptions.

Access for People with Disabilities

The restroom, picnic pavilion and the paved Whispering Pine Trail in the Pine Plantation Day Use Area are fully accessible. White Oaks Trail in the pond Day Use Area is paved and accessible.

If you need an accommodation to participate in park activities due to a disability, please contact the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks:
888-PA-PARKS (voice)
888-537-7294 (TTY)
711 (AT&T Relay Services)

Recycling

All Pennsylvania State Parks have instituted a recycling and waste reduction program. We urge all visitors to recycle and reduce waste whenever possible. Kings Gap has no trash containers. A carry-in, carry-out policy directs visitors to take their trash home. This policy reduces maintenance hours and decreases litter. Help keep Kings Gap clean.

Mansion Day Use Area

The center's offices and the Mansion Day Use Area are located on the mountaintop, four miles from the entrance of Kings Gap. The patio of the mansion provides a sweeping view of the Cumberland Valley. Turkey vultures are a common site at this vista as they catch the air currents created by the gap.

Kings Gap is suitable habitat for a variety of reptiles, including the box turtle, the five-lined skink (one of Pennsylvania's few lizards), the northern copperhead and the timber rattlesnake. Sightings of these reptiles are not uncommon in the summer months. In the Mansion Day Use Area, copperheads and rattlesnakes are sometimes seen hunting rodents along the stone walls of the mansion patio and garden. Although these snakes are venomous and should be respected, in their natural habitats they retreat when threatened. The timber rattlesnake is currently classified as a candidate species in Pennsylvania, which means it could receive endangered or threatened status in the future. For additional information on these reptiles, contact the center office.

Chestnut oak dominates the forest while blueberries, huckleberries and mountain laurel make up the shrub layer of the Mansion Day Use area. The Woodland Ecology Trail is a signed interpretive trail that explores this oak forest habitat.

The garden, surrounded by a low stone wall, was used by the original owners of Kings Gap to raise vegetables. Restoration of this site began in January 1992 by the Master Gardeners of Cumberland County. The goal of this project is to establish an educational garden that will inspire and teach about the benefits of plants.

The garden is divided into three educational areas. The herb garden displays beds of coloring, cooking, fragrant and healing herbs. The wildlife habitat garden uses native plants in a meadow, pond, woodland and shrub border habitat to demonstrate how a wildlife habitat can be created in a "backyard." Finally, a compost demonstration garden sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Land Recycling and Waste Management provides examples of seven different composting methods.

Pine Plantation Day Use Area

In contrast to the deciduous forest that covers most of the center grounds, the Pine Plantation lets you experience the shaded environment of a coniferous forest. The plantation of white pine, Douglas fir and larch is located near the entrance of Kings Gap. The C.H. Masland and Sons Carpet Company of Carlisle planted this forest as an experimental tree farm in the 1950s.

During the winters of 1995-97 with assistance from the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, the plantation was thinned to insure its continued health. The removal of excess trees has reduced the competition for sunlight, water and nutrients, lessening the stress on the remaining trees.

The Whispering Pines Trail winds through the plantation. This paved trail includes signs that interpret the coniferous forest.

A small clearing within the pine plantation contains a reconstructed log farm house from the 1850s. The site is used as a focal point for educational programming.

The pine plantation is home to many animals that prefer a coniferous habitat. The silence of the pine forest is often broken by the chatter of a red squirrel as it announces your presence. In the winter months, you may catch sight of a red-breasted nuthatch as it searches the bark of a nearby pine for food.

In the spring, several vernal ponds dot the landscape. Vernal ponds are temporary ponds that fill up with water in the spring as a result of snowmelt, spring rains and/or elevated ground water tables. These important wetland habitats provide a breeding area for a variety of amphibians including spotted salamanders, spring peepers and wood frogs. Each spring participants in the program, "Experiencing a Spring Night," brave the darkness looking for a very small but very noisy tree frog, the spring peeper.

Pond Day Use Area

Located two miles from the entrance of Kings Gap, the Pond Day Use Area features a scenic pond and mountain stream. This area is used extensively for environmental education programming because of its diversity of habitats.

Kings Gap Hollow Run is a spring-fed stream that periodically dries up and reveals a stony bottom. However, in the spring when the water flow is at its peak, this stony bottom is home for many aquatic animals. Pick a stone out of the stream and observe the larva of the black fly as they cling to the stone and filter food from the water. Although the adult black fly is considered a pest, the presence of its larva in the stream is an indicator of good water quality.

The black fly larva and the diversity of the other aquatic life found in the stream indicate good water quality, but the stream is vulnerable. Chemical tests reveal low pH and alkalinity levels due to the geology and vegetation of the area. Low levels of alkalinity indicate the stream has a limited capacity to "buffer" any acid that may enter in the form of acid rain or snow. Without this ability to neutralize additional acid, the pH level can drop. A low pH level means a high acid content. When the acid content becomes too high, the stream no longer supports life.

The deciduous forest that brackets the stream features wetland areas categorized by sphagnum moss, cinnamon ferns, skunk cabbage and tulip trees. In late spring and early summer, hikers may chance upon the clump of grass-like leaves with a white to pale green bloom of the lily of the wildflower fly poison.

The pond supports a wealth of aquatic animals adapted to slower water. It includes frogs, salamanders, turtles, snakes and various aquatic insects. A small, floating platform anchored in the pond provides a safe haven for "basking" painted turtles and water snakes. The pond also serves as an aquatic study area for students participating in field learning experiences.

The White Oaks Trail winds through an oak forest. This paved trail includes signs that interpret the ecology of the forest.

Nearby Attractions

For information on nearby attractions, contact: Cumberland Valley Visitor Bureau. www.visitcumberlandvalley.com

In an Emergency

Contact a park employee or dial 911.
Look for directions to the nearest hospital on bulletin boards and the park office.

Nearest Hospital
Carlisle Regional Medical Center
361 Alexander Spring Road
Carlisle, PA 17015
717-249-1212

For More Information Contact

Kings Gap State Park
500 Kings Gap Rd.
Carlisle, PA 17015-9306
717-486-5031
Manager: Scott Hackenburg

E-mail: kingsgapsp@state.pa.us
An equal opportunity employer

Make online reservations or call toll-free 888-PA-PARKS, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday, for state park information and reservations.

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