If you want to escape your screens this weekend, head over to Luzerne County. Nescopeck State Park spreads across 3,550 acres of quiet woods where you won't get any cell service. Most people come for the creek. It cuts right through the park, cold and packed with wild trout. Grab your rods. Nineteen miles of dirt trails wind through the thick hemlocks. You will get muddy. The park gets incredibly swampy in the spring, but that's actually the best time to see the vernal pools waking up. Listen closely for wood frogs.

Don't miss the bog garden near the park office. It features carnivorous pitcher plants. They slowly drown unsuspecting bugs in their sticky, water-filled leaves, which is basically the coolest thing you will see all day. Over 160 bird species live here. Bring binoculars. You might spot a yellow-rumped warbler flashing through the branches. The staff at the education center run programs on everything from dragonfly lifecycles to tracking coyote paws in the snow. No plastic playgrounds exist here. You only get dirt, rocks, and sky.

Back in the 1800s, settlers cleared this valley for timber and farming. They built homesteads. Soon, massive hemlock trees fell to the axe. Then came the coal boom. Companies needed wood for mine props, so logging crews stripped the hills bare. It was a messy, loud era. By the middle of the twentieth century, though, the forest started to reclaim the empty fields.

Private landowners held onto the property for decades. Then, the state stepped in. In the early 1970s, the conservation department began buying up these tracts of land to prevent heavy development. They secured over 3,000 acres. Engineers built a nine-acre lake during this transition period, stocking it with trout. Decades passed. Finally, in 2005, the public got full access to the trails and the new visitor center.

There are no entrance fees or day use fees for any state park in Pennsylvania.