Tyler State Park

I love this beautiful state park.  It has many great walking trails and is the perfect place to go on wet spring afternoon for there are so many paved trails.  There are the popular areas filled with crowds – such as down by the dam – but once you leave that area there are mile of trails through rolling hills.

MAP

One quick loop we like: Looking at the Park Map it would be hard to identify  for it is not well marked.  When visiting as a child this connector did not exist and I was happy to stumble upon the new trail.

  1. We park at the trail head for the Quarry Trail.  It is just right inside the park entrance and avoids the busier area by the Boat House Area. The autumn colors are splendid along this trail becoming more and more vibrant as you head down to the creek.
  2. We turn left when we reach Tyler Drive Trail and follow it as it winds along the creek.  Again the changing leaves are just amazing with bright yellows.
  3. When it reaches the Main Park Road the trails continues crossing over it twice — there is never a need to walk on the road.  After the second crossing the path is alongside Route 332 and then crosses over the Neshaminy Creek.  What an amazing view from the bridge!
  4. You do need to maneuver carefully through the parking lot to get back onto the paved Mill Dairy Trail.  We follow this trail making the right turn rather then going straight up the hill.   We follow this to the Pedestrian Causeway and cross back over the Neshaminy Creek and once again pick up the Tyler Drive Trail which will take us back to the Quarry Trail.  It is around 2 miles, easy, and paved.

Longer Loops:   For longer walks we prefer to park at PA Guild of Craftsman Craft Center. There area is not as busy.  Starting here there are so many wonderful trails to connect to and to zig zag throughout that park to make an excellent 4+ mile loop – which is nice for so many trails we take elsewhere are not loops.  You are beginning at a higher point – so you will be going downhill first on either the Dairy Hill Trail or the Mill Trail.  Both are steep inclines providing a good workout when walking up!

A perfect ending to this walk is a stop in historic Newtown with many great places to shop and eat.  For us our favorite stop is down the road at Tanner’s – another place I have been visiting since I was a child.  Amazing prices and the best ice-cream.