Slippery Rock Creek

We went to McConnell Mill State Park, which is 40 miles north to Pittsburgh ,on Sunday August 23, 2020. The park is named after an colonial time built mill, but is famous for its whitewater creek - Slipper Rock  Creek.

It was beautiful Sunday.  We arrived at the park at its Kildoo fall parking lot and walked to the park's namesake Mill and the covered bridge. The location is also the trail head to Alpha pass trail, going north, and kildoo fall trail, going south on the east bank of Slippery Rock Creek, slippery rock gorge trail, also going south but on the west bank of the creek.

We hiked on the short alpha pass trail first and then visited the McConnell's mill museum. I was amazed by the engineering work that made the mill possible - no electricity, no electrical control, purely mechanical mechanisms that made all work possible without any pollution!

Covered bridge and the old mill - the old building

the inside of the old mill

the trees on the banks of the creek 

Our main activity at the park was hiking along the slippery rock creek. The trails on both banks are well shaded, and perfect for  hiking on a warm sunny day. There were not too many people at the park, and most of those took the kildoo trail. We crossed the creek on the covered bridge and took the slippery rock gorge trail on the west bank.

The water was running in the narrower section of the creek, but not seems barely flowing in wide section, indicative of drought for the past several months. Nevertheless, its rustic beauty sustains, the big boulders, the green forests. 

slippery creek - narrow section - whitewater

slippery rock creek  - wide section - calm water

The slippery rock gorge trail, is on the steep slop of west bank, the terrain is rough. The trail is pretty far from the water. We stopped only once to reach the creek at water level, we rested on big rocks in the creek, which were not slippery, to view the creek upstream and down stream. 

We crossed Eckert bridge, and took the return hike on east bank via kildoo fall trail, which is much lower than Slippery rock gorge trail, and close to water. We paused a couple times, sitting on fallen tree branch to watch the "fish" in the creek, or sitting on the raised rocks in the water watching and listening to the rushing water - quiet and soothing. 

A great place for a day trip. 

The illusion - a big fish in the underwater trees

whitewater

Side note

One day at Pittsburgh, before we went to slippery rock creek, we drove past an advertisement from Slippery Rock University: Slippery Rock - Rock Solid. We had a good laugh about this oxymoron.