Not to be confused with The Promised Land Camp, which is well know in the DCA family, Promised Land State Park is located in North East PA about 30 minutes South East of Scranton. The park is mainly comprised of two large lakes, day use areas, and tons of hiking trails.

We are staying here for four nights and will be filling our days with kayaking, biking, hiking, taking pictures, and relaxing.  We will NOT be spending our time in front of screens (except for me who needs to do a little work).  So far we’ve already had a blast!

The lakes are incredible, full of flowering water lilies and other flowering plants.  Navigating via kayak can almost be a challenge in some parts given how full of plant life the water is.  We’ve managed to get in a bit of biking and swimming as well.

One very exciting thing happened the first day we were here as Ava and I searched empty campsites for firewood.  The section we are in is very empty with most sites being unused, as Ava and I walked down the road I noticed something brown moving behind a picnic bench.  Well I’m happy to say that I’ve finally had my first wild encounter with a Black Bear.  Easily as tall as I am had it chosen to rise to it’s rear legs, it was large enough to easily get my attention.  I stopped Ava in her tracks and pointed it out and then we started to do what one does when you see a Black Bear and wish to not have a closer encounter, you start making some noise!  Now we were never closer then about 200 feet from the bear but seeing one just stroll through the campground certainly has given Wendy and I a moment of pause when it comes to the idea of letting the kids ride their bikes without us around the campground.  Sadly I don’t have photographic proof that this encounter actually took place.  🙁

Here is some other images though that I have managed to capture.