Pennsylvania Waypoints

Welcome to the Pennsylvania Waypoints Project

What is the purpose of this web site?
The vision for this site is to provide an online resource of special locations in Pennsylvania that aren't found in tour guides, on road maps or in the phone book. Pennsylvania is loaded with scenic overlooks, waterfalls, old ruins, unique rock formations and other special places, but many of them aren't documented well, if at all. Those that have been written about are often difficult to locate. In order to find many of these special places, you'd have to research dozens of books, State Park & State Forest maps, topographical maps, talk to local historians, DCNR/Game Commission officials, etc. Finding books that might have details on such places is often difficult, reading through them takes time, and verifying that the location information they contain is accurate takes a huge amount of effort. The goal of this site is to act as a waypoint archive of the exact locations of such special places and to provide access to those waypoints in a digital format that can easily be used with GPS receivers and computer mapping applications.

Ok... so what's a Waypoint?
A waypoint (in GPS terminology) is a specific location designated by latitude and longitude coordinates. Waypoints are used to mark important places. Most car navigation systems include built-in waypoints (called Points of Interest, or POIs) for restaurants, gas stations, hotels and such, but none of them will point you to the nearest waterfall or scenic overlook -- unless you first put that information into them. This site is where you'll find that information.

What types of waypoints will you find here?
Presently the two largest databases being prepared for this site are Waterfalls and Overlooks with over 200 and 250 waypoints, respectively. Future databases will include Historical Ruins and Geological Features, however those have not been extensively researched yet so they don't contain much information. Other ideas include Trailheads, Road/Trail Intersections, Springs, Trail Shelters, and other places of a similar nature if there's enough interest and enough volunteers willing to help collect the information.

Updates & Web Site News

September 8, 2008: Made some changes to the code that generates the GSAK-compatible GPX files to allow GSAK to grab the waypoint descriptions. Also made a minor change to the Search Results page to handle line breaks better.

August 14, 2008: Fixed the issue with the search page labels not showing up in Firefox 3. Added a search button to top of this page. I'm slowly (very slowly) working on a new look for this site, but I'm not much of an artistic, creative person. I'll see what I can do. If you can do better and are willing to help, shoot me an email.

June 22, 2008: Removed the links to the static data pages. The search pages are working pretty well, except for some odd quirk with Firefox 3 that's preventing labels on the search page from showing up. I've added download links for GPX files in both GSAK/Geocaching.com and Topografix formats for additional compatibility. Please report any problems with the GPX files to me.

May 21, 2008: Thanks again to Matt Hoover we now have downloadable GPX files that are created realtime from the current database. Up until now I had to upload static files to the site for downloading so the data wasn't current very often. The new files are generated when you click the link so the data is always fresh. Head to the downloads page to try out the new feature. It's still in beta (as most things here are) but it seems to be working just fine. If you experience any problems please email me.

April 29, 2008: Now that the SQL database has been created and populated, I'm working on coding some behind-the-scenes stuff to make site administration easier. I've also been working on enhancing the Waypoint Search Page to return more information. For now, the static pages are still available as are the downloadable GPX files. I'd like to be able to generate GPX files on the fly for download, but coding that is beyond my current skill level. Trying to learn SQL, PHP and how to put together a web site all at the same time is a bit overwhelming, but thanks to those who have volunteered their time and talent this site has made some great progress -- even if it isn't readily apparent to the casual visitor.

April 23, 2008: Thanks to the effort of Matt Hoover the lists of Waterfalls and Overlooks have been loaded into a MySQL database. A basic search page is available that allows you to search by County, Waypoint Type, or for a keyword.

The new search page is HERE. There's also a test search page HERE which may work better, worse, or not at all.

Our Current Databases:

Waterfalls
This is a list of naturally occurring waterfalls in Pennsylvania. Most of them are accessible to the general public, but a few are mentioned here for reference only. Coordinates have been withheld from private locations. Information on each waterfall includes its height, the watercourse it occurs in, and the type of access allowed to it.

Overlooks
Pennsylvania is full of beautiful scenic overlooks and vistas. Many of these locations are right along the road, but others require a hike of a few miles to get to. Whatever your preference, you'll find something here to fit the bill. Lots of research has already been done on these locations and more is being done all the time. This database should grow and contain even more accurate information as time goes on.

Covered Bridges
Pennsylvania is home to many covered bridges, many of them more than 100 years old but still in daily use. A number of books have been written about these bridges, and there are a number of websites dedicated to them as well. Dale Travis runs one such site, and has agreed to let us use the information he hosts there. Follow the link below for more information.

Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges

Databases planned for the future:

Geological Formations
There are lots of unique geological formations in our great state. Many of them are located in state parks and well known, but others are much harder to find. Each is unique, and certainly worthy of inclusion on this site.

Old & Historical Ruins
There are lots of sites across Pennsylvania that were boom towns back in the 1800's but were eventually abandoned. Mining towns, lumber towns, sometimes just an old homesteader's house out in the woods... all these places are interesting to visit and study. Some ruins might not be of buildings, but of iron furnaces, lime kilns, stone towers, aircraft beacons, amusement park rides, or similar things. Many of these ruins aren't documented anywhere. I hope to change that with this web site. Such places shouldn't be lost to history.

And after that?

If enough interest in this project builds, we'll do what the volunteers want to do. My ideas include the following, but there are probably other great ideas that I haven't even considered.

Trailheads
Hiking trails exist in all corners of the Keystone State, however the trailheads are sometimes difficult to locate. Our focus on this website will be to provide coordinates to trailheads and road/trail intersections. If you're looking for trail maps, please check out the Keystone Trails Association.

Road/Trail & Trail/Trail Intersections
Planning hikes and hiking routes is easier if you know exactly where two trails come together, or where blazed, designated trails cross a road. Collecting this information alone would be next to impossible, but with enough volunteers across the state, it might come together pretty quickly.

Odd / Weird Places
There are lots of places in Pennsylvania that are "odd", or unique. The book "Weird Pennsylvania" highlights a number of them. Places like these include the Coffee Pot building in Altoona, or Pennsylvania's smallest church (which holds about 6 people), or the Shoe House in York county, to name a few.

A note about private property and sensitive locations
While many special sites are located on public property, that's not always the case. Some of Pennsylvania's most unique features are situated on private property where visitors are simply not welcome. While I would like to include those features in this database for reference, I realize that the property owners may not want their exact locations revealed. Such waypoints will not have coordinates listed online and will not be included in downloadable files. A general location, such as the county in which a waypoint exists is all that will be mentioned. If you're the owner of one of the waypoints featured here and you'd like to have its exact location removed, please email me.

Sensitive locations, such as endangered species habitats, caves, or other fragile areas will not be listed on this site. Organizations such as the National Speleological Society or the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources might be willing to provide that information to credible researchers, so please check with them. As a member of the NSS myself, locations of caves certainly interest me and I do keep a private database of them, but publishing them online would be extremely irresponsible.

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