Over the past Memorial Day weekend I had the pleasure of experiencing the beautiful woods of the Cooks Forest State Park located in Clarion, Pennsylvania. Now, my friends and I aren’t your typical campers… our horses also tag along. From the moment we arrived with horses we were welcomed with open arms. If you are looking for your next camping adventure I highly recommend Cooks Forest Area Scenic Trail Ride and Dude Ranch, and here’s why.

1. Extremely accommodating.

When we first arrived at the camp site we began to unload our horses from the trailer and put them in the tie stalls located close to our cabin. As many of you know, things don’t always go as planned with horses. One of our horses ended up getting loose from the tie stall and the others didn’t seem to want to cooperate. Although, we did not pre-purchase regular stalls, we were accommodated with five open stalls for our horses for the weekend. This made our horses very happy and relieved the stress from our trip!

2. The cabins are fantastic.

Most of the time my friends and I do the whole tent thing. But this time we decided to go all out and rent cabins for the weekend. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. Maybe a set of bunk beds cramped into a small room. But to my surprise the cabins were extremely spacious with bunk beds, a queen sized bed, a mini fridge and a full bathroom. Not to mention, they were also air conditioned! We definitely lived high class this weekend.

3. Beautiful trails.

Talk about gorgeous! Everywhere we went we were surrounded by beautiful scenery with rivers and rolling hills. Pictures don’t do it justice.

4. No bugs.

Say what?? Apparently, this part of Pennsylvania doesn’t have all those nasty horse flies and mosquitoes! This was certainly a pleasant surprise.

5. Everyone is so helpful.

On our first day on the trail we got a bit turned around. The trails were very well marked but we thought we were headed in the wrong direction. At 7 p.m. on Friday we were able to call the camp ground and ask for help finding our way home. The trail guide told us to keep our backs to the sun and we would find camp, and we did. The next time we went out on our own we remembered to ask for directions ahead of time.

6. Guided trail rides.

After getting a little lost the first day we decided to go on a guided trail ride. With so many trails to explore it was nice having this as an option to adventure deeper into the forest and not get lost. The trail guides were extremely friendly and willing to help the horses that needed a little extra help crossing rivers or going over trees.

On our last day my friends and I made an agreement to make a tradition out of visiting Cooks Forest every year. If you’re looking for a horse friendly camp site with beautiful scenic trails I highly recommend booking your next camping trip here! Cooks Forest is a horse lovers vacation paradise!