STANDARD-JOURNAL Tom and Miriam Millbrand show off their Pennsylvania State Park passport booklet. The Union County couple recently finished their quest to visit the 121 state parks in Pennsylvania, though three more have been added since the end of their journey in October.

NEW BERLIN — A visit to a state park for some can be a relaxing couple of hours. But for a Union County couple, it became a quest.

Tom and Miriam Milbrand, who are both 76 and live in New Berlin, started a quest in July 2020 — at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — to visit each of Pennsylvania’s state parks.

“We were on a hike at R.B. Winter State Park when our son Kyle bought us a P.A. State Parks passport,” Tom said. “We are both retired school teachers, so we thought we had nothing better to do, so we thought we would go and visit each of the state’s 121 state-owned parks.”

The couple completed their quest in October. However, three additional state parks have since been added since the Milbrand’s set their goal of visiting the 121 parks. They now hope to take in the new ones as well.

The couple started their adventure with the local parks, like R.B. Winter, McCall’s Dam and Shickellamy State Park before branching out.

“We would sometimes hit two or three on the same day, especially if they were close by,” Tom said.

At each state park they visited, the couple stopped at the park office to have their state park passport stamped by the park ranger.

“If we got to the park office after hours, there was a place where we could get a sticker to act as a stamp for our visit to the park, and we would put that in our passports,” Tom said.

To visit a state park or a group of them takes some planning.

“We would look at a map and pick two or three parks near the same area and then would look for an inexpensive hotel that served free breakfast to stay the night in,” Tom said. “We would get up early, pack a simple lunch of granola bars, or peanut butter and jelly, go to the parks, walk or hike and take in the views. We would finish up usually in the late afternoon before finding a nice brew pub to eat a fabulous meal in.”

“What is nice about our adventure is not only the parks, but the drive to get there,” he continued. “Part of the adventure is the back roads and small towns we would travel through. Like when we went to the northeast corner of the state driving through Factoryville or Gouldsboro, and getting to see these tiny places we’ve only ever heard of was special.”

“And the wildlife we’d see, turkeys and lots and lots of deer, it’s a great way to go birding too,” Miriam added.

Tom noted that many nearby state parks fall under the lead of one main state park in that area.

“Take for example McCall’s Dam State Park, Ravensburg State Park, Sand Bridge State Park, all fall under the oversight of R.B. Winter State Park,” he explained. “So when it came time to have our passport stamped for those parks, we had to get that taken care of at the R.B. Winter State Park office.”

The couple enjoyed their visit to King’s Gap State Park, in South Central Pennsylvania.

“There’s a historic mansion on the park grounds which you can rent rooms out and stay in,” Tom said. “So we did. The mansion has a beautiful vista from a rear deck where we enjoyed morning coffee overlooking the Cumberland Valley.”

He noted that Prouty Place State Park is located in a remote area.

“We drove for miles on a one lane dirt road, which emptied out into a meadow area where there was a old-fashioned hand pump for water, and nothing else,” Tom said. “There were no restroom facilities. We later found out it was more for a hunter parking spot so hunters could park and hike into the woods to hunt.”

Miriam explained there are six state parks that are considered environmental learning centers.

“They are so educational and actually teach you how to be environmentally responsible,” she said.

“I came home from them and it made me think about making sure I turned out the lights if I left a room of the house.”

According to Tom, Presque Isle State Park in Erie County is the most visited one in the state.

In 2021, Miriam had knee surgery during the winter and the couple didn’t get to go out much. However, the two resumed their quest after Miriam healed.

Two of the most challenging parks for the couple was Erie Bluffs State Park, where Tom said he had to help pull Miriam up a steep incline to the top of the bluffs which overlook Lake Erie.

The other challenging park was Kinzua Bridge State Park. That happened to be the last state park the couple visited, in October 2022.

“When we were younger we both had been to the Kinzua Bridge State Park and actually walked across the railroad bridge,” Tom said. “That was before a tornado wrecked part of the bridge in 2003. When we visited in 2022, we hiked down the trail to the bottom of the Kinzua gorge to see the wreckage of the old train bridge. We had to take our time and took many breaks especially on the way back up.”

“The nice thing about the trails in the state parks, many of them are marked as to their difficulty level or hazards along the way,” Miriam noted.

The couple also talked about the historical significance of some of the state parks, like Green Wood Furnace, and the ores and metals that were mined there; the P.A. Lumber Museum near Denton Hill State Park; and the Buchanan State Park, birthplace of the 15th president of the United States.

“Ninety percent or better of the state parks are R.B. Winter quality or better, and the state park staff are always so nice and accommodating,” Tom said. “I would recommend doing this for anybody. The state parks are fun, they’re free, and getting there is even more fun.”

For Miriam, it’s the appreciation of her home state that stood out most to her about the quest.

“Why do people go out of state to visit something different? Pennsylvania is a gem,” she said.

“Why are people spending thousands of dollars when they can spend less than $200 here? You can choose what you want to do, and there’s a lot to do and see.”