5 North Huntingdon Parks to Explore Beyond Oak Hollow

Not long ago, the playground at Oak Hollow Park was in bad enough shape that almost nobody used it. Then, in under a year, that same corner of the park turned into an 18-hole disc golf course, one that a player who says he's visited around a hundred courses called one of the nicest he's ever seen. As he put it after a return trip: "So good on North Huntingdon for finally doing something worthwhile and fun with a park."

That turnaround says something bigger about how this township actually works. Almost every event the Parks and Recreation department runs, the movie nights, the fireworks, the disc golf course everyone's talking about now, happens at Oak Hollow. But the department's own geocaching trail runs through five separate parks, which means the township's actual footprint of green space is bigger than the one park that gets all the attention. The other four parks in that trail aren't backups. They're doing different jobs, and most people who've lived here for years still haven't walked them.

What's Actually on the Calendar Right Now

If you caught the last Night Market at the Public Works Grounds on August 6, that was the final one of the season, a run that started in May and hit four Thursdays total. The next thing on the Township's public events calendar is the Endless Summer Celebration at Oak Hollow Park on August 22, which moved up from where it landed last year. In 2025, the event ran September 6 from 1 to 9 p.m., with three live acts on the bill (My So Called 90's Band, Twisted Fate, and Bon Journey Pittsburgh), a shuttle bus running from Sheridan Terrace Elementary, food trucks that included Bull River Tacos and Fox's Pizza, and a fireworks finale from Pyrotechnico around 9:30 p.m. The Township hasn't posted this year's full lineup yet, but the date itself is confirmed on their official special events page, and it's two weeks earlier on the calendar than last time. If Labor Day weekend is when you usually expect it, mark the new date.

That's the event everyone already knows about. It's also, oddly, the reason the rest of the parks system tends to go unnoticed. When Oak Hollow is where the crowds gather, it becomes the default answer to "where should we go," and the other four parks quietly become the places you drive past on the way somewhere else.

The Five Parks in the Geocaching Program

Here's what's actually out there, in acreage and specifics rather than adjectives:

Braddock's Trail Park, off Robbins Station Road in the southwestern corner of the township, is actually the biggest park in the system, bigger than Oak Hollow. It has a waterfall and a wide range of wildflower species along its wooded trails. It also carries real history: the park is named for British Major General Edward Braddock, whose army camped in what's now North Huntingdon in July 1755 on the march toward Fort Duquesne, a campaign that ended in a decisive defeat near what is today the town of Braddock. That's not a marketing detail. It's the reason the trailhead looks the way it does, and it's a piece of pre-Revolutionary War history sitting inside township limits that most residents drive past without stopping for.

Indian Lake Park runs along Clay Pike and centers on a 5-acre lake with a paved path good for walking, running, or rollerblading. A covered bridge sits at the spillway, which is a small architectural detail you don't get anywhere else in the township's park system. It's a different kind of visit than Oak Hollow: quieter, flatter, built around the water rather than around a field or a court.

Lions Park is smaller and less programmed, a wooded loop off McKee Road that's mostly used by people who already know it's there. Tinkers Run rounds out the list as a neighborhood-scale green space. None of these four get the foot traffic Oak Hollow does, and none of them show up in the same "what to do this weekend" conversations, even though they're a five to ten minute drive from most addresses in the township.

The Geocaching Trail Nobody's Finished

The clearest evidence that most residents stick to one park is the Township's own geocaching program. As of the current parks and recreation notes, the program has logged 209 finds total across all five parks combined, Braddock's Trail, Indian Lake, Lions, Oak Hollow, and Tinkers Run. North Huntingdon has roughly 31,800 residents. Even accounting for repeat finds by the same handful of hobbyists, 209 total logs across an entire township-wide program is a small number. This isn't a played-out activity people have already moved past. It's one that hasn't caught on with most people yet, which means there's still something genuinely low-key and free to do here that doesn't feel used up.

There's a catch worth knowing before you go looking, though. The cache at Oak Hollow is currently disabled and needs to be replaced, per the Township's own notes. So right now, the "five-park trail" is functionally a four-park trail: Braddock's Trail, Indian Lake, Lions, and Tinkers Run are live, and Oak Hollow's is on hold. If you're planning a weekend around finding all five, that's the kind of detail that saves you a wasted trip.

Where to Eat Once You've Walked Them

If the parks loop leaves you hungry, Fontana's Cafe at 7720 Pennsylvania Avenue has been a North Huntingdon landmark since 1947. It's tucked back off Route 30, easy to miss from the road, and the outside gives you almost no sense of what's inside. The regular crowd knows it as a bar with live music and a Wednesday karaoke night, but the kitchen turns out dishes that don't match the setting: pork loin with cranberry glaze, seared scallops, Chilean sea bass. As one longtime patron described it, "This place is a 5 star restaurant disguised as bar / band establishment." It's the kind of place that survives on word of mouth rather than foot traffic off the highway, and it's been doing that since 1947.

The Actual Takeaway

None of this means Oak Hollow isn't worth the trip on August 22. It is, and if last year's version is any guide, it'll be worth the shuttle ride from Sheridan Terrace. But the township isn't short on things to do. It's short on residents treating the whole system as one connected set of options instead of one park they already know by heart. The disc golf course took less than a year to go from an unused eyesore to a genuine draw. The other four parks have been sitting there the whole time, fully built, mostly empty, waiting for the same kind of attention.

If you've lived in North Huntingdon for years and haven't walked Braddock's Trail or looped Indian Lake, this is the month to do it. The weather's still good, the Oak Hollow crowds are about to pick up for the 22nd, and the rest of the parks are exactly as quiet as they've always been.

If you're weighing a move within the township, or just want to talk local parks, restaurants, and what's actually worth your time here, Elizabeth Bires has been walking these same trails for years and is always happy to talk shop over coffee. Let's Connect.