Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on August 6, 2024.
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We love our area parks, and one of our absolute favorites is North Park in Allison Park, about 20 minutes north of the city.
One of the reasons why we love this park so much is because it has something for everyone, be it for walking, running, biking, hiking, kayaking, and so much more.
While we normally go on outings in this park on our own, we were invited by L.L.Bean to check out a sunset kayaking tour as part of their Outdoor Discovery Program to explore North Park Lake on a more intimate guided experience as the sun goes down.
For those who want to take a different look at the lake and park at large, the kayak outing is a must-experience.
A Guided Tour of North Park Lake With L.L.Bean Outdoors
After arriving to L.L.Bean’s station at North Park, we met our guides and were given a quick safety briefing, were fitted with life jackets, and provided a quick introductory lesson to all things kayaking. (It is worth noting that we are frequent kayakers, so this step was brief for our tour as we were the only participants.)
The tour’s entry point was on the eastern side of the lake, in a quiet and fairly secluded section that would allow those who are not as seasoned in kayaking to do a few loops around before heading out to the much larger and more trafficked section of the lake.
We proceeded to navigate around the nearby spillway, where our guides explained the origins of North Park Lake, when it was built, and how the engineers designed the lake to be drained to be cleaned periodically.
After that, we made our way through a small channel to Pine Creek that feeds into the lake to explore a much more secluded section of the park that even we had not explored on previous trips out on the water. Tours of this section are dependent on the water levels as the creek can be quite low, but it made for a peaceful and serene experience where we were even fortunate enough to see a baby beaver!
Our trip up Pine Creek ended when we reached a shallow patch that our kayaks couldn’t safely navigate, so we returned back to North Park lake for a loop around the shores as the sun was setting to see what kind of wildlife we could see. Over the course of the next 90 minutes or so, we were quite fortunate to spot another beaver, a heron, many other birds landing in the water, and deer as well.
This was quite the experience for many reasons, but perhaps best of all was that by the time the sun set it felt like we were the only kayakers left out on the lake, and made for an intimate experience all around- especially when all of the animals were coming out at night. A real treat we likely would not have experienced otherwise!
L.L.Bean Outdoors Has More Tours to Check Out
While our sunset kayaking tour was quite enjoyable, for those who want a different kind of experience on North Park Lake (and nearby), it is worth noting that L.L.Bean has many other tours to consider in their Outdoor Discovery Program.
There are discovery courses to learn to kayak, sunset and full moon kayak trips to get out on the lake in the evening/at night, a Perseid meteor shower tour in August, sunrise kayaks, fall foliage tours, and more. They also have many of these tours as an option to try stand-up paddleboarding as well, including additional tours like SUP yoga!
Going beyond tours on the water, L.L.Bean Outdoors Discovery Program also offers tours focused around hiking, fly fishing, archery, and a whole lot more during the season. So if you’re wanting to get out in nature with an experienced guide, check out the tours and get a closer look at the beauty of North Park on your next visit!
North Park is located in Allison Park, PA. To check out tours and experiences from the L.L.Bean Outdoors Discovery Program, click here. We were guests of L.L.Bean for this tour. As always, all opinions are our own.
