Deer Valley YMCA Family Camp
Deer Valley is a year-round family camp run by the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh. In Somerset County at the base of Mount Davis, Deer Valley has 742 acres with woods, hills, fields, and a lake for watersports and fishing in summer, ice-fishing and skating in the winter time. Driving time from Pittsburgh is 2 hours; three hours, from Washington DC.
A Lodge has fireplace and activity rooms, and meals are served in a lakeside dining hall. Guests can stay in dorm-style bedrooms, with private bathrooms, in the Lodge, or in cottages and (heated) cabins with queen and bunk beds and bathrooms; cabins are near a washhouse with showers and washers and dryers.
Sports include tennis, volleyball, basketball, horseshoes, bocce, Frisbee golf, rock-climbing, archery, and a BB range; and windsurfing, canoeing, kayaking on the lake. Trails and woods are the setting for hiking, biking, bird-watching, animal tracking, nature scavenger hunts, and horse-riding. In winter, guests can try skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, and tubing.
Arts and crafts: all ages can enjoy the Craft Shop, which has potter's wheels, jewelry making, clay sculpting, leather-tooling, and more, with staff on hand to help.
Horse Barn: offers a variety of rides, from beginner to experienced, and lessons in riding and horse-grooming.
Nearby attractions: whitewater rafting; Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater; local festivals.
Summer Family Camp: a morning day camp has educational activities and fun for kids age three and up; teen program has supervised outings and social events.
Special Weekends: Deer Valley has many seasonal special programs. For example, Fall Foliage family weekend has hikes, hayrides, and a demonstration of apple-cider making: parents and kids participate from crushing the apples, to sipping the cider.
