We were planning to leave Croton on July 6th but troubles with the truck delayed us by two days  and we left on July 8th. As planned however our first stop was the Jonestown/ Hershey KOA for a one night stay.  The campground is in Jonestown is about a half hour from Hershey but  Kampgrounds Of America campgrounds often are outside of the towns in their name. They are also expensive as campgrounds go but they do have nice amenities for families with children. Obviously this doesn’t benefit us but we like their reservation system and cancellation policies. In the difficult to find reservation era this is worth the extra cost to us. None the less this was a nice campground adjacent to a State Park with access to a walking path. Unfortunately our walk was cut short by rain although we made it back relatively dry. If convenient maybe we will return someday to finish our walk.

CampgroundTrailtrail


We had a 4 day reservation for the 7th in Mountain Pines Campground in Champion Pa and they were kind enough to shift the dates to the 9th which was when we arrived. Behind the campground is the Indian Creek Valley Trail which we walked on after setting up in our site.



Indian Creek TrailBridge accross creek from campground



 On the 10th we drove to Shanksville, PA and the Flight 93 Memorial. The drive turned out to be further then expected and I still don't know if there were actually closer campgrounds. However none of that interfered with our visit and we had plenty of time to take in the entire Memorial which is quite impressive and an honored resting place and hollowed ground for those brave heroes of Flight 93.

National Park Flight 93 Memorial

On September 11, 2001 Four Planes from the Northeast were hijacked by members of the terrorist group known as Al-Quaeda. Two of thew planes were intentionally crashed into and destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City. A third plane was intentionally crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC.  The fourth plane United Flight 93 was deliberately crashed in a field in Stonycreek Township, PA short of it's intended target. The hijackers crashed the plane when they realized that the heroic passengers and crew who were attempted to take control would prevail. The memorial was designed by Paul Murdoch Architects and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects after a competition. A Black Granite walkway from the parking lot to the visitors cent follows the plane's flight path as it approached the hill overlooking the crash site.

Stone Tileway foloowing the flight PathPath, Visitors Center and wall overlooking Crash site


Through the gap in the wall is a fence overlooking the path and the crash site the path to the right  does not follow the flight path as it was made for walking to the plaza below (barely seen here)one can also drive down or take a shuttle

Overlooking the crash sitepath down tthe hill to crash site



parking lotgrove of trees

Walkwaymarble wall of names
Above two pictures compliments of the NPS Flight 93 Memorial


from the parking lot through a grove of 40 trees to the Visitors Shelter and Arrival Court behind which is a group of benches for outdoor presentations followed by The Memorial Plaza Wall and Walkway  which is a quarter mile flanking the final resting place of the passengers, crew and the hijacker's as well. While DNA identified all aboard Flight 93 there were not enough remains for burial of any individual making the entire 71 Acre crash site their common grave.

At the end of the quarter mile walkway are 40 Marble Panels inscribed with the Names of passengers and crew. To the left of the wall is the wooden Ceremonial Gate allowing visitors to look down the flight path to the 17.5 ton sandstone boulder  at the edge of the impact site 
17.5 Sandstone Boulder


The flight impacted at 563 miles per hour at a 40 degree nose down inverted altitude. The impact left a crater 8 to 10 feet deep and 30 to 50 feet wide. The flight recorder was 25 feet under the ground debris was scattered 8 miles from the impact site and human remains insufficient to bury were found over a 70 acre area .The coroner declared cause of death as blunt force trauma. Identifiable Individual property was returned to families except for that of the terrorists which was kept by the FBI. 

We returned to the upper parking lot on the outside perimeter and preceded to drive to the Tower of Voices
"ninety-three feet tall musical instrument holding forty wind chimes, representing the forty passengers and crew members. It is intended to be a landmark feature near the memorial entrance, visible from US Route 30"

outer perimiterTower of voices






After driving to the Tower and walking around it we returned to the Campground.
On the 11th we again walked on the Indian Creek Valley trail

Indian Creek Valley Trail

We  left the next day on the 12th after 3 nights instead of after the 4th night which we had  paid for and went to the KOA in Streetsboro, Ohio