This season, take a weekend getaway to visit the Pennsylvania Wilds, the Laurel Highlands, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.
I drove through Pennsylvania to Fallingwater in the fall while the leaves were changing from green to gold, orange and red. Still, the drive in any season would be spectacular, whether it’s green leaves and summer sunshine, white and snow-covered, or the cheerful blooms and rushing waters of springtime.
Fallingwater is the masterpiece house built by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935, partly over a waterfall in the Laurel Highlands about 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. It’s the perfect destination for a road trip through Pennsylvania.
What makes Fallingwater worth seeing:
- The cantilevered terraces make it seem to float above the waterfall
- It offers stunning views of the surrounding forest and mountains
- The interior features artwork from Picasso, Diego Rivera and others
- The house contains original Frank Lloyd Wright furniture
I drove from Michigan through Ohio and once removed from the industrial downtown, the land and the colors of the trees were spectacular. What a show the leaves put on for us at the end of their lives! Once I got to Pennsylvania, it was primarily forested, open land and the trees were plenty and so colorful. It was like driving through a fairy wonderland. This is where you want to program your GPS to avoid highways so you can take your time on the back roads.
The Pennsylvania Wilds
The north-central Pennsylvania region comprising the Wilds covers over 2 million acres of public land. The area is home to various landscapes, including mountains, forests, rivers, and lakes.
It’s a popular destination for outdoor recreation, including hiking, camping, fishing, boating, and hunting. The region is also home to several historic sites and small towns.
Highlights in the Pennsylvania Wilds include:
- Home to one of the largest elk herds in the northeast. Elk reside in many parks and forests in the region.
- The Allegheny National Forest is the largest national forest in Pennsylvania.
- Kinzua Bridge is a tall pedestrian walkway with stunning views of the Allegheny River.
- Cherry Springs State Park is a Dark Sky Park with some of the darkest night skies in the eastern U.S., making it an excellent place for stargazing.
On the way to Fallingwater, my path took me through the Laurel Highlands. It’s a magnificent mountainous region spanning 3,000 square miles in southwestern Pennsylvania. It is defined by three Allegheny Plateau ridges – the Chestnut, Laurel, and Allegheny. It was a long, winding, lovely drive.
Pennsylvania Laurel Highlands
The Laurel Highlands is a region in southwestern Pennsylvania known for its mountain laurel blooms. This mountain laurel is an evergreen shrub that blooms in late spring to early summer with clusters of fragrant white, pink, or purple flowers. The region is home to several parks and forests skirting the westernmost ridges of the Appalachian Mountains, known for its rolling hills, lush forests, and clear streams.
There are several things to do in the Pennsylvania Laurel Highlands, including hiking, camping, fishing, golfing, whitewater rafting and visiting Frank Lloyd Wright architecture (Kentuck Knob and Polymath Park are also nearby). The region also has several historic sites, such as Fort Necessity National Battlefield and the 9/11 Flight 93 National Memorial.
Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright
A long winding road leads into Fallingwater, where there are two parking lots and a guard to ensure you have tickets before you get close. The visitor’s center is modeled in the same organic architecture as the house but made of wood and glass on platforms with an octagon-shaped store, café, and presentation area.
Fallingwater is one of the most famous examples of organic architecture. The style seeks to create buildings that are in harmony with their natural surroundings and this house has it in spades.
The tour groups and guide walk down the sloping, granite-faced hillside to the house filled with massive native Rhododendron bushes. The exterior of the house is visually stunning. You must pause to take it in and understand what you’re looking at. Lloyd Wright modeled it to blend in with the surrounding forest and shrubbery. The clay house is a light beige to match the fading leaf of the Rhododendron.
As you near the house, the sound of the waterfall increases, and the puzzle of the house becomes clearer. At first, its construction appears impossible. There is a rocky outcropping and from it springs a series of long, straight, adobe-looking balconies. Upon closer inspection, the structure seems to rise from the earth itself.
Here, you see the river that stretches in either distance until it appears to go into the house. But it is a trick of the eye; the unique cantilevered design anchors the many levels of the home into the bedrock while the balconies merely jut out over the waterfall as the water passes by and falls off a cliff on the other side of the house.
Inside Fallingwater
The home is filled with classic Frank Lloyd Wright furniture and famous artwork. The guide said Frida Kahlo once stayed in the guesthouse. The fireplace is built from rock, most of the walls are glass and those that aren’t are made from stone quarried nearby to give the impression that you might still be outside. The stone floor is waxed to look like the rocks at the bottom of the riverbed, and the wood blends in with the trees. The colors mirror those outside.
When open, the sound of outside comes in and the waterfall overpowers your senses. The house has 4,400 square feet of living space and 4,900 square feet of outdoor terraces. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell whether you’re inside or out. And you begin to feel that the difference is unimportant.
However, the view everyone is waiting for doesn’t come until the end. Then, we are released from the group tour and can walk a trail down to the bottom of the hill. There, the water from the river meets the far edge of the house to fall off a granite rockface, flows quickly down the rocky bed and falls again. Fallingwater.
Read other stories about Pennsylvania here.
