6 Things That Close or Cost More in Pennsylvania’s Pocono and Laurel Highlands Towns After Labor Day
Labor Day was a week and a half ago.
Seven Springs already cut its Alpine Slide and lake paddleboats to weekends only, and it isn’t the only place up there running a shorter week now.
These are the things that close or cost more in Pennsylvania’s Pocono and Laurel Highlands towns after Labor Day.
1. Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark
Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark in Tannersville runs its slides, its wave pool and its lazy river every day through the busiest weeks of summer.
Then the gates lock for the year.
September 7 is the outdoor park’s last operating day of the 2026 season, according to the resort’s posted hours.
That’s Labor Day.
Camelback Resort keeps an indoor water park, Aquatopia, running through the fall and winter.
A day guest can buy an Aquatopia ticket without booking a room.
The outdoor side, sun and crowds included, stays closed until next Memorial Day.
Tannersville still fills up around Camelback’s slopeside dining and shops, even once the wave pool empties out for the year.
2. Laurel Hill State Park
Laurel Hill State Park’s swimming page lists its beach as open from late May to Labor Day only, 8 a.m. to sunset, with nothing scheduled past that date.
That beach, tucked into the hills outside Ligonier, draws a full crowd every summer.
Swimming stops there.
A canoe or a kayak can still go out on Laurel Hill Lake well into October.
The campground next to the lake stays busy with tents and RVs long after the beach crowd thins out.
What Laurel Hill’s Closed Beach Means
Laurel Hill State Park’s swim beach was never lifeguarded, even in the middle of July.
Pennsylvania’s state park beaches run on an open-swim policy, patrolled by park staff instead of a lifeguard.
Only two of them break that pattern: Presque Isle and the Fuller Lake beach inside Pine Grove Furnace State Park.
The buoy line and the posted swim hours end for the season on Labor Day, not a lifeguard chair, since nobody was sitting in one to begin with.
3. Kittatinny Canoes
Kittatinny Canoes runs canoe, kayak and raft trips along a long stretch of the Delaware River seven days a week each summer.
That ends after Labor Day.
Kittatinny’s fall calendar cuts its river base to Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only, closed Monday through Thursday, running from September 7 through October 24.
A weekday raft trip on the Delaware waits until next spring.
Kittatinny’s FAQ warns paddlers to call ahead once the calendar turns, since some of its river bases don’t run daily once fall sets in.
Dingmans Ferry and Milford, the river towns Kittatinny’s bases call home, empty out fast once the weekday paddlers disappear.
4. Keystone State Park
Keystone State Park sits a short drive from Latrobe and Ligonier.
Its swimming page lists the sand beach as open only from late May to Labor Day, 8 a.m. to sunset, with nothing listed after that.
The buoys come down.
Boaters and anglers still have the lake well into fall.
Keystone’s picnic pavilions and boat launch don’t follow the beach’s calendar.
5. Seven Springs Mountain Resort
Seven Springs Mountain Resort’s hours page confirms the Alpine Slide, chairlift rides and Tahoe Lake paddleboats ran daily through the summer.
That ends August 31.
From that Monday on, the activities close Monday through Friday and open only Saturdays and Sundays, through October 18.
Labor Day itself is the exception, with the rides running that Monday on the old summer clock.
Seven Springs raises something else that same week.
Its season pass page lists Labor Day, September 7, as the last day of the fall’s lowest pricing on next winter’s lift passes.
Prices go up from there for the rest of the season.
A skier who waits until October to buy still gets on the mountain, just not at the Labor Day rate.
6. Beltzville State Park
Beltzville State Park’s swimming page lists the beach as open only from late May through Labor Day, with the food concession stand running on the same schedule.
That beach, on Beltzville Lake outside Lehighton, pulls a full crowd all summer.
Both close together.
Pack a cooler if a Beltzville trip is on the calendar for September.
Psst! How much do you know about the Poconos and the Laurel Highlands? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Poconos & Laurel Highlands IQ
Answer these questions on Pocono and Laurel Highlands history. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
The town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, was known by what name for more than a century before its 1954 renaming?
When Guaranteed Whitewater Gets Scarce
Pennsylvania's Lehigh River runs right past Jim Thorpe, and its best whitewater depends on a scheduled dam release, not rainfall.
The river needs a push.
A release fell on Labor Day weekend itself, then the next one doesn't land until October 9, according to Jim Thorpe River Adventures' posted 2026 calendar.
That's more than a month between guaranteed high water.
Other outfitters along the Lehigh Gorge plan their fall trips around those same release dates.
Trips still run daily on the river's natural flow, per Jim Thorpe River Adventures' rafting FAQ, so a raft doesn't need the dam's release to float.
A paddler chasing the biggest whitewater still waits until October for it.
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