Jim Thorpe Fall Foliage Festival (Via D&L Trail)

The town now known as Jim Thorpe sits on the ancestral lands of the Lenapi people.

American flag hangs from a storefront with Victorian-era buildings behind it and across the street

October brought us a long weekend, and an opportunity to explore. We wanted to find some family-friendly fun (ideally outdoors) with good food nearby and maybe some shopping.

The Jim Thorpe Fall Foliage Festival checks all those boxes.

I know that parking in Jim Thorpe is always a challenge on the weekend, and I anticipated it being even worse on a beautiful fall Saturday. So rather than drive into town, we drove to nearby Weissport and started our day with a short family bike ride.

canal with still water reflecting the red roofs of the stone buildings across the street.

This had the added benefit of not having to pay the $25 parking fee for using the municipal parking lot in town.

Weissport, like Jim Thorpe, is located along the D&L Trail. The D&L, named for the Delaware & Lehigh Canals, is a 144-mile trail from Mountain Top in the north to Philadelphia in the south.

stone bicycle path with a canal on the right and green trees that are starting to turn to brown

We rode just a fraction of that. The ride from Weissport to Jim Thorpe is easy and flat, climbing just 50 feet over the four-mile ride north. Remnants of the canal still hold water so our trail felt like an island at times with the canal on our right and the Lehigh River on our left.

oil tank cars of a train on a black trestle crossing a river with the first fall colors appearing on the mountains behind it

Other than a few dips, it was smooth sailing. We pulled into Jim Thorpe less than 30 minutes later, the line of cars along Route 209 coming into view long before the town.

An iron trestle bridge brought us across the Lehigh and into town. We parked our bikes at a rack on the Jim Thorpe side (after failing to find a place in town and returning to the trail).

A green diesel locomotive with yellow stripes on the front and the number 2023 above the cab on the side sits next to the Jim Thorpe train station with its witch's hat architecture.

The Festival was happening just across the railroad tracks used by the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway and its parent company, the Reading and Northern. In addition to the hourly fall foliage train rides, the railroad had passenger trains coming into Jim Thorpe from Reading, Wilkes-Barre, and Pottsville.

A large sign reading "Chicken, Sandwiches" hangs above a food tent at the Jim Thorpe Fall Foliage Festival.

We arrived just before 11 a.m., and the two-car train from Pottsville had already arrived. And as soon as we crossed the tracks, the Wilkes-Barre train pulled into the station to unload.

An overstuffed pulled pork sandwich sits inside a white clamshell package.

The Festival was already jam-packed so we had to make some quick decisions before the passengers descended on us. Julie and I had some amazing pulled pork sandwiches while Jakob had pierogies from another stand.

Our original plan was to ride into town and get tickets for an afternoon train ride. Trains were running every hour, but the catch was that tickets were only available the day of on a first come, first served basis. There were no presales. From the time we arrived until the time we left, the ticket line stretched for a full block, down the sidewalk and across the tracks into the already full municipal parking lot.

sign hanging from a railing in front of a brick building. The sign reads "Book Sale Today"

Rather than spend an hour standing in line for a 45-minute train ride, we decided our time was better spent visiting some of the local shops. With so many people in town – probably a thousand or more arriving by train plus hundreds more who were parked in the lot – it wasn’t easy getting around.

Every store was crowded, some were wall-to-wall. The line at Donerds Donuts stretched out the back door while 20 or so people queued up across the street for henna tattoos.

Various hardcorver and paperback books are arranged on two shelves next to a pile of puzzles at Sellers Bookstore in Jim Thorpe.

We were still able to explore some good spots. I picked up my next read at the extra cozy Sellers Books. (Julie waited with the boys outside of the narrow shop with two walls of books and a shelf down the middle that made it even more of a challenge).

Across the street at The Silly Goose, we got t-shirts and other fun little keepsakes. The store bills itself as a place for “unapologetic gifts and novelties,” and we probably would have come home with a lot more if there were more room to browse the shelves.

A wood cut-out of a cartoon bear wearing a red sweater with JT in yellow letters holding a banner that says "JIm Thorpe Pennsylvania" stands in front of a t-shirt stand.

We found some great kids shirts and toys at Prize Design Shop. The kids shirts all featured a cartoon bear, a callback to the town’s original name of Mauch Chunk which means “Bear Place” in the language of the native Lenapi people. While they didn’t have the size we wanted for Lukas, we were able to find it at their stand at the festival.

woman singing in a gazebo decorated with corn stalks as another woman takes a photo

The festival, itself, is mostly food vendors with a few crafters and businesses that set up outside the Jim Thorpe Train Station. We found a second music stage downtown where a duo was doing covers of the Eagles on acoustic guitar and percussion.

antique chandelier with eight candle-shaped light bulbs in a yellow-lit room with a pulled back curtain

And the town does dress itself up for the season. About half the town’s shops were decked out with pumpkins, gourds, and haybales, while the other half went with ghosts, witches, and skeletons.

A young boy walks up to a man wearing a pumpkin mask outside a storefront in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Outside the Emporium of Curious Goods, a pumpkin-headed man sat still as a statue until unsuspecting people passed by. After giving them a good scare, he handed out lollipops. Jakob was one of his victims that was rewarded with a treat.

makeshift festival stage with two older men, one playing drums behind a red drumkit and another in white t-shirt and jeans playing acoustic guitar

We hadn’t even made it up the first block of Broadway, Jim Thorpe’s main drag, when we crossed to the other side of the street and headed back toward our bikes and the relative openness of the D&L Trail.

While we were eating lunch, we were seated with an older couple who came up from Delaware. They arrived on Thursday and were staying at an AirBnB in town. I’m sure they had a much better experience while exploring the town in the days before than we had jostling through the throngs of people on Saturday.

close-up of red mums in front of a porch decorated with mums and corn stalks

Because Jim Thorpe is definitely worth the visit – there are amazing stores, plenty of things to do, and great dining options throughout town. If you can get there on a weekday, you’ll get all of that without the crowds.

Had we spent the money for parking (and the time to drive in), we probably would have forced ourselves to stay longer. Instead, we were more than happy to cut our visit short.

child in red sweatshirt rides a bicycle on a stone path with trees turning from green to brown

The downhill ride back to Weissport was easy. No crowds. No traffic. Just priceless family time that made the whole trip worth it.

When You Go

The Jim Thorpe Fall Foliage Festival runs every Saturday and Sunday in October.
Fall Foliage train rides are 45 minutes and run every hour. Tickets are only available on the day of the excursion, not in advance. The ticket window opens at 7 a.m. and based on the lines at 10:30, you’ll want to get there early or plan for a long wait for tickets.
The Municipal parking lot is huge, but can still fill up. Arrive early to ensure a space. Parking is $25 for cars and motorcycles, $75 for larger vehicles.
Reading and Northern trains start arriving at 11 a.m. Eat and shop early to beat the hundreds of people who arrive all at the same time.
Some restaurants in Jim Thorpe take reservations while others do not. Do your research in advance if you want a sit-down meal while you’re in town. And have a backup plan or two, just in case.
While the additional vendors and live music are only available during the festival, the town is charming to visit at any time. Consider a weekday or a weekend in September or November for smaller crowds.