A three-bedroom base in Blakeslee for Hickory Run days

If you're hunting for a three-bedroom house in Blakeslee because you want to spend your days in Hickory Run State Park, we have one, and it's the one we'd put you in: The Blakeslee Blue. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, sleeps up to nine, pets welcome, hot tub on the deck, fire pit below it. That's the short answer. The longer one is about why Blakeslee, of all the small Pocono crossroads, is the right postcode for a park-focused trip.

Hickory Run is the big one out here: roughly sixteen thousand acres of western Pocono foothills near White Haven, with more than forty miles of hiking trails, three natural areas and trout streams running through it. Boulder Field is the thing people come for, that strange, treeless sea of rock you can reach either on the Boulder Field Trail, about three and a half miles, or by driving in on Boulder Field Road if the legs in your group vary. Hawk Falls is the opposite kind of walk: barely over half a mile to a twenty-five-foot waterfall, with the trailhead right off Route 534 just east of the Northeast Extension. Shades of Death, a little over two miles out and back along Sand Spring Run, is the one most people remember, and you can pick it up near the visitor center or park along 534 by the chapel. Worth knowing before you load the car: no bikes on Hickory Run's trails. The rail trail along the Lehigh at Lehigh Gorge, about ten miles off, is where the bikes go.

The house we'd put a hiking family in

The Blakeslee Blue is a single-family home of about 1,176 square feet, which we mention because guests tell us it reads bigger in person than the photos suggest and we'd rather you had the number than a surprise. Two queen bedrooms, a bunk room with a trundle, and a loft with a queen sleeper above. The way the beds are split matters more than the count: the downstairs level holds one queen and the bunk room, while the primary bedroom and the loft sleeping area are upstairs. Families with young kids tend to take the downstairs pair and leave the top floor to whoever stays up late.

Park days end the same way most of the year. The six-person hot tub sits out on the deck, the fire pit is below it, and the gas fireplace in the living room is the thing you want after a cold morning at Boulder Field, where the wind comes across all that rock with nothing to stop it. A washer and dryer live in the primary bedroom, which sounds like a footnote until you've come back from Shades of Death after rain with four pairs of soaked socks. Bring your own detergent; we leave a starter supply of the basics and don't restock mid-stay.

Why a park trip wants a kitchen more than a restaurant reservation

Hickory Run runs on daylight. You want to be at a trailhead early, and the parking lots at the popular ones do fill, so a house where nine people can eat breakfast before seven beats one where you're waiting on a kitchen in town. The Blakeslee Blue's kitchen is set up properly: dishwasher, oven and stove, blender, kettle, coffee maker, baking sheet, the cooking basics. Dining seats four at the table with more seating in the living room, so a group of nine eats in shifts or spreads out, and in warm weather the outdoor dining area on the deck does the heavy lifting. There's a BBQ grill and bbq utensils, which is how most of our guests handle dinner after a long day out.

When you do want someone else to cook, Blakeslee's eating happens mostly along Route 115 and Route 940. Woody's Country House on 115 makes everything from scratch and is known locally for its chili. Farmhouse Blakeslee, Murphy's Loft and Papa Santo's are all on the same stretch, Chat-n-Chew Cafe sits on 940, and Sweet Cravings handles ice cream. Check hours before you drive over; the smaller places out here keep their own rhythm.

What the community adds, and when

The house sits inside an amenity-filled private community, and the seasonality of that is the single most useful thing to understand before you book. The lake beach opens Memorial Day weekend and closes after Labor Day, dawn to dusk, with a playground beside it and a pavilion near the water for grilling. Tennis and pickleball courts run dawn to dusk through spring and fall. The clubhouse, with ping pong, a pool table, board games, books and movies, keeps weekday hours of 9 to 5 and Saturday mornings until 1. Volleyball and basketball courts are there too.

So a July booking gets you a swimming beach and a kayak morning on the community lake. A late-October booking gets you courts, a clubhouse and the best hiking light of the year, and the beach gate shut. Both are good trips. They're not the same trip, and the amenity list alone won't tell you which one you're buying. None of this is Hickory Run, to be clear: the park has its own rules, parking and seasonal conditions, and the state's park page is where to check those before you drive out.

Rain, dogs and the rest of the practical list

• Weather days. Pac-Man in the house, plus a game console and board games. The clubhouse pool table and ping pong are a two-minute problem to solve rather than an afternoon-long one.
• Dogs. The home is pet-friendly, and the Austin T. Blakeslee Natural Area, flat, well-marked trails along Tobyhanna Creek off Route 115, is an easier leg-stretcher than a Hickory Run climb.
• Little ones. A crib and a high chair are in the house, so that's two fewer things in the trunk.
• Cars. Parking for up to three vehicles, free, which is worth counting if your nine people are arriving in four cars.
• Quiet moments. There's a hammock, and a garden that most guests find by accident on the second morning.

Where you are, geographically

Blakeslee is a crossroads town, and that's its whole appeal for this kind of trip. Lake Harmony is about seven miles by road on Route 115, ten minutes without traffic. Pocono Pines sits a similar distance the other way. Jack Frost Mountain Road runs off into the hills just outside town, and from the Turnpike's Northeast Extension at Exit 95 you take Route 940 east and follow the signs about four miles to the ski area entrance, which means a winter group can split a day between snow and a fire pit without anyone driving far. Hawk Falls, Big Boulder Lake, the gamelands trails and Tobyhanna State Park are all in the same orbit.

Who you're booking with

East Coast Escape is run by Jeff and Christine, a family operation managing luxury homes across the Poconos: Blakeslee, Lake Harmony, Tobyhanna, Pocono Lake, Tannersville and Coolbaugh Township. Blakeslee Blue carries a rating just over 9.6 across 136 guest reviews, and the wider portfolio has collected more than 800 five-star reviews. You book direct, you let yourself in with keyless entry, and we're reachable by phone or message for as much or as little as you want during the stay. There's a two-night minimum, a 21-and-over booking requirement, and a signed rental agreement plus ID verification and a refundable security hold, handled through a simple web link rather than an app.

If your group is larger than nine, or you want an indoor pool or a theater room for a February weekend, we have homes elsewhere in the Poconos built for that, including The Ultimate Pocono Escape. But for three bedrooms in Blakeslee with Hickory Run as the point of the trip, Blakeslee Blue is the house.