Shenango Lake Mahaney Outflow Riverview Picnic Shelter

Summary

Shenango Lake provides a variety of recreational opportunities for visitors to enjoy, including picnicking, boating, fishing, camping, and hiking. Facilities include one group picnic shelter with electric, seven other picnic pavilions, and a 330-site campground. The lake stretching 11 miles up the Shenango River is lined with a northern hardwood forest and provides excellent opportunities for wildlife viewing. Nearby attractions include the Shenango Water Trail and Kidds Mill Covered Bridge.

Overview

Situated within the suburban Shenango Valley, Shenango Lake provides an attractive setting where visitors can spend the day picnicking, camping, fishing, boating, or enjoying nature's beauty at one of the lake's many recreation areas. The Mahaney Outflow Recreation Area Day Use is located off of Kelly Road in Hermitage, PA, adjacent to the Shenango Dam, and provides one covered group picnic shelter (Riverview Shelter) with electric as well as access to the river and dam outflow to go fishing.

Recreation

Come explore and enjoy the outdoors! The lake provides a variety of recreational opportunities, including, but not limited to, picnicking, camping, fishing, boating, swimming, hiking, viewing wildlife and hunting. Picnickers can rent, for a fee, one of our seven picnic pavilions located within four different recreation areas. Boating is a popular activity where areas are provided on the lake for unlimited horsepower operation, as well as restricted horsepower and minimum wake operation. Many fishing enthusiasts are attracted to the waters of Shenango for the crappie, bass, walleye, catfish and muskellunge that inhabit the river, lake and tailwaters. Campers visiting the lake will enjoy spacious facilities at our 330-site campground.

Facilities

The Mahaney Outflow Rec Area Day Use offers one group picnic shelter (Riverview Shelter) that can accommodate between 42-56 people, depending upon the use of 6-8 people per table. Electric is available at the shelter with a paid reservation only, grills are available on site, and flush toilets and drinking water are provided at the restroom adjacent to the shelter (seasonal). A children's playground and small hiking trail are located on site. The Shenango Dam and Outflow are just a short walk from this location where you can view the concrete gravity dam as well as fish the outflow and river. The Mahaney Rec Area is just a short distance away featuring a disc golf course and access to the lake for fishing and a paved boat ramp.

Natural Features

Shenango Lake stretches 11 miles up its namesake river, covering over 11,000 acres. The shore is lined with a northern hardwood forest of shady and colorful trees such as black cherry, beech, maple, and hemlock. Deer, turkey and other small game animals are plentiful, with excellent opportunities to observe osprey and eagles in the area.

Nearby Attractions

The Shenango Water Trail provides 7.5 miles of scenic river corridor for paddlers, with three access points between Kidds Mill Park and Big Bend. Life jackets must be worn on all canoes and kayaks. The historic Kidds Mill Covered Bridge features the unique "Smith-Truss" design from the 1800s. Remnants of the Erie Extension Canal can be found nearby in Sharpsville below the Shenango Dam. The Shenango and Mahaney Recreations Areas feature restoration chestnut tree orchards that are managed through a partnership with the American Chestnut Foundation for research and education, with the goal of developing blight resistant American chestnut trees.