Cook Forest features 27 marked trails totaling some for hiking. The terrain is of rolling hills and cool valley streams. Special scenic areas are the old growth forest, Fire Tower/Seneca Point and the Clarion River. Among Cook Forest's primary attractions is the Forest Cathedral area of old growth white pine and hemlock, some trees of which top . A somewhat more minor attraction is the short rock grotto found in the midst of the mountain-laurel thickets along Seneca trail roughly halfway between the Fire Tower/Seneca Point area and the end of Deer Park Trail. Part of the Baker Trail () and the North Country National Scenic Trail pass through Cook Forest. The Baker Trail runs from Freeport, in southern Armstrong County, to the Allegheny National Forest. The North Country Trail is under development and will connect the Missouri River in North Dakota with the Adirondack Mountains in New York.