The 100+ acres of the Penn State Altoona campus includes the grounds of what used to be Ivyside amusement park from the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s. This included a very large concrete swimming pool created when the park first opened. Rides, including a roller coaster, were installed later. Multiple plaques on campus provide details about this unusual history. Today all amusement park rides are gone, but the manicured portions of campus include a man-made pond and waterfall. The arboretum supports over 1,200 trees with representatives of more than 120 species in 57 genera. Spring Run, a freshwater stream, also runs through campus. Additionally, visitors can explore the 40-acre Seminar Forest, which has multiple hiking trails and is directly adjacent to campus. Penn State Altoona’s natural landscape is used as a living laboratory for students in Biology and Environmental Studies classes.

Many of the trees on campus are identified with a memorial plaque at the base of the tree. In addition, in 2024, all of the trees in the manicured portions of campus were identified and mapped by Bartlett Tree Experts. The campus excels in oak biodiversity. Nine of the top 10 most valuable (and largest) trees on the Penn State Altoona campus are white oak (Quercus alba). These nine trees alone have a combined estimated asset value of over $400,000. The campus also includes multiple examples of northern red oak (Quercus rubra), black oak (Quercus velutina), pin oak (Quercus palustris), and chestnut oak (Quercus montana) among others. In addition to Quercus, there are many representatives of Acer (maple), Prunus (cherry), Betula (birch), Pinus (pine), and Picea (spruce). Appropriately, the campus dorms are named Oak Hall, Maple Hall, Spruce Hall, and Cedar Hall. There are also impressive specimens of Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree or yellow poplar). Other species of note in the collection include pawpaw (Asimina triloba), ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), and dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides).