The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania

One of the deepest gorges in northern Pennsylvania is known as the “Grand Canyon” of Pennsylvania.  Now, if you have been to the real Grand Canyon, you would realize that this is a bit (or a whole lot) of oversell so that the tourists will come. That isn’t to say that the gorge isn’t pretty, and I suspect the hiking can be quite interesting. But my breath was not taken away with the wonder of the view as it was when I first saw the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It can't help where it was formed; it is the deepest gorge on the eastern side of the country after all.

The Pine Creek Gorge (it’s real name) is 47 miles long, 1000 feet deep and is inside one of the many state forests in Pennsylvania. It was identified as a World Heritage Site in 1968. You can access the view at state parks at either end of the gorge.  We didn’t realize that the one closest to our campground was the one with the visitor center, so we were late getting to it and missed seeing the exhibits. The drive to the other end was beautiful and the views were very nice.  We did the trip on a rainy day and I think that kind of muted the beauty, although seeing forests through mist is kind of nice too – a little mystical – where is that Sasquatch anyway?

A nearby town, Wellsboro, was touted as a pleasant village with some beautiful Victorian houses and, in this case, there was truth-in-advertising.  We took a short stroll through the downtown and enjoyed seeing the gas lights and restored homes. Stopped for a break at a very cute bakery/coffee house and took advantage of their wifi to post a blog entry.  This area was hard hit by the oil bust but seemed to have recovered better than the northwest part of the state.

We are now leaving northern Pennsylvania and heading down to the east central part of the state to do some serious genealogy work.  Looking forward to seeing if I can take some of our family tree branches back to the original ancestors who came to America.  Only a few branches have been taken that far back.

Our trip to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania was a beautiful country drive. All the towns we passed through were somewhat small with a couple of exceptions.

I laughed when I saw this sign.  Couldn't figure out if they were advising us that a new fish and chips shop was coming up or that the road was chipseal and if you didn't like oil splattered on your car, don't take this road.  Decided it was the latter.

I was a little nervous about whether our trailer would make it through.  Don't really trust their measurements.  See the broken concrete, where someone didn't know the height of their rig?

The roads are very winding with lots of up and down. Russ had no relaxing moments on this trip.

Rolling ridges for as far as you can see.

There was lots of rain the two nights we were in the campground. Russ is checking the awning. You can see the mud and puddles in the campsite.  This is a quite old campground - I suspect the sites have not had a fresh layer of gravel for many years.  Everything was mud! Yuck!  Did I mention that I don't like getting dirty? Some camper I am, huh?

The drive through the state parks was beautiful, so much green. We could hear lots of different birds.

In the times before European settlers, the local natives used the river for transportation and trading with other tribes.

The gorge was initially formed by glaciers moving forward and backward over the Pennsylvania countryside.

Water erosion is continuing the deepening process.

When the logging operations of the 1800s were through, the countryside was denuded and water was not retained into the soil. Soil and rocks spilled into the river. What had been a "wild" river, full and fast moving all year long, now sees low water levels and boulders on the bottom in the late summer. Still, it is a popular canoeing river.

View from one side of the gorge....

View from the other side of the gorge.

Much of the central and eastern parts of Pennsylvania are covered with this pattern of ridges and gorges.  It is very difficult, even today, to efficiently travel west or east.

This looks like a delicious mushroom, but I have no knowledge of which ones are poisonous and which are edible, so I left well enough alone.  Bea Hagen - I sure could have used your skills.

Didn't get to see the whole exhibit, but the Visitor Center paid homage to the CCC of the depression era. As in many other states, the park system was developed using CCC working groups. These groups were paid $30 a month, received 3 meals a day and a place to sleep, in return for conservation work and construction of camping facilities and visitor centers. The average CCC worker gained 40 pounds during their time in the program and they sent most of their money home to their families.