A Hemlock Ravine in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is covered with great expanses of forested, semi-rugged terrain. There is ample subtle beauty here but not the drama or wow-factor that draws in crowds. I might not advise going too far out of your way to vacation in the woods of PA, but those who do spend time there are rewarded with a seemingly endless supply of scenic, off the beaten path places to enjoy nature.

The steep-sided ravine of a cascading stream on the flank of Rising Mountain, one of the long flat-topped ridges that make up the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Provence, about 40 miles west of Harrisburg, is one of those opportunities. Designated the Hemlocks Natural Area of Tuscarora State Forest, it contains old growth forest estimated at 120 acres. Parts of the ravine are in hemlocks as advertised. The archetypal image of huge old gentle dark trees with a dense cover of ferns beneath them is unfortunately somewhat complicated by the destruction due to the the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, an introduced pest, which has evidently killed a lot of them, but the massive standing dead trees, some covered with many layers of reishi mushrooms, and downed hemlocks turning back to soil, have their own beauty. Enough live ones remain, and as an informational kiosk points out, this threat is not likely to cause total devastation to all of the healthy trees. Downstream from the hemlocks is a decent length stretch of impressive old growth hardwoods. Some huge, ragged-barked Tulip Poplars line the stream. A diverse cast of characters are on the slopes, including more and larger Persimmons than I had ever seen before in one place, som very huge and impressive Cucumber Magnolias (credit to Yeva for identifying them), and one or two simply massive Northern Red Oaks. The cool and moist microclimate combined with some very strange warm and moist late December weather produced a flush of cold season mushrooms on downed wood (forgive the imprecisenss of my ID: some sqishy white polypores, jelly fungi, brightly colored turkey tails, and the like.

Image courtesy of freeworldmaps.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The topography of this area is on a moderate scale, with long flat ridge tops about 1000 to 1500 feet above the valleys, but in the nooks and crannies created by the interconnecting ridges in Tuscarora State Forest, it is big enough to feel mountainous and spatious. The ravine is long and rugged enough, gaining 600 feet in a mile and a half, to take some time and effort to hike all the way up. The top of the ridge is a substantial steep and rocky slope away. Zooming out to the views of the ridges as one drives up and down them and the valleys…anyone who has looked at a relief map of the Pennsylvania has probably had the parallel flat-topped ridges of the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Province catch their eye. The geometry of thos ridges is even clearer in person than it appears on a map. In the southern part of the state, they run generally North-South with narrow valleys of cleared farmland and small towns in between. In the central section of the state, they run more East-West. Tuscarora State Forest is located near the axis of this bend, a valley-less area of multiple ridges jammed together in intricate shapes. The massive shapes are fun to contemplate, as one of several continental-scale twists and turns that make up the Appalachian Mountain range.