Lose yourself at Snow Hill

A new tract of Delaware State Forest offers a way to get lost in natural history.

The Brodhead Watershed Association’s Get Outdoors Poconos series offers a glimpse into the Snow Hill area for those who might want to try it for themselves.

The trail begins off Snow Hill Road in Price Township, Pa., and includes a stretch of Stony Run and a small waterfall. Unmarked, meandering trails (and a lack of a map, since this tract is so new) make finding landmarks a happy adventure.

One trail ends in a clearing — the vegetated top of a high grey cliff of 400-million-year-old sandstone, where a big granddaddy pine grows right out of the rock. The sheer walls below are thick with rock tripe lichen. Looking over the edge, hikers can see tumbled boulders, cracked free from the solid mass by time and ice.

Another trail plunges downward and ends up in someone’s backyard.

The Snow Hill Road property is more than 300 forested acres that protect water quality and quantity in the Brodhead watershed. It is part of Delaware State Forest, which covers 83,519 acres of forested public land with lakes, creeks, waterfalls, and more than 100 miles of trails open to the public.

This parcel, which had been slated for development, was acquired with grant help from The Nature Conservancy, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Bureau of Forestry, which is preparing a trail map. For information, visit dcnr.pa.gov/StateForests.

Go to brodheadwatershed.org/gopoconos for information on this as well as other hikes in the Get Outdoors Poconos series. The series is administered by Brodhead Watershed Association and supported by a grant from the William Penn Foundation.

About the BWA

The Brodhead Watershed Association is a nonprofit environmental organization formed in 1989. BWA is dedicated to protecting and preserving water resources and the environment of the Brodhead watershed, and the water quality of the Brodhead, Cherry, Marshalls, McMichael, Paradise and Pocono creeks and their tributaries. BWA assists municipalities, residents, businesses and groups with protecting natural resources through education, workshops, seminars, public programs and stream monitoring. For information email info@brodheadwatershed.org or call 570-839-1120.