Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

Well the weather didn't exactly cooperate with our plans to hike Hawk Mountain on a Saturday. Fortunately, the forecast for Sunday was fantastic and it turned out to be a wonderful day.

We in Pennsylvania are extremely lucky to have this wonderful raptor sanctuary in our backyard. Hawk Mountain is world renown for the work that they do in tracking the annual fall migration of raptors to their southern wintering spots. With the help of many, many volunteers each fall the raptors that pass by this point in the the Blue Mountain range are tracked and recorded. What a wonderful place.It turned out to be a beautiful day unfortunately there were very few raptors. However, I think everyone who joined us had a wonderful time scrambling up and down the rocks to get to the outcroppings for a better view of the valley below.The trails at Hawk Mountain are rocky and often steep. It is not the friendliest environment for little hikers but it seemed that everyone did fine and enjoyed themselves. I encourage everyone to try to make it back to the Sanctuary during the off season for a less crowded hike out to the Northern Lookout. The view is spectacular. And check out the calendar of events for lots of fun family outing during the fall, winter, and spring.I even got a glimpse of my favorite native winter ground cover (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). Not only do I love the plant but the Latin name just rolls off your tongue. Get outdoors! See you next month at Green Lane Park!