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Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

2008.07.03
So what could be better than seeing a hawk at Hawk Mountain?

The views are awesome, although you see all that haze in the background? Well, it's probably more accurately called smog! If you want to see how good your air quality ISN'T, just look out over a valley!

The view from the top....



Of course, we decided to hike the most difficult trail. They weren't kidding about the "rocky and rugged" part.

Yep, this is the trail. See the blue paint on the rock at the bottom of the photo? It's a trail marker, Skyline Trail is marked with blue blazes.

Nicole following the trail.

Note the blue blazes on the rocks. Yes, we climbed down over that, and it wasn't even the biggest pile of rocks we climbed!

They weren't kidding about the rocky part....

But the views were SO worth it!



Went hiking with my friend Nicole to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton, PA. We took the Skyline Trail that goes along the top ridge of the mountain. Many spectacular views and 6 miles later, we were glad to go home!

Hawk Mountain is an amazing place. From their website:
"Hawk Mountain is part of the Kittatinny Ridge or Blue Mountain, the prominent, southeastern most Appalachian ridge in the Ridge-and-Valley Province. The Sanctuary's 2,600-acres, along with more than 13,000 acres of private and public lands, make up one of the largest, protected tracts of contiguous forest in southeastern Pennsylvania. The Hawk Mountain's mission is to conserve birds of prey worldwide by providing leadership in raptor conservation science and education, and by maintaining Hawk Mountain Sanctuary as a model observation, research and education facility."

Check them out at www.hawkmountain.org.

14 Comments
JanetLippincott Wow! You are right about the scenery; it's gorgeous! I love the soaring hawks too. Isn't it fun to look down on them with that background?
JanetLippincott · 2008-07-12: 00:21
davidcardona Wonderful post! I added first one into my favorites. Thanks for sharing!
davidcardona · 2008-07-12: 00:27
joycephotography What a view, great post.
joycephotography · 2008-07-12: 00:58
mojaroo beautiful place and fantastic capture
mojaroo · 2008-07-12: 01:15
busybee36 Lovely capture in #2
busybee36 · 2008-07-12: 01:36
urmysunshine wow, thanks for taking me along! R
urmysunshine · 2008-07-12: 05:30
photopoet Thanks for the hike—love the hawk and the rocks. Looks like a fun trail.
photopoet · 2008-07-12: 08:18
tomie awesome post! thanks for sharing!
tomie · 2008-07-12: 14:28
DancingDolphin SO glad you took us along and spared us the agony! :-)))

Great set, it does look beautiful!
DancingDolphin · 2008-07-12: 16:59
sendao fantastic capture...
sendao · 2008-07-12: 19:51
quietgal I love the mountain laurel shots. It looks like the views were worth the climb.

I hope you wore proper footwear. Nobody wants to see you unable to walk. ; )
quietgal · 2008-07-14: 16:43
Nicole Liz: Great Job! And to think I wanted to kill you for stopping to take all the pictures. It makes my legs ache just looking at those pictures. I had fun with you though! It was worth it.

Nicole
Nicole · 2008-07-15: 08:11
CDunk I can't believe you guys totally ditched me! You owe me a trip after my finger heals....(I'm such a bonehead). Great pics....
CDunk · 2008-07-15: 09:39
????? I love all the first pictures.. they are my fav..
????? · 2008-07-16: 23:03
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Tagged: hawkmountainsanctuary raptor hawk hiking pa
 
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