January 16-20, 2025 - Deep Creek Lake

We're heading heading to western Maryland for a long weekend at Deep Creek Lake!  There's already a lot of snow there and more is to come.

Lynnette and I stop at the rest area/visitor center off Interstate 68 just before the Sideling Hill Road Cut.

The road cut is a 340-foot-deep notch excavated from the ridge of Sideling Hill, about five miles west of Hancock in Washington County, Maryland. Blasting was completed in August 1984.  It is notable as an impressive man-made mountain pass, visible from miles away, and is considered to be one of the best rock exposures in Maryland and the entire northeastern United States.  Almost 810 feet of strata in a tightly folded syncline are exposed in this road cut. Although other exposures may surpass Sideling Hill in either thickness of exposed strata or in quality of geologic structure, few can equal its combination of both.

The rest stop formerly included the Sideling Hill Exhibit Center, a four-level geological museum and travel information center which opened in 1991. Due to state budget cuts, this facility was closed on August 15, 2009, as part of a $280 million budget reduction package, saving the state about $110,000 annually. Before its closing, the center served about 95,000 visitors a year.  Many of the geological exhibits from the former Exhibit Center are now displayed at the Hancock Museum in nearby Hancock, Maryland but it is only opened on Saturdays.
   
The next day we were at the Wisp Ski Resort for a day of skiing.
   
 
   
 
   
Pizza for lunch in the Yurt!
   
I'm a little heavier than Teddy.
   
 
   
The next day, we are heading for Swallow Falls State Park.
   
Ready to hike to the Falls.
   
Our hike through the snow to the falls begins.
   
 
   
Uh oh, danger ahead!
   
This could be a problem.
   
They got me!  Right in the face.
   
Sometimes you just have to laugh and move on.
   
 
   
 
   
Down by the river.
   
Big icicles.
   
Lucy and Teddy.
   
And there it is:  Swallow Falls!
   
 
   
Don and Gunnar.
   
Boys attacking their Mom.
   
But Mom comes out on top.  Dogpile!
   
Ford, Edison and Firestoneonce camped here.  But not in January.
   
It snowed hard the next day.  We decided to go niking at Deep Creek Lake State Park anyways.
   
The hike was short, from the letter S to the Snakeroot Nature Trail (T).  It was perfect for us, as it turned out.
   
Ready to go!
   
Gunnar leads the way.
   
Gunner sniffing for a critter.
   
 
   
 
   
We spooked a deer that had been nesting under this bridge.  The deer ran off, chased for a short while by Gunnar.
   
Gunnar returned to the bridge and clearly could smell that the deer had been there.
   
 
   
We arrive at the Snakeroot Nature Trail, a short loop trail which we hiked.
   
 
   
William is down!
   
I've never seen a dog with icicles hanging off him before.
   
We made it back to the trailhead!
   
Now out on the Deep Creek Lake ice.
   
Lynnette got lost in the snow but Gunnar round her.
   

We left Deep Creek Lake the next morning, but not after having to sweep the snow off our vehicles.  Again.  We must have got eight inches of snow while we were here.

I like to experience the snow once a year.  Great weekend!
   
 
   
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