This is the view from Baughman Rock in Ohiopyle State Park. When this photo was taken, five days ago, the trees were maybe still about one week too early to show their best colors. But they were still pretty.
My new thing is looking down on the world from high places—or at least high-ish places. There are no real views through the leaves at the summit of Sugarloaf Knob, but this is lower on the flanks of the same mountain.
The goldenrod, the fading greens, the emerging radiance. It was a beautiful time to be in the Laurel Highlands. It wasn’t my intention to go to Ohiopyle, but the peak I’d intended to summit—a hill known as Fulton Knob—was on private land and prohibitively difficult to access.
Fulton Knob is up on Chestnut Ridge—which a lot of ignorant people call “Mt. Summit” because the hotel at the top (which is strangely similar to the one on The Shining) is called the Summit Hotel. The way I’d planned to get to Fulton Knob turned out to be impossible for my little car. I intended to take a certain Washington Springs Road to an electric line swath and go up the mountain on the swath. But Washington Springs Road quickly turned into a Jeep track. And there were No Trespassing signs all over the place. To bad. I think there’s a collapsed lookout tower at the top.
And so I headed for Sugarloaf Knob, which is another true summit of the uplands here. It’s I think Ohiopyle State Park and only accessible via the Kim Trail, which is primarily for mountain bikes.
Here’s the Sugarloaf Knob from afar—but this is only just the “knob” of a much bigger hill than what you see here.
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