Dark Skys of Northcentral Pennsylvania

In July back in 2023 I made the trek to the Susquehannock State Forest in search of a suitable area to take star photos.  There is a dark park and it’s nice located southeast of the area that I would find.  The Dark Park is called Cherry Springs State Park

After reading the reviews of the place and from having my own experiences from the other dark park there in Ohio I decided to put my map skill together to find another suitable area with zero people but still get the amazing views.

The build-up of this trip would be almost a year in the making. I paid close attention to the weather patterns and the moon phases to try and give me the best experience I could get from the area.  Between the cloudy days and the amount of precipitation it made it extremely difficult. This area has an elevation of 2270 feet above sea level and around the area I live in we are at 1100 feet above sea level. That does not seem like a lot, but when it comes to weather it is a lot.

I also knew I would be most likely climbing up the ATV trail I found in the dark of night.  The ATV trail has a grade of slope between 4% to 11% and with all the scattered stones you need to watch your footing with every step of the way.

Let’s fast forward to the actual trip I was just on. I have a dear friend Rob and when I spoke of this place, he said he would be interested in going if our schedules would allow it.

After the stars would align for us we would head out after work and drive the 4.25 hours ENE to the area that I had found last year.

We arrived at about 2200 and loaded our packs and headed up the mountain. You could hear the rustling creek making its way across the foothill of the mountain.

We hiked up and kept checking Garmin 64sx to make sure we were on track. There is nothing more frustrating than not knowing where you are at night and where you need to be going. This is coupled by the fact everything looks completely different at night. 

We heard a few deer snort and stomp their hooves and run off. When I was up here last year, I knew I could see a bear, but I never saw signs of bear scat or anything.

This area had been clear cut sometime between 2021 – 2022 from looking at Google Earth Pro timeline of the photogrammetry.  The area has ruts and lots of dragged area where they pull the logs out and is rough as a cob in some places.

Those are not clouds that is the Milkyway Galaxy

The overnight low was supposed to be 36 degrees and bonus part would be this would make the bug activity at night zero!  Well, we did in fact have zero bugs.  We did see a large bear scat on our way to the area we would be making camp.

We had stopped at a Subway to get dinner on the way in and I only ate half of it and stuffed the other half in one of my packs.

We found a suitable place to set up the tents in the complete blackness. Armed with our headlamps we put our tents.

We got the tents set up and started to relax and we could barely see the Milky Way Galaxy spread across the sky. It was faint but you could clearly see it with the naked eye.  I also knew the light discipline would not be the greatest at the dark park and this would be the other reason for wanting to climb this mountain and set up base camp here.

The views coupled with the complete silence minus the faint distant hum of a lone car every now and them miles away was the only noise for now.

So, after some bourbon and a few star trail photos and it being 0130 it was time to get some rest.  I set my alarm for 0430 thinking I was still home 4.25 hours west and I would be up before the sun.

Well, that did not work out and you can see why with the photos below. It’s still a nice photo but the sunrise washed out the majority of the str trails it has collected over the 3.5 hours!

This was a huge rookie mistake, and I should have realized traveling far east would make the sun rise sooner and not the same time as 4.25 hours west! I laughed at myself when I realized why and how this happened.

I woke up at 0430 and saw the glow on my tent and thought to myself “is that the moon?”. I then realized it was too bright to be the moon and in fact it was the sun. The sun well shoot I thought you traveled over 4 hours east and the sun would be seen earlier than if you were at home idiot. Lol

I got out of my sleeping bag and outside and sure enough in all her glory she had busted over the horizon and would have washed out the majority of the star trails that the digital camera had captured over the three and half hours I had it set up for.

I took the digital camera down and retreated to my warm tent. So, over night there was a very loud and very very vocal Whip-poor-will. For those who have never heard one enjoy and imagine this being so loud you would think it was at the top of your head! Call of the Whip-poor-will

I was able to fall back asleep knowing it was nature and not a man-made sound.

I woke up again about 0830 and it was time to get moving and break down camp. We did this slowly because their was no reason to be in a hurry.

I made some coffee with my Aeropress and ate some cliff bars. We further enjoyed the serenity of the landscape and how amazingly quiet it was still. The flies found us, but other than some caterpillars and butterflies we were never bothered by insects.

We broke down our tents and reloaded the packs and began our short hike downhill.

While walking down we stopped to take a photo of the bear scat of course! Lol

Immediately after that I could not believe my eyes were floating or rather gliding fluff balls in the air, there were these little balls of fluff! I thought at first, they were baby ducklings. Now, this all happened in about 30 seconds.

Then momma Ruffed Grouse popped up! She was not happy and looked at us as if to say “what in the hell are you?”.  She perked up her feathers in a defensive posture and flew into deep cover with her chicks. She was pretty and like I stated it lasted for about 30 seconds. It was like the momma was in disbelief that we were even there! I wish I had my camera out, but it would have been all over by the time I even got close to having gotten my camera out. The last time except from my childhood memories I had seen a grouse was a blue grouse in Montana.

We walked down the ATV trail and then headed for some lunch somewhere.

We drove though a little sleepy town called Benezette, Pennsylvania. They are known for herds of Elk, and I am guessing draw one heck of a crowd during the rut!

We stopped at the Benezette Hotel, and it had a decent sized restaurant.

After getting my fill of food and it was good we headed out to get back on the road since we had still to drive for three hours to get back to my house.

All in all, it was a nice quick trip. It is always nice to spend quality time outdoors with good friends!

Well folks I hope you enjoyed my ramblings until next time be well.

Sonder