Poe Valley

After a great couple of days in Carlisle, I planned my trip back home that would take me to the Penn's Valley route. I sourced this particular route from a now-defunct web site that was the online version of HMR Magazine (a Hummer publicaition).

Its a circular route that traverses the Poe and Penn valleys, you can see the Google map below.

I started in Spring Mills and followed the route to the Vonada Gap. Shortly after the road turns into graded gravel as it heads up to Big Poe Mountain at 2000 feet. These two pictures are after you crest the ridge and head down the other side.

Once down in Poe Valley you hit pavement again as it goes past Poe Valley State Park. The park however was closed and the small lake drained, I guess they were doing some maintenance. The road continues to Poe Paddy State Park where there was some camping going on. I drove through slowly looking for the trail turn off heading back up the ridge towards Ravens Knob. There is signage but you have to pay attention.

The trail up is basically a fairly wide shelf road that is not maintained so it is a but bumpy and rocky, but nothing serious for a modified vehicle. I did pass a mini-van s l o w l y driving down the other way which was prudent because some of the rocks could easily damage street tires. You can see steep drop-offs through the trees from the shelf road but it definitely is not the same as driving above the tree line in Colorado.

Once on the ridge, there are various spots with great overlooks, nice back-country camp sites, and a couple of side trails designated as forest roads. I think this area is part of a state forest so I believe camping is allowed. I wish I had more time to explore those trails though.

Some of this area falls within the Bald Eagle State Forest. There is a detailed map here.

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Map References - Poe and Penn Valleys