Western Pa. is a wildflower haven
Western Pennsylvania is blessed with lots of fine places to see spring wildflowers. Here are a few of the best:
• Trillium Trail: Fox Chapel’s 1.35-mile trail comes by its name honestly this time of year.
• Raccoon Creek State Park: This 7,572-acre park in southern Beaver County includes a Wildflower Reserve with its own interpretive center. From 12:30 to 2 p.m. April 22, there’s a free guided 1.5-mile Wild About Spring Wildflower Walk there that will cover topics including identification, medicinal/edible uses and folklore. On your own, if it’s wildflowers you seek, hit the Jennings Trail.
• Cedar Creek Park: This 464-acre park in Rostraver is part of the Westmoreland County Bureau of Parks & Recreation. Scottdale’s Mary HuschakKaufman last Saturday on its Gorge Trail photographed and Facebooked a wide range of flowers, including blue-eyed Mary (of which the Penn State Extension Master Gardener is one, too), dwarf larkspur, twinleaf, trillium, foamflower, spring beauties, large flowered bellwort, golden ragwort, trout lily, hepatica, bloodroot and Dutchman’s breeches.
• Enlow Fork: Picturesque part of state gamelands No. 302 in Greene County. Read about it at http://enlowfork.tripod.
• Many parks and places offer wildflower walks and hikes this time of year. There’s one at Ohiopyle State Park on April 22, one at McConnells Mill State Park near Portersville on May 6 and one at nearby Jennings Environmental Education Center near Slippery Rock on May 14. Point State Park on May 14 is hosting a Mother’s Day Native Wildflower Walk in Downtown. As the season moves north, other walks are happening at Erie Bluffs State Park on May 20 and Presque Isle State Park on May 27.
• Mason-Dixon Historical Park: Friend of Enlow Fork and former Post-Gazette editor Pete Zapadka will be leading a wildflower walk at this park (just over the state line in Core, W.Va.) as part of its Earth Day Celebration April 22. Get the details at masondixonhistoricalpark.com/index.html.
Then he’ll be helping on the Wheeling Creek Water Conservancy’s wildflower walk at Enlow Fork on April 30.
• Forbes State Forest in the Laurel Highlands, at 6 p.m. on April 28, forestry bureau educator Rachael Mahony will lead a program on Wildflower Folklore, sharing superstitions and tales on a 2-mile out-andback hike on the Grove Run Trail (register at rmahony@pa.gov or 724-2592201).