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As you may know, I used my spring break to embark on a very long road trip from Houston to Pennsylvania and back. I had plans to take pictures along the way, since I knew I was going to be traveling through some scenic parts of the country, but those plans were largely dashed by weather. From the moment I got outside the Houston beltway, it was rainy and just an overall shitty trip. I’d say maybe next time, but I don’t know if there’s going to be a next time—I have to admit, I overestimated my driving stamina.
Along the way, I made a detour to see one of my close friends, who now lives in rural Maryland. Again, while she lives in probably the most beautiful part of the state, the scenery and outdoors time were limited thanks to the weather. We spent most of our time indoors, eating and watching Netflix. But we started to get cabin fever after a while and decided to go on an adventure, Mother Nature be damned. She had heard of a place called Dan’s Rock, located in Dan’s Mountain State Park, that promised breathtaking views of western Maryland. From SummitPost.org:
Dan's Rock ranks among the best summits with expansive views in the state of Maryland. This highly popular summit has great views of the south and east and fair to moderate views of the north and west (partially covered by trees). This mountain is a real classic stopping point for many who visit this part of Western Maryland. The views from the summit include the Potomac River into West Virginia and long the parellel ridges of the Allegany Mountain.
The mountain's first name is named after Daniel Cresap. Daniel Cresap who was the son of a pioneer was famous for climbing a tree while going after a bear. According to the story the tree fell on the rock, making the name become Dan's Rock.
Dans Mountain represents the front section of the Allegany Plateau, which stretches through Pennslyvania and West Virginia and turns into the Cumberland Plateau to the south and the Pocanoes and Catskills up north.
Sounds great, right? We didn’t hold out much hope for those awesome views, but we still wanted to find the “rock” and see what it was all about.
My friend and I are a lot alike in many ways, including our simultaneous love for adventure and dislike for GPS. So we set out looking for Dan’s Rock without much GPS assistance—and the cell reception is obviously not the greatest, so it wouldn’t have been much help anyway. We found ourselves driving through the streets of the tiny mountain town of Lonaconing, which was both charming and frightening (I’ll just say: Confederate flags everywhere). We ended up finding Dan’s Mountain State Park, but no signs or anything for Dan’s Rock. When we finally used the GPS, it also had trouble finding the location of the rock. Eventually, we just gave up—maybe Dan’s Rock isn’t real, or maybe it requires hiking to find it.
As we headed back home, just by luck, I spotted a Dan’s Rock sign, pointing down a random Lonaconing street. The street turned into a little mountain road, and after driving a few miles, we finally found it. And...it wasn’t really what we were expecting. I guess we were looking for a rock, and instead, this is what we found…
You’ll be shocked to find out that this is supposedly where the youth come for drugs and sex. All of the rocks are covered in graffiti, which is kind of beautiful in its own way. Including some...er...inappropriate graffiti that I totally photographed but won’t share here. The “rock” is complete with stairs leading to the top and little passageways making their way through the rock.
The point of climbing to the top of the rock, of course, is to take in those amazing views of the Maryland mountains. Unfortunately, the weather made that difficult, but we were nevertheless able to take in some views.
So we weren’t completely disappointed, and the rock itself was pretty freaking awesome. All in all, it was a day well spent. But the views from Dan’s Rock when it’s not rainy are something else entirely.
Now, on to the tops...
Top Comments (April 16, 2016):
From Chrislove:
There were no Top Comments submissions today, and I did not have much time to mine this evening. But if you like deep-dish pizza, you should feast your eyes on Fordmandalay’s comment in my What’s for Dinner diary tonight. (If you don’t like deep-dish pizza, I’m going to politely ask you to leave.)
Top Mojo (April 15, 2016):
Top Mojo is courtesy of mik! Click here for more on how Top Mojo works.
Top Pictures (April 15, 2016):
Tonight’s picture quilt is courtesy of jotter!