Swatara State Park

SWATARA STATE PARK 

Swatara State Park is located on the Schuylkill and Lebanon County border off of route 443. It is an undeveloped State park so there are no set "trails" (though a 10 mile loop can be completed using the Swatara rail and bear trails) or facilities of note. The park is unique in that even though you are only 3 miles or so from route 78 you feel as you progress deeper into the park that you are truly in the middle of nowhere. The main point of visiting today was for the kids to have a chance to dig for fossils in the fossil pit close to the entrance to the park. The park is easy to miss.....crossing over the Blue Mountain and the app trail you come down the mountain and make a left on the first road. Following this road about 5 miles you cross a highway bridge and then the park entrance is onto a small dirt road to the left before you cross an old stone bridge over Swatara Creek. About 2 minutes down this road (which is very bumpy and pothole filled) to the left is the fossil pit. 

Down the dirt road with potholes...thank goodness for 4WD!

The fossil pit is actually pretty cool. The geology of Swatara State Park is predominately sedimentary rocks that formed in a shallow ocean during the Middle Devonian Period of the Paleozoic Era, about 375 million years ago.
An Upper Mahantango Formation that contains significant marine fossil beds is exposed at a site along Bear Hole Trail. It provides excellent opportunities for fossil collecting, including the state fossil Phacops rana, a type of trilobite.
We found a few fossils including a whole small fossilized clam shell which was cool.


Bring along safety googles...real hammers...and a chisel to have the best luck with the fossil collecting!

At the fossil pit!!!!

Hammering out fossil rocks!!

Some fossils of shells we found in the middle of the rock!!

Fossilized clam shell we found...both kids found fossils too!!!

The fossil pit will make you very dirty...the sedimentary rocks leave a clay covering on your hands and cloths so it is good to have some wipes handy! After this we continued down the unkept road about 2-3 miles...the road got very rocky at points and a normal car would likely not make the trip...we had heard that the State is in the process of graveling this road out and making it a non-motorized bike / hike / horse trail. We stopped and had a much needed lunch break along the creek....it was really cool because it was very tranquil and there was no one around for miles. After the creek lunch we headed back to the beginning of the trail and played in the creek by the park entrance.

Walking along the old road in the middle of the woods!

Lunch on the creek!!

Very serene creek setting....the creek was very deep!!!

Rock hopping on the Swatara Creek!

Overview:  Not too much to do as of yet as the park is undeveloped but the fossil pit was cool and the scenic creek with no one around made it feel as if you were further out in nature  than you were..all in all good for the fossil pit but not too good for trail hiking or creek exploring as the creek was pretty deep throughout the park.