 |
|
What better way to spend a freezing cold weekend than to head to the mountains, where it is even colder and windier than back home!
I had read about the Sideling Hill Cut not too long ago. For those who have never heard of it, it is a man-made cut in the Sideling Hill Range of the Appalachian Mountains in Washington County, Maryland. Interstate 68 is routed through the cut. It piqued my interest because the Pennsylvania Turnpike passes through the same mountain range further north. The cut is also proclaimed as being one of the most revealing rock exposures in the United States.
We decided to head northwest of Washington DC to see the Cut for ourselves. The images below show our first glimpses of the cut from afar.
|
|
The following photos were taken from the parking area for the Visitor's Center.
 |
 |
 |
|
Prior to entering the Visitor's Center we drove past the cut to the next exit (the easternmost exit on I-68 in Allegany County) and headed back east on I-68 to the Cut.
 |
 |
 |
|
It was the dead of winter at the time we visited the Cut, the interesting part of this was that one side of the Cut was exposed to the sun during the day while the other side was not. This lead to us seeing some interesting ice formations on the "Dark Side" of the Cut:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
This is a view of the pedestrian bridge that crosses over Interstate 68. As you probably know, any time you have any sort of "canyon" (with this being no exception) you get very strong wind gusts. Fortunately, the chainlink fencing on both sides of the bridge prevent you from being blow off, however, given that it was already extremely cold, having super-cooled air blown at you at high speeds literally made you freeze all the way to your bones. The wind was so strong that it actually made walking across the bridge itself a chore.
 |
 |
The Sideling Hill Exhibit Center (which is in the background of the right hand picture above) offers a nice exhibit describing not only the construction process used to create the cut, but also the voluminous geological finds and other discoveries that were literally unearthed as a result of the project. Anyone who has even a passing interest in geology should definitely come here for a visit!
Like all pictures, these hardly do the Cut any justice. The Cut is a spectacular site not only from afar, but also up close as well. As a precaution, I would personally suggest visiting the Cut when it is warmer as opposed to cooler. The freezing cold and strong wind gusts would probably not be very fun for anyone other than tried and true roadgeeks like me :)