Abandoned Road Leads to Magical Discovery

so greetings from pennsylvania once again and we are back we are back in swatara state park we were just here not too long ago exploring the abandoned highway here in the park and near the end of that video i kind of saw it look like an old road on the other side of the stream the abandoned highways just back behind me here i parked just up parked at the other end right up above me is highway 443. i'm gonna try and find that old road from this end here and we're gonna go explore it today see if there's anything interesting to see along that section of the road let's go try and find where it is where i'm walking right now is all a man-made when they put the new highway in up above us there so i gotta try and find the where that old road was all right i'll see if we can find it first here all right so i found a pretty well-defined trail here leaning back in here it's a beautiful spring day march 18th i mean not technically spring yet but sure feels like it are singing might get to like 75 degrees today yeah up ahead is something interesting so i feel like this is the that old road bed already that we're walking on [Applause] it's gonna keep our eyes open for stuff any remnants of old homes and things like that [Applause] it's still curious is what's going on down there just the stream is below us here because right over there is the old highway you can see the power lines over there but even up here there's kind of a edge it looks like another old road up here maybe that is the old road i'm looking for just a quick go up here through the thorns that's more like a path there's kind of like a an edge here that goes down i don't maybe that is hard to tell i will check it out later maybe all right let's get back down to the main main trail yes this definitely is the old road here right here is the creek and it disappears under here right here is the old culvert which takes the stream underneath the old road here so the other end of the culvert should be up that way the stream just kind of disappears if you didn't know this was an old road you might be wondering what's going on here let's just quick go down here see how old this culvert is slide down all right it's not terribly old it's a concrete one all right let's get back up there okay and it comes out over here then the stream yep right down there yeah and there's this almost like an old barricade that they put up to keep people from driving down here back when this was a road all right so i need to correct myself here i'm not on that old road that i was looking for this is the old highway that we were on last time but we didn't come up this far because i see i think i believe i see what the road that i'm looking for branches off of this old highway so i'm still i'm on the right track but whoops my road which i believe is a much smaller road branches off just that way when you look behind me here this is the old highway going down we didn't come up this far last time gotta stop down further but let me turn around and show you i'm looking at here all right so we just came down from there there's that old barricade up there was the modern highway turning around here and heading on down that way is this is this is the old highway old 72 highway 72. if you look further down you can see the old uh the pavement off in the distance there that's where you're hiking in one of the more recent videos let me zoom back out here this off to my right here is the road that i'm looking for you can see it kind of branch off and go this way so this is what we want and here's another old culvert the stream goes under again an old metal pipe for this one [Applause] take a look at over here yeah this one's stone and concrete so it looks much older [Applause] all right so this is the start of our old road adventure maybe in someone's lane back in the day their driveway i'm not sure how overgrown this one will be but there is kind of a trail here so let's uh let's get going let's get exploring see what's back here be cool if there's old foundations back here maybe an old dump or something to look through never been on this so i love just exploring new places new trails and stuff [Music] yes so so far we're not horribly overgrown it's walkable you can definitely see the old old road or old driveway here whatever it is like i've said in the past most of swatara state park was acquired by the government through eminent domain they were going to build a dam on the swatara creek never happened though but they kept everybody's land so there were houses and people living back here and today all right yeah looking over there you can see the old highway the pavement that's where we were last time that like right i think right there is where it ended i remember looking up this way and seeing this edge and realizing there's some kind of an old road back here okay there's a stump to an old telephone pole that's cut down so electricity came back here kind of just kind of flattens out here all right so there's looking back where we came definitely looks it's flat right here definitely looks house-like i'll have a more of a look around see something actually up there a little bit but trying to figure out the road curved this way or went on this way but does look like it went on this way just washed out here there's no stream crossing here but it does look like the road continues up through there oh yeah i do see the remnants of a oh yeah so there's the remnants of an old uh oh yeah down you can see the remnants of an old stone bridge we'll look at that a bit later when we go this way that's such a kind of cool you look you can walk right across it though we'll check that out later yes the road the old road does go on but let's uh have a look what's this over here that's just a tree stump also there's an old well there all right i'm gonna look around see if there's anything in this area this is a quaint little spot right here right down here all right let's have a look around right it's not really seeing anything up here down there's the old road when i was with the last time we were down there yeah what i saw up here was there's there's one lone cinder block up here could have come from anywhere someone actually could have brought it out here use it as a seat a lot of times hunters will do that definitely looks like there could have been a house down here though it's all flat even up even up here it's almost looks like a house site oh look here's a there's some old like terracotta so that's definitely scream's house oh yeah here's another piece quite a bit of it here also there's a piece here's a piece there's a piece yes that definitely cries out but there was some kind of a building here oh yeah here's some more that almost looks like a pot it almost looks like one of those large pots if you don't talk about maybe that's what this all is actually up here are some daffodils yeah just poking up yeah right here some daffodils right there some shadows in the way yeah these are daffodils so these are not native you know these get planted by people so this screams house site too so maybe maybe there was one right up in there well let's just have a look around a little bit more before we continue on that road that didn't take long there's actually quite a bit of a brick down here too there's all kinds of pieces of brick so once they get them thinking maybe up there was the house and all the rubble came down this way yeah down there is a another brick okay what's this over here oh what's this is that a oh that looks interesting but over here is also some oh check it out yeah here's an old piece of terracotta pipe here's an old metal cable of sorts yeah and then there's this now that looks like a well it's lined with concrete looks like maybe a piper went down that end but yeah okay so that that looks well-ish all right cool you know if here's a pipe out of the ground well this looks like another one of those uh closed line pipes you know they'd have a wire going to another pipe and that's where they'd hang their clothes on to dry you look how flat it is up there i'm pretty sure that's where the house was that's why all the rubble and stuff is coming down this way just a quick peek up here again yeah it is so overgrown up here though even down there's a lot of like concrete and rock rubble from where this was yeah our all our old road we were following is all the way back there that's those are across the stream so i'm kind of walking this way quite a bit i'm just gonna keep going a little bit let's see if there's any other surprises back here [Applause] you can hear the highway so all right i think we'll turn around soon that road keeps going on so we will too i mean this right here feels like it could be an old road too to be honest all right so it pays to keep on going we do have something up here get yours here's some sort of foundation right in here not much it's the old foundation we might i might poke up top a little bit again yeah we hear some more of it just a little bit right there all right cool [Music] all right so time to head back to our old road just up behind me up there is where the modern highway is cuts through this valley so we're gonna head back maybe we'll walk walk down along the stream this time all right so we're gonna head back to our old road cross that stream check out that that old bridge and we'll keep going see where this goes okay so i didn't get very far again but right up there was that other old road i was just walking on up there is that one little foundation we found we can see a little bit of a rock wall here and there's some jars down here let's see what this is that's a cute old jar not terribly old then yeah right up here's another piece of that old terracotta pipe just come right out the hillside all right let's keep going getting a little thorny down this way tell you what though it's nice along here over there i hate to save it almost looks like there's another road right there old lane going up the hillside there pretty sure that's what it looks like yeah beautiful beautiful stream down here [Applause] yeah almost back to the old road but here's here's some more definitely looks like some foundation stones kind of looks like this got you know shoved down here there's more stones down there let's make our way down here along the creek again though beautiful down here yeah right here along the creek a lot of thorns it's a beautiful place to live [Applause] [Applause] yep and then right up here is our bridge we showed it right there it is right there is the old road we were following there's the bridge and you see the you can see the old road that flat plane right there that's the old road going on up that way so that's where we're gonna go let's go take a look at the bridge i need to get to the other side to see it better okay so right here it is so we gotta walk across this part right here carefully and you can see it kind of juts out there there a little bit a lot of debris piled up here right from past floods because thing is i don't know if there's a what's underneath here if there's rock or just let me turn it off for a moment all right so i made it across i just wasn't sure if there was like you know bridge foundation under that pile of stuff but looking underneath i can see it does go underneath there i didn't want to like step on that and just go like go up here a little bit and we'll turn the camera around a bit again you can see the remnants of the bridge there all right let's head up and continue on so our road does continue on looks like it's gonna turn and curve up that way i can kind of i can see a bit of the old highway out there and of course we just came from right there that's where the old bridge got washed out we just gotta get around this gotta find a place to eat some lunch too i think here's looking back where i just came from again old road starting to look a little less old roadish but i see some things back here we might have a dump back there but check it out down here we got some flowers these are crocuses once again these are not wild these are planted by people they're one of the first um planted flowers that come up in the spring crocuses set says there was probably a house here it almost seems like that old road or that driveway ends about right here go back into the thorns so i think i see some trash back this way older trash yeah definitely yeah that's what caught my eye right down there looks like an old enamel pot i think i see some other stuff up there so that's a i'm gonna explore a little bit in this area and i'll get back with you here's it it looked like an old enamel pot yeah for like a like a wash basin of some sort simply seen better days looks like something like grandmother would have nice that's definitely like 50s right there okay so i'm seeing something rather magical back here there's a few more of those crocuses popping up right here but oh wow there is a there is a field ouch there's thorns here too there's a field catch on my microphone these thorns like to catch everything yeah just look at this all these are all crocuses beautiful color and then you just look up oh i gotta get through here up throughout there i don't think it's showing up this is full of them beautiful crocuses we'll oh i gotta pull myself away from it there's something else back here too yeah here's an old a couple of old galvanized pots back here one right there i see another one down there but down there's our old highway all right let's get up to that field of crocuses but check this out i have never seen so many crocuses in my life all in one spot yeah make sure to step on them look at it all through here those are all crocuses some more trash looks like some metal siding so there's definitely there's definitely a house back here someone loved crocuses planted them throughout here hey look at it all tons of them just all the way up through there it's beautiful i'm gonna step on some of them sorry guys i know the last person who the last person was i was back here to see these because we are not on any trail anymore they just keep going wow just filled with them i'm not the only one enjoying these the honeybees are loving them come to think of it it's my her first uh honeybees of the season nope sorry let me he's busy in there see if we can zoom in just a little bit more oh there he goes then once again just carpeted with them as far as you can see underneath all this brush they're everywhere even looking back the way we came it's like a magical discovery back here [Applause] wow all right so i'm gonna find a place to sit and have some late lunch in here a lot like i said earlier i wonder who the last person was to come in here this time of year and see all these crocuses blooming looks like so there's no there's no trail here or anything just in the middle this in the middle of nowhere here almost feels like the place is just waiting for someone to come again and see this because you have to come to the right time of year because if you come later in spring these crocuses will be done blooming they only bloom for you know so long in early spring and that's it yes this place is absolutely amazing back here it's almost magically beautiful just kind of stumbling onto like a little secret world like narnia or something like that yeah like i said it's just utterly amazing oh what was that girl's name and narnia she opens up the wardrobe in that old house and just enters like a different world because i think it was snowing in that world but here it's just like a beautiful spring garden just in the middle of nowhere all right [Applause] [Music] all right we gotta leave this little wonderland in a little bit here try to take a few more videos of the bees for you some of them are cooperating and some are not maybe i'll get a few more before we go but absolutely yeah i know i keep staying but wow this is absolutely beautiful out here all right so farewell but on our way out there's more evidence of people this looks like an old almost like an old car seat back here some quite a few uh old oil filters just more dumping back here amongst the beauty all right so i gotta figure out where to go from here i'm gonna try to make my way back down to old highway here head back to the jeep that way all right back that way was narnia where just came from looks like the old road comes up through here there's like a row of older trees here and it leads to this up here almost like some kind of an old gate at the old post in the ground with like a i was once gating it off here all right i guess i forgot where i want to go from here yeah i don't know if you can see the telephone the old power lines through there that's the our old uh highways right down there but it's pretty thick right through there so i think we're going to try and go another way maybe up through here we'll see and i should mention too that not all of those crocuses were planted by hand those those those little guys do spread they grow up they grow up from little bulbs and every year they produce more bulbs so if you just let them go they will spread on their own so more likely there was some planted there and over the decades they just continue to spread so you get that beautiful place back there all right just trying to find a way out of this thorny mess all right so down there is where we want to be just gotta make it down here about phone we're sliding right here [Music] and pretty thorny yet let me uh let me get back here and here we are back in the old highway actually just back up that way actually not far off from where i just stumbled down through it was where we did this video the video on this abandoned highway we found those steps up there in the woods that all that deep well that went way down that was just that was just up there and then right up here is where the old highway continues up and the swatara rail trail heads on down that way so we're just gonna follow this back of course this should be familiar to you this section and this will take us back to where naomi is waiting for us hopefully yes that magical narnia area is just up in there somewhere they got our old friend here the whole highway even along this old highway there's some more of those purple crocuses growing down there in the brush so like i said that area was just just up in here somewhere i don't know if there's an easier way to get there but just walking back up the highway if i turn over again you can clearly see that's why i saw when i was here last i saw that old road going up that way that's what we walked up along today and explored [Applause] all right so we're back up by the old highway again i can see naomi back up there waiting for me so yeah get out there and explore explore those old roads just go on adventure you never know what you're gonna find a little bit out of breath but yeah yeah i had no idea any of that was back there you can only hope let's fight find something cool today we did all right as always thanks come along and i will see you in the next one

Channel: The Wandering Woodsman

Views: 138,664

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Id: d6qbDA6kfUU

Length: 29min 36sec (1776 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 05 2022