National Natural Landmarks in the Potomac Heritage NST corridor

Within Ohiopyle State Park, the 160-acre Ferncliff Peninsula Natural Area is one of the best examples of a typical late-succession forest in the Allegheny Mountains.

 

Sugarloaf Mountain, near Dickerson, MD, provides evidence regarding age and structural relationships of rocks in the Piedmont biophysiographic province. The site appears to be either an outlier to the east of the main mass of the Catoctin Mountain, or a root remnant of the ancient Appalachia land mass.

 

Caledon State Park, on the tidal Potomac River east of Fredericksburg, VA, includes one of the best examples of oak-tulip poplar-dominated virgin upland forest in the Nation.

 

A window into ice ages past, Cranesville Swamp is located in a "frost pocket," an area where the surrounding hills capture moisture and cold air that conspire to create a landscape more reminiscent of habitat found much further north in Canada.*

* https://www.nature.org/ accessed 19 July 2017