This is our family's first time placing a geocache. My son decided to place it at one of his favorite state parks in Maryland. It is located at the Deep Creek Lake State Park. He also chose the Sensory Trail located next to the Discovery Center at the park. As a family we started geocaching and hiking when the kids were young. The geocaching was a fun way for our family to hit the trail and we have learned to love hiking through this activity. He chose a family friendly trail for those that are just learning or need easy access. You can park right at the Discovery Center. The trail is located adjacent to the center. The Sensory Trail is a trail with guide ropes for those that are visually impaired. The ropes allow someone to hike through the trail using them as a guide with knots and wooden blocks placed in certain locations to give directions. The park has so much to offer from hiking, camping, and boating to wonderful interpretive activities by the naturalists. It is a place that we hope you come to love and enjoy as much as our family. If you are up for a challenge don't forget the other caches placed in the park; Indian Turnip Trail, Smokey's Heroes, The Brant Mine, and Deep Creek Lakeview.
Deep Creek Lake State Park lies just west of the Allegheny Front on a large plateau known as the Tablelands or Allegany Highlands. Its location at the southernmost end of Meadow Mountain places it west of the Eastern Continental Divide and within the Mississippi River watershed. It gets its name from Deep Creek Lake, a hydroelectric project constructed on Deep Creek in the 1920's by the Youghiogheny Hydroelectric Company.
Man has been associated with the use of this land for thousands of years. Early nomadic hunters and gatherers, followed by Native American hunters, roamed through the mountains of Garrett County but have left little record of their presence. Beginning in the 1700's, early settlers to the region eked a subsistence existence based on the utilization of the area's abundant natural resources. The mountains remained relatively untouched until the turn of the century when massive logging operations began stripping the land of the virgin red spruce, hemlock, white pine, and yellow birch forests.
The park is the site of the historic Brant coal mine and homesite, where a restored mine entrance preserves a typical drift or adit mine. The mine was worked for several years by the Brant family and supplied bituminous coal for heating and blacksmithing in the local community.
Placed with permission of Deep Creek State Park and The Maryland Department of Natural Resources.