This mountain park is located nine miles north of Oakland, Maryland and contains some of Maryland’s most breathtaking scenery. The Youghiogheny River flows along the park’s borders, passing through shaded rocky gorges and creating rippling rapids. Tall hemlocks dominate the silent woods. The 1 1/4 mile trail through Swallow Falls guides hikers to some of the most breath-taking scenery in Western Maryland.
The state park features Maryland’s highest free-falling waterfall, the 53-foot Muddy Creek Falls, as well as smaller waterfalls on the Youghiogheny River and Tolivar Creek. The park is notable for its stand of old hemlock trees, some more than 300 years old, “the last stand of its kind in Maryland.”
Swallow Falls
Smaller waterfalls on the Youghiogheny River.
“Every man in his heart revolts at civilization and will revert back to [nature] if given half a chance…We don’t live long enough to find out what life is all about, but we know what civilization is – it is a mere veneer that keeps on getting thicker, but never too thick to pierce…It will be 15,000 years I think, before man will reach such a high point of civilization where he cannot and will not want to go back to [reconnect with nature].” – Thomas Edison at Muddy Creek Falls, Maryland. July 1921.
The park offers camping, fishing, hiking, picnicking and pavilions and playgrounds from 8 am to sunset.
