Hiking
at Bear Run
Featured today is the Arbutus Trail at the Bear Run Nature Reserve, in
Fayette County. The trail crosses Bear Run three times. Today's photo
was taken by WPC Volunteer Land Steward
Richard Liberto.
The 5,000-acre reserve surrounds Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. Bear
Run itself is a wild mountain stream that has been designated a Pennsylvania
Scenic River and also an Exceptional Value Stream. The waters of Bear
Run cascade through rhododendrons, past old-growth hemlocks, and over
rocks and boulders producing a spectacular array of rapids and waterfalls.
Open year-round, the reserve is free to the public.
Over the years, first the Kaufmanns (owners of Fallingwater) and then
Western Pennsylvania Conservancy have continually acquired new properties
to enlarge the boundaries of Bear Run Nature Reserve, until today the
WPC owns almost the entire watershed, protecting it from development and
allowing it to return to forest. As a result, the forest surrounding Fallingwater
and within the Bear Run Nature Reserve is more intact today than it was
at the turn of the 20th Century.
Two months ago, WPC Daily featured a Bear Run Trail in winter. Click here to view it.
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