A Glacial Pothole And Cicadas On My First Visits To A State And County Park In Lackawanna County

It was the first day of Summer and I visited a new State Park last  Friday.  It was the Brood XIV cicadas that brought me there. I wanted to see these periodical cicadas, which spent the last 17 years underground, at least one more time.   Periodical cicadas emerge  in Spring when the ground warms up and they  have only about a month to live, mate, eat  and die.

I searched  my Cicada Safari app and found the closest place they were reported near my   Luzerne County home was at Aylesworth Park in Lackawanna County. I have never been up that way so I checked the maps and learned Archbald Pothole State Park  was also nearby.  It was an easy decision   cicadas and a new State Park. (One of my goals is to visit all of our Pennsylvania State Parks). After going over some files at my law office early Friday morning  I was on the road driving the one hour to Archbald Pothole State Park.

It was mostly sunny  when I arrived at the park around 10:30 a.m. I  and  learned it is one of our smallest State Parks, only about 150 acres. It didn’t take me long to find the main attraction and the reason for the Park’s name. Right next to the parking lot was the famous Archbald pothole.

The pothole is a 38  foot elliptical pit that was formed by melting glaciers  during the Wisconsin Ice Age between 13, 000 and 30,000 years ago. It was discovered in 1884 by an anthracite coal miner extending a coal  mining shaft.

  It became a  local tourist attraction and was donated to Lackawanna County in 1940.   When additional acreage was added it became a State Park in 1964. I learned a lot about the ice age in Pennsylvania and I again  thought, as I do when I visit Bruce Lake in Pike County,  how saber toothed , giant  ground sloths. wooly mammoths and other extinct animals roamed this  area when the  pothole was formed.

After walking around the pothole  I took   a walk on the trail in the park that followed an old  coal tram route.  The trail took me through a second growth forest of mostly oak, maple and birch trees.

There were some large boulders and rock outcrops near  the start  of the trail.

I followed it for about a half mile,

and it took me to some fields next to a commercial property,

before looping back into  the park.

There were a few wildflowers blooming along the trail including self heal, and,

daisy fleabane, both native to Pennsylvania.

There were also  invasive oxeye daisies and

meadow hawkweed blooming along the trial.

Near the flowers I saw a few butterflies, this I  believe is a silver spotted skipper.

I was soon surprised by the  bird activity on this short trail.  I saw and heard this scarlet tanager singing in the treetops,

and this chestnut sided warbler fluttering in the shrubs along the trail.

And I was  surprised to see  hear and see the rose breasted grosbeak. I usually find them in  more mature woodlands. I was surprised to hear and see a lot of other birds including  a tufted titmouse, red-eyed vireos, ovenbirds, American robins and common yellowthroats. I could have spent a few hours here trying to photograph these birds but I drove here to see cicadas.

So I finished  my one mile hike around the park and returned to the pothole and parking lot.  I will be honest, it is not a large park and there are no camping ot other facilities  at the Archbald  Pothole  State Park.  But the pothole  is  a part of our natural  history. I learned a lot here ,and I enjoyed the short trail around the park.  Here is a link to a gallery  on my blog website with some more photos from my brief visit to the park.  Archbald State Park  June 20 2025.

I was now hoping to see the cicadas at  nearby Aylesworth Park. It was  near noon and I was hungry so I decided to eat first. I found a wonderful  little diner in the small town of Jermyn. I don’t eat fast food and I love finding diners on my travels. Wayne’s Family Diner was a great find. I had a delicious mushroom omelet with home fries, toast and coffee. The staff was friendly and treated me like an old friend.  I learned a lot about the little town and the  park I was going to visit. And I  learned there  were  lots of cicadas there.

After my breakfast I drove about two mile through the quaint  small town, wondering what it would be like  growing up here.

I drove over the Lackawanna River and to Aylesworth  Lake Park.

I parked above the 4 acre  lake  was built by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers  as a flood  control project in 1970. There was a nice crowd of people in the park with some families swimming in the scenic lake.

And I heard the cicadas. They sounded as it they were on the hillside across the lake.  I followed a trail that, on my AllTrails app map. which  showed it would take me around the lake. The trail was overgrown and muddy,

but it took me through a nice  mature woodlands with many  cinnamon ferns,

and thickets of rhododendrons.

There were hundreds of partridge berry flowers, and berries scattered in the woods along the path. I had never seen this many in one place before.

As I walked along the Aylesworth Creek I heard, and saw, this scarlet tanager in the trees.

The  trail took me to the creek and here I found there was no way across. The creek was  almost up to my knees.  I could have waded across it but I just walked in the rain with another pair of hiking  shoes and they were still soaked.   I didn’t want to  have this pair water logged too. I decided to walk back to another loop trail that would take me to the other side of the lake, and, hopefully  the cicadas.

When I got to the trail, the Old Mining Road #3 I again heard the cicadas.  They were higher up on this ridge too, although I did see a few of them and was able to catch  and get a photo of this one.

There were many dead cicadas  on the ground too.  They have lived their short life  and their offspring will emerge in 17 years.

I followed the trail, which was an old mining road,  up  along the Aylesworth Creek. It was an older oak and maple woodland,

with a lot of fading mountain laurel that was just past it’s peak along the trail.

There was a lot of puddles and mud along the trail from the recent rains.

As I walked up the trail I could hear the cicadas in the distance but I didn’t see any along the trail.  I came to dense thickets of rhododendrons along the trail. I was now in a deeper and more mature woodland.

Here I saw a few black throated blue warblers,

and red-eyed vireos.

The trail  took me to  another old mining road,  the Hudson  Street trail, which I hope would take me back to the lake, and the cicadas.

I followed it until I came to the Aylesworth Creek. There was no crossing at the creek here either  and I again decided not to wade through the fast running waters. I was disappointed since  I heard the loud buzzing of the cicadas on the further down the trail.

There were a lot of  another species of insect here near the creek, ebony jewelwing damselflies.

They darted above the creek, appearing to capture tiny gnats and then resting on leaves above the creek.

I walked back  up the trail and came to this clearing with a couple of flag post with flags

and some campsites in a grove of pine trees.  I wasn’t sure if this was private property. There were old faded no trespassing signs but also signs asking to keep the area clean and respect the landowner. I think the area may have been leased to a hunting club so I decided to hike back down the trail.I came upon this abandoned car and wondered how and when it got in this isolated area.

It was now mid afternoon and there wanted to a lot of wildlife activity but I did see this black throated green warbler, the first one I saw this year.

I also watched this colorful pileated woodpecker,

searching for insects in the trees along the trail.  Here is a link to a gallery  on my blog website with some more photos  of the birds I saw at Archbald  State Park and  Aylesworth County Park .   Aylesworth  Park birds  June 20 2025.

So far, it was a nice hike but I still didn’t see any cicadas. As I walked down the trail the sounds of the cicadas got louder. I came to a parking lot and playground, and , here, in the willow trees along the edge of the parking lot,

I finally found the cicadas.

There weren’t as many as I saw in the State Game Lands in Berks County a few weeks ago, but there were a lot on the willow leaves.

I held a few of the noisy critters,

and listed to the loud  buzzing in the tree tops. I love this sound. It is similar to the annual cicadas that appear every year her in Northeastern Pennsylvania late July and early August.  And  it is similar to cicadas I have heard on four continents.  As I did on my visit to  State Game Lands 52 I thought about the parents of these cicadas, who emerged in 2008 and I thought about what I was doing. And I thought about the the grandparent who emerged in 1991, and the great grandparents who emerged in 1974.  I wasn’t alive for the generation before that, bit the ancestors of Brood XIV could have been buzzing in this area before the Archblad  pothole was formed.

I was glad I decided  to drive here and see these amazing insects. I will probably not see them until Brood II emerges in  2030. I am looking forward to  this emergence since this was the first brood I saw in 2013. Here is a link to a gallery  on my blog website with some more photos  from my hike in  Aylesworth County Park .   Aylesworth  Park   June 20 2025.

It was now late afternoon and I had hiked over 7 miles. I left the scenic lake and drove back home. It was the first day of Summer  and I had planned to build a traditional Summer solstice fire in my back yard. However, I was tired and I had another plan for the morning which required me getting up at 4 a.m. I was going to  try and listen to another wonderful sound of nature, the eerie and delightful call of the whip-poor-wills.

“The seventeen-year cicada crawls out of the ground
And looks around From a wall or a low-hanging limb—
He looks for her and she discovers him.
Courtship does not extend for months.
Their only job is to have sex once.
No long interlude of pleasant reminiscing about days gone by.
Just buzz and whir and thank you sir and then you die.
Cicada love does not involve poetry or song.
Was it good for you? Thanks. So long.”

Garrison Keillor