Pawpaws, A Rat Snake And Beautiful Views In The Susquehanna River State Park.

It was a hard decision  last  Friday morning.  Should I stay at home and look for mushrooms or drive south and look for pawpaws?  It had rained here in Luzerne County in Northeastern Pennsylvania during the week.  Mushrooms would be growing, especially edible hen of the woods and honey mushrooms. ( We call them ramsheads and stumpers or popinkies here in coal country ).  However,  I also knew this would be the very short season to find pawpaws in southern Pennsylvania. These are some ramshead and popinkies  mushrooms from one of my mushroom foraging hikes.

I decided to do both, and return to the Susquehanna Riverlands State Park in York County and look for pawpaws and mushrooms.  After  a few appointments at my law office , I began my drive  2 hour, 110 miles journey to the park, stopping at the Pine Grove Diner.  I love eating at local diners on my travels.

After  a hearty late  breakfast and a few cups of coffee, and enjoying the view of the mountains,  at the diner I continued my drive,.

 arriving  at the State Park mid afternoon.  It was partly sunny with cumulus clouds floating in the deep blue skies.  I last  visited this new State Park  in June. It was my  first  and only visit to   this 1300 acre park along the ancient Susquehanna River. Like my last visit I  parked at the first parking lot after the entrance to the park.

I left my Jeep and walked for about a  1/4 mile on the rutted  entrance dirt road. Tall oak and tulip trees grew along the road.

There were not many wildflowers blooming this time of year but there were lot of native snakeroot,

and  American burweed  flowers along the road.

The 193 mile  Mason Dixon  crossed the road and I followed it in a southerly direction through a grove of mostly tall tulip trees.

The mid-day sun lit up the leaves of the tulip trees.

I didn’t expect to see much wildlife on this hike. Most of the song birds already migrated south and  there is not a lot of other wildlife activity in the middle of the afternoon. However I  did see a few red bellied woodpeckers,

a few tufted titmice  and,

 this eastern wood pewee  in the afternoon sunshine in the trees along  the trail.

I walked for about another 1/4 mile under the tall tulip and oak trees,

then entered into a grove of smaller, less mature, tulip trees.

I followed the trail down ridge and again crossed the River Farm Road.

There was a field with goldenrod wildflowers across the road,

and here I saw a few insects visiting  the goldenrod flowers including common eastern bumblebees,

a gray hairstreak butterfly.

this, I believe ,a thread waisted wasp.

and this wasp I couldn’t identify with my iPhone apps or Google images.

An American goldfinch  was was perched on a tree near the trail .

The trail then continued  into a more mature ,thicker, woodland with more tall red and chestnut oak and tulip  trees.

Here, in the under the large trees I found what I was looking for , pawpaw trees,

with many ripe, and

over ripe pawpaws scattered on the ground.

There were still many  unripe pawpaws still on the trees. Pawpaws are the largest edible native fruit in North America. I ripens in late Summer  in Pennsylvania and has a soft custard like yellow pulp,with large black seeds, and taste like a combination of mango and banana. Native American loved them and so do I.

As I continued along the trail I was surprised with the  many  pawpaw trees growing in understory of the large oaks and tulip trees.  There were hundreds of over ripe and  rotten pawpaws .  I did some research and learned that pawpaws were around for 40 million years. When mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, and the giant short-faced bear lived in Pennsylvania they fed  on the pawpaw fruit.  The pawpaws trees produced a chemical in their leaves and bark that did not affect the extinct mammals but deter deer and other modern wildlife. Deer will not browse  on the young salping and thus there are an abundance of these trees if the growing conditions are suitable.

Deer and other wildlife will enjoy the ripe fruit and I found a few that were nibbled on.

I ate a few more of these delicious native fruits before continuing my hike on the trail. I planned to return on Saturday and take some pawpaws home with me.

The trail continued down the ridge, getting closer to the Susquehanna River,  with many ripe pawpaws under the trees along the trail.

There were a few fallen trees  across the trail, from the recent storms we had in Pennsylvania.

In addition to the pawpaws there were many acorns scattered on, and, along the trail.

There were some   mushrooms  growing along he trail too, including, I believe an abrupt bulbed Amanita,

an earthstar fungus,

and this edible cauliflower mushroom.

While walking on the trail, in the shade of the tall trees, I saw this beautiful, large  black rat snake slittering along the trail.

It was over 5 feet long. I watched as it crawled in the leaf litter, it’ black scales occasionally  glittering in the sunshine that filtered through the canopy of leaves overhead.

I curled into a defensive position as I approached,

carefully waching my every move. I left the beautiful critter alone and it slithered off .

I  was out about a mile on the trail when I came to the Overlook at Schull’s Rock,

where I stopped, crawled up the rocks,  and enjoyed the view of my favorite river on the planet, the ancient Susquehanna River. I have explored this 450 mile  river from it’s source at Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York to where it ends at Havre de Grac.  where it enters the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and where I had visited a few weeks ago.

This is the view looking south,

and this north.

You could see the cooling towers from the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear plant above mountains to the north. 

I watched the river flow beneath the rocks far below,  and the turkey vultures soaring in the clear blue skies overhead.

On my last visit I climbed down the steep trail to the river. This time I continued on the Mason-Dixon Trail on the mountain ridge above the river.

I came to another overlook, with a sharp drop to the river below.

and, when I had hiked out about another 1/2 mile,

I came to Schull’s Rock.

It was now late  afternoon. As usual my 1 1/2 mile hike took almost 2 hours I spent a lot of time peeling and eating pawpaws, looking for birds, watching the black rat snake, and taking in the magnificent view of the Susquehanna River.  I began my hike back, and,

again stopped along the way, eating a few more pawpaws, and observing the flora and fauna along the trail,

seeing these mile-a-minute berries and this

banded tussock moth caterpillar. Here is a link to a gallery  on my blog  webpage with some more photos of the wildlife and wildflowers and plants I saw on my hike in the park. Susquehanna Riverlands  State Park flora, fauna   September 18 2026.

 The late Summer sun was already low in the western sky as I walked back.   The late day sun filtered through the tall oak and tulip trees making for a scenic and peaceful hike. I only saw two other hikerson my walk.   It was  almost 5:30 p.m. when I finished my 3 1/2  mile hike.Here is a link to a gallery  on my blog  webpage with some more photos from  my hike in the park. Susquehanna Riverlands  State Park   September 18 2026.

Although I ate a lot of pawpaws I was still hungry. I planned to eat at a great Japanese restuarant  where I ate when I was here in June. It was closed and I decided to eat at the Flavor Thai restaurant on the historic Route 462. Route 462 was once apart of theLincoln Highway the first coast to coast highway in 1913.  I had Thad Pai.  There was a lot and it was wholesome and filling. It was  7 p.m. and close to sunset. I was going to drive up to Rocky Ridge Park and watch the sunset. However, it was late so I returned to the Hampton Inn Hotel.   I edited photos and retired early hoping to watch a sunrise and find some mushrooms in the oak woods in Rocky Ridge Park in the morning. Then pick some pawpaws and head back home.

“Pawpaw is at once a prayer for our willingness to preserve nature, history, memory and taste, and a poem—an ode to the ancestors, the conservationists, and the cooks… who want to keep this remarkable ‘poor man’s banana,’ a centerpiece of truly American food.”   Andrew Moore