Seneca Head

Here are two shots of a rock that I call Seneca Head. If you look at it long enough, maybe you'll see why. Seneca Head presides over the deep ravine of Dutchman Run, one of the most scenic brooks feeding into the Kinzua Bay.

Like all the best streams in the region, Dutchman Run has a grassy old forest road on one bank, and this old track follows the stream into Warren County. The forest here is magnificent, remote, undisturbed by all the heavy machinery that bedevils its more southerly reaches. Because the terrain around Dutchman run is so rocky, the stream itself tumbles over many mini-waterfalls, and these--coupled with spring birdsong--add a musical quality to the hike.

Also, there's a scent to the forest at this time of year which reminds me of New Orleans long ago. It's a spicy, vegetal smell, pungent and rich.

This old forest road twists and strays but never wanders far from Dutchman Run. It offers spectacular views of the stream, sometimes far below, sometimes very near. The track gets dicey, but never fully disappears.

I wonder if someone, somewhere knows how Dutchman Run got its name? Of course, long before I'd ever heard of the Netherlands, I knew a "Dutchman" to be an Amish person... As a small child, whenever I mispronounced words, my grandmother used to say, "Oh, you're Dutch." She didn't mean Netherlandic; she meant Amish.

You've probably noticed a pull-off parking area on the outside of a sharp hairpin curve in the Longhouse Scenic Byway. The parking area is exactly 3 miles south of Dew Drop and exactly 3 miles north of the entrance to old Camp Cornplanter. There's a narrow path from this parking area that leads into the trees and follows Dutchman Run. This becomes that old forest road that follows the stream for three or four miles. Seneca Head is only about ten minutes in.

["Seneca Head," "Dutchman Run." Why is geography so...racial?]