Travilah Serpentine Barrens Field Trip Parking

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Address
3QF5+HPG Travilah, Maryland
Travilah
MD


United States


Directions:

Exit from the Capital Beltway (495) onto River Road heading west towards the village of Potomac (junction of Falls Road and River Road).  Continue on River Road westward past this intersection app. 1.7 miles to Piney Meetinghouse Road.  Turn right onto Piney Meetinghouse Road and proceed gradually uphill for app. 2 miles.  Turn left onto Palatine Drive and proceed about 1 mile to the intersection with Greenbriar Road.  Take a right onto Greenbriar Road and proceed app. 1/2 mile to Centurion Way.  Take a right onto Centurion Way and proceed app. 1/3 mile – and when you start seeing the high-wire power lines, please begin parking along the right side of street first, as space allows.  Centurion Way is only about 1/2 mile long and ends as a cul-de-sac, so we’ll have to park along both sides of the street.  This is a residential neighborhood, so please make sure not to block driveways or street access and to take care not to leave ruts or tire tracks in grass along the road shoulder.  When the right side fills up, please circle around and park on left side of the road.  After parking, walk to the edge of the power line where we’ll meet.

*As you’re heading uphill on Piney Meetinghouse Road, look for signs of how the landscape (geology, soils, and vegetation) changes as the road nears the high ridge of the serpentine barrens.  The Mesic Mixed Hardwood Forest below gradually changes to a much more open woodland of oaks and pines – hence the name Piney Meetinghouse! – and abundant outcrops of serpentinite.  As you head closer to the meeting location – through a broad expanse of scalped forest, McMansions, and plantings of invasive ornamental grasses and fruit trees – take note of the relative abundance of Shortleaf Pine (Pinus echinata), probably the region’s single largest occurrence.

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