PENNSYLVANIA – Deep in the heart of the Poconos, surrounded by dense green forests and rhododendron thickets, there is a glitch in the landscape. Drive down a gravel road in Hickory Run State Park, and the lush Pennsylvania wilderness abruptly vanishes. In its place is a stark, barren expanse that looks less like Earth and more like the surface of Mars.
This is the Boulder Field: a massive, 16-acre expanse of jumbled red sandstone that has baffled visitors and fascinated geologists for over a century. It is a place where trees refuse to grow, where the ground is treacherous to walk on, and where the landscape has remained virtually unchanged since the end of the last Ice Age.
A Geological Anomaly
The statistics of the Boulder Field are staggering.
It measures roughly 400 feet wide and 1,800 feet long. The depth of the rock pile varies, but in some places, the boulders are stacked 12 feet deep. The rocks themselves range from mere pebbles to massive monoliths 25 feet in length…