White Trillium

Place: Portersville, Pennsylvania

Location: Hell Run, McConnell's Mill State Park

If you are from the Pittsburgh area, do you know how to get to Hell Run? Didn't think so! Hell Run is in a very islolated area of McConnell's Mill State Park. In fact, it is not actually contiguous with the rest of the park even though it is part of it. To get there you need to exit the park and drive down several rural roads, some of which might be dirt, depending on which direction you are coming from.

But it is definitely worth it, particularly in early spring when the trillium are in bloom. A protected species that is rare in many parts of the country, the trillium bloom by the thousands here, forming a white carpet. There are also scattered red trillium and one area I know of has a few of the more unusual pale yellow Trillium erectum forma luteum. But you have to be there at the right time (generally the first week in May), as the blooms of the trillium only last a week or two.