Hills of the Wissahickon Watershed

Meet at Blue Bell Park. Free parking. Also accessible via SEPTA bus route 65.

(This is a two-hour, two-mile loop hike over trails, roads, and some hills. Wear sturdy shoes or hiking sandals. All ages 8+ are welcome. Maximum group size 15.)

Join local “Rocks Burrow” resident and Fairmount Water Works environmental educator Sandy Sorlien as we tromp the wooded valley of the Wissahickon and Monoshone Creeks. We’ll learn the history, engineering, and ecology of several special sites. First we’ll walk downhill through the forest overlooking Forbidden Drive along with “Wiss”. A short walk up the Monoshone brings us to Rittenhouse Town, where the creek, also known as Paper Mill Run, provided water power in the 18th and 19th centuries to run the first paper mill in British North America Then and today, the Monoshone has collected stormwater runoff from the steep hills on both sides. Today we can see the contrast of wooded Fairmount Park on one side of Lincoln Drive and urban conditions on the other. We will cross the creek to Saylor Grove, a 3.2 acre park where more than half is a manmade wetland created by the Philadelphia Water Department to help manage stormwater runoff. This is a beautiful site with a diversity of plants and wildlife, including seasonal butterflies and waterfowl.

Your guide will put all these sites into a context of the larger Schuylkill River watershed, the urban water use cycle, the historic role of dams and mill races, and the ecology of our local streams.

Register here.