Sideling Hill
Rock Formation · Hancock, Maryland
A cut through a mountain on Interstate 68 west of Hancock, blasted in the mid-1980s to take the highway through rather than over, and in doing so exposing about three hundred and forty feet of rock face containing a near-complete syncline — the strata folded into a great U and laid open in cross-section. It is one of the best exposed rock sections in the eastern United States, it appears in geology textbooks, and you can park beside it, walk over a footbridge and look straight into three hundred and fifty million years.
Interstate 68, milepost 74, Hancock, Maryland, 21750, United States
FREE and open at all times, year round — a highway site directly off Interstate 68 at roughly milepost 74, west of Hancock, with parking, restrooms, a footbridge over the carriageway and interpretive panels. ⚠ THE EXHIBIT CENTRE CLOSED IN 2009 and what is staffed indoors varies; the panels, the bridge and the view are the reliable part. Collecting and rock hammers are prohibited. I-68 over these ridges gets severe winter weather.