South Central PA is geographically located at a very interesting junction. The area that consists of Cumberland, Dauphin, Perry, York and Adams counties is where several great geographic points neighbor and converge on each other.
The Great Valley, or Great Appalachian Valley extends from Canada to Alabama. It runs through Pennsylvania in the form of three great valleys, the Lehigh Valley near Allentown, the Lebanon Valley near Lebanon and the Cumberland Valley, which encompasses an area from Mechanicsburg south to the Maryland line. Once south of the Mason-Dixon line it is known as the Hagerstown Valley, and then farther south in Virginia it is called the Shenandoah Valley.
The western side of this valley is bounded by the Appalachian Mountains. The best example is to travel down Route 81 south from Harrisburg. Just south of the Susquehanna River the eastern face of the Appalachians are close to the interstate. As you travel south that front ridge is visible all along the way until the Newville and Plainfield areas, where the highway begins to run more centered in the valley, although the ridge can still be glimpsed to the west.
The eastern side of the Cumberland Valley is bounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. Now most of us have heard of these mountains but associate them with Virginia or Tennessee. They do however continue northward into Maryland and Pennsylvania. The northernmost section is called South Mountain and runs from Maryland up through Adams county and finally ends at Dillsburg. In Adams county the mountain is nearly 12 miles wide and you can experience this by driving from Gettysburg to Chambersburg on Route 30 west. In the Dillsburg area you can experience the end of the mountain chain in several places. By traveling out Mountain Road west from Dillsburg you can eventually reach Whiskey Springs Road which cuts across some of the final rocky hills to the Mount Holly area. The last stretch of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Dillsburg can be easily seen on the west side of Route 15 as you approach the town. If you take Route 74 north from Dillsburg about three miles to Brandtsville the mountain is on your left. Turn left onto Creek Road and follow the Yellow Breaches to White Rock acres, a housing development built at the very end of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
To the east of the Blue Ridge Mountains in our area is a very hilly region that runs north to the New Cumberland area. This hill region includes places like Fairview Township, Monaghan Township, Wellsville, Lewisberry, and Ski Roundtop.
