Haycock Mountain

Haycock Mountain or known locally as Ghost Mountain is a locally prominent hill with the highest summit in Bucks County. It rises above Nockamixon State Park, in the Delaware River drainage of southeastern Pennsylvania. Early settlers named it simply for its "resemblance to a cock of hay."Haycock is covered with numerous triassic diabase boulders, and is a bouldering destination with many established routes ranging from V0 to V10+.Since it lies within State Game Land Number 157, Haycock is used seasonally for hunting.GeologyHaycock Mountain was formed 200 million years ago by an intrusion of magma into local shale and argillite within the Newark Basin. As the magma cooled it became a large mass of erosion resistant diabase below the surface. Millions of years of weathering then stripped away overlying layers of shale and argillite to expose the durable diabase to the surface, creating Haycock mountain as it appears today.In addition to diabase, Haycock Mountain features a large area underlain by hornfels, or local sedimentary rock that has been baked by the heat of the magma intrusion. The baked rock is most prominent within a few hundred feet of the intrusion, appearing as a dark gray hornfels. However, the magma's heat was extensive enough to produce maroon hornfels nearly a mile away.